Posted on 03/30/2023 6:50:32 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
South Korea’s famous/notorious work culture is in the spotlight after the conservative government of President Yoon Suk Yeol on March 6 proposed expanding the allowable maximum working week from 52 hours (40 hours plus 12 hours of overtime) to 69 hours, or an average of slightly over 9.85 hours a day, seven days a week. The 52-hour cap was instituted just five years ago by President Moon Jae-in, whose opposition Democratic Party of Korea still controls the National Assembly.
“The age of growth by squeezing the people is now over,” thundered DPK leader Lee Jae-myung, who favors a 4½-day week.
The debate and the popular pushback are measures of how far South Korean society has evolved. A 69-hour workweek would have been child’s play for workers in the last decades of the 20th century when they were transforming the country into an unlikely global economic powerhouse.
Younger workers have also witnessed the evaporation of “jobs for life” formerly offered en masse by corporations. Because of slowing growth rates, economic plateauing and corporate offshoring, top-tier careers and guaranteed lifetime tenures for workers have grown scarce.
Young South Koreans mockingly talk of “Hell Joseon” (the name for a Korean dynasty) for their stressed lives and worry about the concept of “gwarosa” —“death from overworking.” South Korea has the highest suicide rate among all industrial nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Younger Koreans are giving up on bearing children, leaving Korea with the world’s lowest fertility rate — 0.78 children on average per woman — and a looming demographic crisis. The government has even pitched the 69-hour maximum workweek as, paradoxically, a way to give young couples more time to start families.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Work that long and you’re less not more productive.
The 40 hour work week was optimized for maximum productivity. More doesn’t hurt but a lot more does.
Too much work hampers productivity because many innovative ideas often come when you have time off to think.
Andrew Carnegie, the great humanitarian (not), required many of his mill workers to put in 84-hour workweeks: 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. No days off, ever.
South Korea’s 69-hour workweek doesn’t approach Carnegie’s, but they’re getting there. Oh, and for those who harbor positive feelings for Carnegie, here’s a quote of his from 1886:
“At present every ton of pig iron made in the world, except at two establishments, is made by men working in double shifts of twelve hours each, having neither Sunday nor holiday the year round. Every two weeks the men change to the night shift by working twenty-four hours consecutively.”
I despise the guy.
Korean companies prefer conformity to innovation from their employees. Korea is known to make affordable copies of American or Japanese products. I really can’t think of anything from Korea that was ever cutting edge.
Samsung.
Self-employed persons work that & more
Never saw a drop in ‘productivity’
Know lots of people who work what is necessary.
In the world of auto racing-—it is sometimes called a “72 Hour Burn down”.
Been there-—done that—have the t-shirt & team sweatshirt.
I have several Samsung products. But I buy them because you get a lot of bang for the buck, not because they are the most advanced/cutting edge.
It won’t work. If such a law can be passed, and if Korean businesses try to expand workers current hours, I expect they’ll find a DROP in labor productivity and reap no revenue profit from it.
Yes, I was there in the 1960s, when the great industrial parks were being started, and the mood of the people in favor of sacrifices to build the country up was palpable - you could feel it. But the grandchilden of that generation would think their grandparents efforts were for naught if they have to now reverse the labor trends in the country.
The situation in both Korea and Japan makes me wish the two countries were not divided by language, culture and their history. What a power house together they would be.
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