Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' publisher and president. He began to work at The Korea Times in 1988 as a sports writer. Then, he worked as a reporter and later as editor at the City Desk, Business Desk and Politics Desk. He worked as chief editorial writer before taking the current position. He has a keen interest in politics as well as defense affairs.
4-day work week in Korea: SK starts with hope, doubt
SK Group
By Oh Young-jin
By Oh Young-jin
SK Group has introduced a four-day work week, the first among big Korean firms.
A five-day work week is the norm in Korea as elsewhere in the world.
According to SK officials and reports, the shorter work week was implemented as a trial late last year for employees at SUPEX Council and SK Holdings, two key entities that determine the overall future course of one of Korea's leading conglomerates. The two have a combined workforce of 300, a small portion of the tens of thousands of workers in the group's nearly 100 affiliates.
Employees working at the two companies get the second and fourth Fridays off, except those who have "indispensable" work to do on those days.
SK's four-day work week system reflects Chairman Chey Tae-won's management philosophy of putting employees' happiness first, SK officials said, adding that the workers responded positively to the move.
But some doubt whether the initiative will spread to affiliates with large workforces on shifts such as SK hynix, the world's second-largest chip maker, and in energy or chemicals.
SK officials reportedly said the introduction of the new work week will be left to the discretion of affiliates but there is difficulty in manufacturing companies adopting it. It remains to be seen whether other conglomerates will follow the SK example.
The SK endeavor deserves credit for being the first. Korea Inc. is by and large underprepared for sweeping changes in the way we live. One big concern is that a lot of the existing workforce and functions individual workers perform will undergo a drastic change, with many to be made obsolete with the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, highlighted by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Meanwhile, the conglomerate has been making efforts to introduce a system by which its affiliates will be made more conscious of their social impact. One initiative is the introduction of "triple bottom lines," under which social and environmental contributions will be calculated to gauge a firm's performance.