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

Posted by BeauHD on from the sweet-dreams dept.

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.'

12 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Re:wtf, /. by m0hawk · · Score: 2

    Seems to be only Fridays to stop people working on weekends, winding down from 20:00 to 19:00 over a few months. The TFA doesn't contain much more than TFS. I thought a 50 hour week was bad (for Aussie standards), I guess I'm not too bad off!

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

  2. 52 hours a week? by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What slackers. In Seattle we work 110 hours a week.

    1. Re:52 hours a week? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:52 hours a week? by greenwow · · Score: 2

      Interviewed at three places in South Lake Union, home of Amazon and just north of downtown Seattle, recently and two of the places had air mattresses. The other mentioned the building had showers so you didn't have to go home. About ten years ago buildings started adding showers for people that bike to work. Now, things have changed. I noped out of all three of those interviews.

    3. Re:52 hours a week? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Funny

      What slackers. In Seattle we work 110 hours a week.

      MP: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt!

      GC: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

      TJ: Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife.

      EI: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

      MP: But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  3. Bad Data by pubwvj · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Bad Data by Stickasylum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  4. Re:Somebody's Math Is Off by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

  5. Re:Somebody's Math Is Off by Stickasylum · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, Americans have longer work weeks and get very little time off compared to most other developed countries. And that's not a good thing.

  6. Re:wtf, /. by q_e_t · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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,

  7. Re:Somebody's Math Is Off by jrumney · · Score: 2

    Developed countries get at least 4 weeks vacation, and work 35 hour weeks.

  8. Re:Somebody's Math Is Off by hazardPPP · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't be keen to work in the USA unless I could negotiate no more than 40 hours a week and 6 weeks of holiday, and sick time when I am ill.

    How well is that working for Greece these days, by the way?

    It works great for Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world.

    GDP per capita in Switzerland: $80,837. In the US: $59,495.

    Speaking of Greece, it is number 3 in the OECD by total hours worked per year per worker (behind Mexico and South Korea).

    Hours worked per year in Greece: 2035. In the US: 1783. In aforementioned Switzerland: 1590.

    Hours worked per year/week and vacation weeks per year have very little to do with a country's wealth, economic output, or productivity. Greece's economy did not collapse because Greeks are "lazy" or "slackers" - not the vast majority of Greeks anyway. It had to do primarily with their corrupt political system.