Seoul, South Korea – Go Kyoung-min, 34, a nurse at Severance Hospital in Seoul, discovered a brand new sense of steadiness in her life in the course of the first half of this 12 months.
Because the mom of dual daughters born in 2021, Go usually felt responsible about not spending sufficient time along with her youngsters due to work.
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However after opting into the four-day workweek provided by her office, Go was capable of spend extra time along with her household, attending daycare occasions she had beforehand missed and relying much less on her in-laws for childcare.
Severance is the primary hospital in South Korea to trial a four-day workweek, aiming to enhance the work-life steadiness of its workers.
Beneath this system, launched in 2023 following an settlement between labour and administration, some hospital workers are allowed to take three days off per week in alternate for a ten p.c discount in wage.
Workers take turns taking part in six-month rotations, after which they return to a five-day week.
This system seems to have improved nurses’ well being and wellbeing, enhanced the standard of medical companies, boosted organisational effectivity, and decreased turnover charges, the Korea Employee Institute-Union Heart stated in a report in regards to the trial launched final month.
In line with the report, turnover amongst taking part nurses with lower than three years’ expertise fell from 19.5 p.c to 7 p.c.
Common sick go away per worker additionally fell by at some point in the course of the trial, whereas it elevated by 0.7 days in wards on five-day weeks.
Go stated the four-day workweek not solely improved her work-life steadiness however helped her be extra centered and kinder to her sufferers.
“I work within the pancreatobiliary ward, the place many sufferers face essential conditions. This makes the workload heavier. With a four-day workweek, I really feel I can take extra time to hearken to sufferers and take care of them with higher duty,” she informed Al Jazeera.
“My youngsters was glad when their grandparents picked them up from daycare, taking it with no consideration. However as soon as I did it extra usually, they anticipated me to be there.”
Go’s expertise is uncommon in South Korea, a rustic infamous for its lengthy working hours, the place staying late is commonly seen as a mark of worker.
South Korean employees logged a mean of 1,865 hours in 2024, based on the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Growth (OECD), the sixth-highest amongst developed nations and effectively above the OECD common of 1,736 hours.
They labored 248 hours greater than their counterparts in neighbouring Japan.
Whereas lengthy workdays are nonetheless the norm, shorter work preparations are steadily spreading within the non-public sector.
Some firms, notably IT companies and startups, have been experimenting with four-day or four-and-a-half-day workweeks for a number of years.
South Korea’s main conglomerates have additionally proven curiosity in additional versatile work preparations, with Samsung Electronics, SK Group, and Kakao introducing programmes providing workers periodic breaks of a full or half-day.
Lee Jae-ho, 42, a father of two who works at sports activities and well being expertise firm Kakao VX, has benefitted from one such program, getting one Friday off every month and dealing 1.5 hours much less on the remaining Fridays.
Lee stated working fewer days doesn’t essentially scale back effectivity.
“When I’ve a Friday off or shorter hours, I regulate my schedule upfront, so the decreased workdays have little affect on productiveness,” Lee informed Al Jazeera.
“I’ve extra time to have dinner with my household, recharge, and pursue my hobbies and progress.”
The push to reform South Korea’s work tradition has gained momentum because the election of left-leaning President Lee Jae-myung in June.
Throughout his marketing campaign, Lee pledged to chop working hours beneath the OECD common by 2030 and introduce a four-and-a-half-day workweek.
At a July information convention, Lee reiterated that South Koreans wanted to work much less, suggesting {that a} system of lengthy hours with low productiveness was unsustainable.
“We now have competed extra on amount than on high quality,” Lee stated.
Cafe24, South Korea’s main e-commerce options supplier, carried out a full four-day workweek in July, after beforehand providing employees each different Friday off, whereas sustaining workers’ salaries and general hours.
In June, Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds Seoul, launched the nation’s first pilot venture of a four-and-a-half-day workweek with out wage cuts amongst native governments, set to run till 2027.
The programme, operating till 2027, encourages small and midsize companies and public establishments within the province to experiment with decreased working hours by offering monetary assist to cowl the elevated labour prices.
Some specialists and enterprise leaders have expressed issues in regards to the strikes to chop the working week.
Kwon Younger-sik, director of human sources at Yonsei College Well being System, the mother or father organisation of Severance, has stated completely shifting to a four-day workweek would value about 100 million gained ($720) per ward in labour prices alone.
“Over the previous three years, about 1.2 billion gained has been spent on labour prices,” Kwon stated final month at an occasion the place Severance’s labour union offered the outcomes of the pilot programme.
On the similar occasion, Lee Kang-young, common director of Severance, stated institutional and monetary assist can be “completely mandatory” for a four-day workweek to be sustainable.
Park Nam-gyoo, a enterprise professor at Seoul Nationwide College, stated he can be involved about productiveness and disparities within the labour market if a four-and-a-half-day workweek turned the norm.
“South Korea is an export-led financial system. It faces an unsure future if it fails to stay aggressive globally,” Park informed Al Jazeera.
He stated the nation wanted to contemplate its low birthrate, sluggish financial system, and challenges to its international competitiveness.
However employees like Go and Lee hope extra individuals can expertise the advantages they’ve loved.
“There have been completely no drawbacks. The one draw back in my case was that, as it’s a pilot programme, only some might take part, so I really feel sorry for my colleagues who couldn’t. Aside from that, it ran easily with none operational points,” Go stated.
“Simply because the five-day workweek was initially met with concern however finally settled in, a four-day workweek is anticipated to steadily deliver optimistic adjustments to society,” Lee stated.
