Samsung increases work-week to 6 days for executives amidst mounting pressure

South Korean company Samsung is starting a six-day workweek for its executives to handle some business challenges. According to a report from The Korea Economic Daily, this new schedule is already in place for most of Samsung's technology divisions, and others are expected to start soon.

The report claims that this change is in response to several problems Samsung is facing, like rising oil prices, increasing costs of borrowing money, and a big drop in the value of South Korea's currency, the won. By having executives work more days, Samsung hopes to address these issues more aggressively.

The new work schedule allows executives at Samsung Electronics to choose whether to come in on Saturday or Sunday, giving them some flexibility. However, regular employees will continue to work the usual five days a week. Business Today has reached out to Samsung to understand if the company's executives in India will also be impacted by this new work mandate. 

South Korea is no stranger to long working hours. In fact, in 2022, South Koreans were among the top in hours worked compared to other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Despite some setbacks in 2023, Samsung recently took back the top spot in global smartphone shipments from Apple. Looking ahead, the company is cautiously optimistic about the demand for smartphones improving and expects to benefit from rising prices in semiconductors.

India is also among the highest when it comes to working hours. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) report from 2018, Indians work an average of 47.7 hours per week, which is the longest average work week among the ten largest economies globally.

Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy is an advocate of increasing work-hours to 70 hours per week for youngsters. His opinion has been met with both praise and criticism.