“Back in the day,” said Lim Hyung-kyu, a retired Samsung Electronics executive now in his 70s, “my weeks were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday.”Mr. Lim joined Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, in 1976 and rose through the ranks to chief technology officer.
For much of his 30-plus years at Samsung, working on the weekends was normal — and legal under the nation’s labor laws.
South Korean labor laws cap working hours to 52 a week: 40 standard hours with up to 12 for overtime.
But over the past few months, some influential South Korean companies have told executives to work longer hours, in some cases telling them to come to the office six days a week.
Some people in South Korean business are predicting that lower-ranked employees and managers at smaller companies will feel pressure to follow suit.
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Organizations:
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Locations:
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