South Korea trials 4-day weeks and half-days for its stressed-out workers

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Seoul, South Korea – Go Kyoung-min, 34, a caregiver astatine Severance Hospital successful Seoul, recovered a caller consciousness of equilibrium successful her beingness during the archetypal fractional of this year.

As the parent of duplicate daughters calved successful 2021, Go often felt blameworthy astir not spending capable clip with her children due to the fact that of work.

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But aft opting into the four-day workweek offered by her workplace, Go was capable to walk much clip with her family, attending daycare events she had antecedently missed and relying little connected her in-laws for childcare.

Severance is the archetypal infirmary successful South Korea to proceedings a four-day workweek, aiming to amended the work-life equilibrium of its staff.

Under the program, introduced successful 2023 pursuing an statement betwixt labour and management, immoderate infirmary employees are allowed to instrumentality 3 days disconnected per week successful speech for a 10 percent simplification successful salary.

Staff instrumentality turns participating successful six-month rotations, aft which they instrumentality to a five-day week.

The programme appears to person improved nurses’ wellness and wellbeing, enhanced the prime of aesculapian services, boosted organisational efficiency, and reduced turnover rates, the Korea Worker Institute-Union Center said successful a study astir the proceedings released past month.

According to the report, turnover among participating nurses with little than 3 years’ acquisition fell from 19.5 percent to 7 percent.

Average sick permission per worker besides fell by 1 time during the trial, portion it accrued by 0.7 days successful wards connected five-day weeks.

Go said the four-day workweek not lone improved her work-life equilibrium but helped her beryllium much focused and kinder to her patients.

“I enactment successful the pancreatobiliary ward, wherever galore patients look captious situations. This makes the workload heavier. With a four-day workweek, I consciousness I tin instrumentality much clip to perceive to patients and attraction for them with greater responsibility,” she told Al Jazeera.

“My children utilized to beryllium blessed erstwhile their grandparents picked them up from daycare, taking it for granted. But erstwhile I did it much often, they expected maine to beryllium there.”

Go’s acquisition is antithetic successful South Korea, a state notorious for its agelong moving hours, wherever staying precocious is often seen arsenic a people of a bully employee.

South Korean workers logged an mean of 1,865 hours successful 2024, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the sixth-highest among developed countries and good supra the OECD mean of 1,736 hours.

They worked 248 hours much than their counterparts successful neighbouring Japan.

While agelong workdays are inactive the norm, shorter enactment arrangements are gradually spreading successful the backstage sector.

Some companies, peculiarly IT firms and startups, person been experimenting with four-day oregon four-and-a-half-day workweeks for respective years.

South Korea’s large conglomerates person besides shown involvement successful much flexible enactment arrangements, with Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and Kakao introducing programmes offering employees periodic breaks of a afloat oregon half-day.

Lee Jae-ho, 42, a begetter of 2 who works astatine sports and wellness exertion institution Kakao VX, has benefitted from 1 specified program, getting 1 Friday disconnected each period and moving 1.5 hours little connected the remaining Fridays.

Lee said moving less days does not needfully trim efficiency.

“When I person a Friday disconnected oregon shorter hours, I set my docket successful advance, truthful the reduced workdays person small interaction connected productivity,” Lee told Al Jazeera.

“I person much clip to person meal with my family, recharge, and prosecute my hobbies and growth.”

The propulsion to betterment South Korea’s enactment civilization has gained momentum since the predetermination of left-leaning President Lee Jae-myung successful June.

During his campaign, Lee pledged to chopped moving hours beneath the OECD mean by 2030 and present a four-and-a-half-day workweek.

At a July quality conference, Lee reiterated that South Koreans needed to enactment less, suggesting that a strategy of agelong hours with debased productivity was unsustainable.

“We person competed much connected quantity than connected quality,” Lee said.

Cafe24, South Korea’s starring e-commerce solutions provider, implemented a afloat four-day workweek successful July, aft antecedently offering workers each different Friday off, portion maintaining employees’ salaries and wide hours.

In June, Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, launched the country’s archetypal aviator task of a four-and-a-half-day workweek without wage cuts among section governments, acceptable to tally until 2027.

The programme, moving until 2027, encourages tiny and midsize businesses and nationalist institutions successful the state to experimentation with reduced moving hours by providing fiscal enactment to screen the accrued labour costs.

Some experts and concern leaders person expressed concerns astir the moves to chopped the moving week.

Kwon Young-sik, manager of quality resources astatine Yonsei University Health System, the genitor organisation of Severance, has said permanently shifting to a four-day workweek would outgo astir 100 cardinal won ($720) per ward successful labour costs alone.

“Over the past 3 years, astir 1.2 cardinal won has been spent connected labour costs,” Kwon said past period astatine an lawsuit wherever Severance’s labour national presented the results of the aviator programme.

At the aforesaid event, Lee Kang-young, wide manager of Severance, said organization and fiscal enactment would beryllium “absolutely necessary” for a four-day workweek to beryllium sustainable.

Park Nam-gyoo, a concern prof astatine Seoul National University, said helium would beryllium acrophobic astir productivity and disparities successful the labour marketplace if a four-and-a-half-day workweek became the norm.

“South Korea is an export-led economy. It faces an uncertain aboriginal if it fails to stay competitory globally,” Park told Al Jazeera.

He said the state needed to see its debased birthrate, sluggish economy, and challenges to its planetary competitiveness.

But workers similar Go and Lee anticipation much radical tin acquisition the benefits they person enjoyed.

“There were perfectly nary drawbacks. The lone downside successful my lawsuit was that, arsenic it is simply a aviator programme, lone a fewer could participate, truthful I consciousness atrocious for my colleagues who couldn’t. Other than that, it ran smoothly without immoderate operational issues,” Go said.

“Just arsenic the five-day workweek was initially met with interest but yet settled in, a four-day workweek is expected to gradually bring affirmative changes to society,” Lee said.

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