South Korea To Shut Off Computers Past 19:00 Hours To Stop People Working Late (bbc.com)

dryriver shares a report from the BBC: The government in South Korea's capital is introducing a new initiative to force its employees to leave work on time -- by powering down all their computers at 20:00 on Fridays. It says it is trying to stop a "culture of working overtime." South Korea has some of the longest working hours in the world. Government employees there work an average of 2,739 hours a year -- about 1,000 hours more than workers in other developed countries. The shutdown initiative in the Seoul Metropolitan Government is set to roll out across three phases over the next three months. The program will begin on March 30, with all computers switched off by 20:00. The second phase starts in April, with employees having their computers turned off by 19:30 on the second and fourth Friday that month. From May on, the program will be in full-swing, with computers shut off by 19:00 every Friday. According to a SMG statement, all employees will be subjected to the shutdown, though exemptions may be provided in special circumstances. However, not every government worker seems to be on-board -- according to the SMG, 67.1% of government workers have asked to be exempt from the forced lights-out. Earlier this month, South Korea's national assembly passed a law to cut down the maximum weekly working hours to 52, down from 68.'

Comments

Re:52 hours a week?

[Anonymous Coward]

You Americans never really did get over that whole slavery "thing", did you ?

Now you pay the slaves *just enough* to keep them alive and coming back in, day after day.............

Well played sir, well played.

Bad Data

[pubwvj]

Some of us work better on other schedules. Mandating things like this is a bad idea based on bad data from baaad sheep.

Re:Bad Data

[Stickasylum]

Alternative schedules is one thing, but unhealthy focus on work is another. Everyone I know who consistently works more than 40 hour weeks without alternate time compensation (10 on 5 off, long breaks, etc.) seriously compromises the quality and productivity of their work. And most don't realize it. There's only marginal gains traded for some serious psychological harms.

Re:Somebody's Math Is Off

[Harlequin80]

Standard working week in Australia is 38hrs and 4 weeks leave. So 1824hrs. Add onto that public holidays (12) and you are getting close.

Re:wtf, /.

[q_e_t]

If a government steps in to say your working too hard there is likely to be an ulterior motive. What could it be?

Reducing burn out and ill-health among its workers, reducing errors and replacement issues are likely reasons,