There may be four-day work weeks all the noisebut one big tech company is going in the opposite direction.
Samsung is implementing a six-day work week for all executives as some of the firm's core businesses are handed over lower than expected last year's financial results.
A Samsung Group executive told a Korean newspaper that “considering that the performance of our major units, including Samsung Electronics Co., was not expected in 2023, we are introducing the six-day work week for executives to inject a sense of crisis and make efforts to comprehensive to overcome this crisis.”
Lower performance combined with other economic uncertainties such as high borrowing costs have pushed the South Korean company into “emergency mode,” according to Korea Economic Daily.
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According to the report, executives in all Samsung Group divisions will be affected, including those in sales and manufacturing.
Samsung had its worst financial year in more than a decade in 2023, with Wall Street Journal reporting that net profit fell 73% in the fourth quarter. She too lost first place in the global smartphone market to Apple in the same quarter, though it regained it this year.
Although employees below the executive level are not yet mandated to work weekends, some may follow their bosses' unwritten lead. After all, The Korea Economic Daily reports that executives in several Samsung divisions have been voluntarily working six days a week since January, before the company decided to implement the six-day work week policy.
entrepreneur has reached out to Samsung's US office to ask if this news involves executives located around the world, including in the US, or if it only affects employees in Korea. Samsung did not immediately respond.
Research on the relationship between hours worked and output shows that working more does not necessarily increase productivity.
A Stanford project, for example, found that excess labor leads to a decrease in total output. Average productivity is reduced by stress, sleep deprivation and other factors “to the extent that extra hours (worked) provide no benefit (and, in fact, are harmful),” the study said.
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Longer hours can also mean long-term health effects. World Health Organization found that working more than 55 hours a week reduces life expectancy and increases the risk of stroke by 35%.
The same 55-hour work week leads to a 17% higher risk of heart disease, according to the same study.