Dear MEL
Topic Readers,
South Korea
to shut off computers to stop people working late
How hard-working
Koreans are! Garlic girls (Vol.2177) aren’t the only ones to work hard to make their
dreams come true or make their living. According to OECD, South Korea’s average
annual hours that were worked per worker in 2016 were still over 2,000, the
second longest only after Mexico. Though the figures used to be over 2,500,
they have been declining steadily for the last 10 years. Just for reference, the
average hours among OECD nations are 1,763, and German’s are 1,363. However, South
Korea’s government workers work over 2,700 hours a year, about 1,000 hours
longer than the OECD average, or two times as long as Germany’s.
Now the government
is rolling out a new initiative to switch off their computers at 7:00pm on
Fridays. How late do they usually work now and how late will they stay in their
offices on other working days? Surprisingly, over two-thirds of the affected workers
have already asked for exemptions from the switch-off program.
Why so? Are
the government offices way understaffed? Is competition too keen? Do they need
to earn more money? Or are they so insufficient?
Enjoy reading
and thinking what drives Koreans work so hard either on ice or in offices.
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