AN engineer with the Shenzhen branch of the Zhejiang-based Wingtec Telecommunications died of suspected overwork March 24, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    The 36-year-old Zhang Bin, who graduated with a master’s degree from Tsinghua University, was working on a computer program in cooperation with Huawei Technologies.

    He leaves behind a wife, elderly parents, and a 6-month-old child.

    “In the past six months, he came to visit me at my home for only 10 minutes,” Zhang’s sister said. “His hair had turned gray and ran down to his ears. He said he was too busy to get a haircut.”

    According to Zhang’s wife, surnamed Yang, Zhang often worked past midnight. He was even known to have worked until 6 a.m. before going to the office to begin another workday.

    The heavy hours began when his company started the software project with Huawei in October last year.

    Just hours before Zhang was found dead in the bathroom of his hotel room March 24, he sent out an urgent email, saying that a version of the software he was working on had failed assessment by Huawei Technologies.

    Yang said she believed Zhang’s sudden death was caused by the heavy workload.

    The family is blaming Wingtec Telecommunications’ indifference for his death. The family hopes the company will help handle the aftermath of Zhang’s death.

    Guan Tieliu, a lawyer with Guangdong Junyi Law Firm, said Zhang’s death could be treated as having happened while at work because Zhang worked overtime so much.

    The other employees of the company admitted they had often worked until midnight during the past months. They also said that the situation had improved since Zhang’s death, probably because the software project ended.

    WeChat and email records showed Zhang often discussed software development in the early morning and only ate at KFC. During the weeklong Spring Festival, Zhang only took a three-day rest.

    The day before Zhang’s death, he reportedly had told his mother that he was exhausted.

    A colleague of Zhang’s, surnamed Li, who worked together with Zhang on March 23, said Zhang left his office for the hotel because he said he felt unwell and his face was pale. He was later found dead in his hotel room’s bathroom.

    Zhang had planned to travel with his family when the software project was due to be completed at the end of March.

    (Han Ximin)