Overworked South Koreans Encouraged to Take Longer Days Off from Work to Boost Productivity

According to Korea Herald, a foreign website has considered "workaholics" as the key identifier and main strength of South Koreans, while the Japanese are known for their "robots" and the Chinese for their "renewable energy."

Among the top developed countries, South Korea is reported to have the longest working hours with an average of 44.6 hours per week compared to the 32.8 average working hours among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

On the other hand, Financial Times reported that Expedia surveyed 24 nations in 2014 and found that South Koreans took the lowest number of holiday vacations with 8.6 days, compared to the global average of 20.5 days.

"It was so good to take a long vacation but I am stressed out again because of the mountains of work," Park Hee-jung, who works as a pharmaceutical researcher, says. He went to Croatia and Bosnia for an 11-day vacation. "The company encourages us to take annual holidays allowed but there are not many people who take them all."

Plenty of South Koreans, especially those working in offices, have turned into workaholics due to a heavy workload accompanied by pressure from higher-ups, making them hesitant to go on vacation breaks. Fortunately, big companies are now taking actions to ensure that their employees get their much-deserved rest in order to boost productivity.

One of these companies promoting vacations for staff is Samsung Electronics. It announced last month that employees who have been working for at least three years will get a one-year optional vacation, while maternity leave will be extended to two years from the usual one year.

S-Oil company has taken the initiative to appoint a colleague to cover for an employee while they use up all of their two-week compulsory leave, while Shinhan has gone as far as locking workaholic employees out of their computer system during holidays to keep them out of the office.

"In a knowledge-based economy, longer working hours do not necessarily mean higher efficiency," according to Korea Employers Federation's director Kim Pan-jung. "We need innovative ideas to add value, so more companies are encouraging their workers to recharge through longer leave."