Declaring ‘Crisis,’ South Korean Firms Tell Managers to Work 6 Days a Week

“Back in the day,” said Lim Hyung-kyu, a retired Samsung Electronics executive now in his 70s, “my weeks were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday.”

Mr. Lim joined Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, in 1976 and rose through the ranks to chief technology officer. For much of his 30-plus years at Samsung, working on the weekends was normal — and legal under the nation’s labor laws. “I didn’t mind,” Mr. Lim said. “It was fun for me.”

Things are different now. South Korean labor laws cap working hours to 52 a week: 40 standard hours with up to 12 for overtime. Weekends are generally considered off limits, and younger employees are mindful of their work-life balance in a way their parents or grandparents weren’t.

But over the past few months, some influential South Korean companies have told executives to work longer hours, in some cases telling them to come to the office six days a week. Some people in South Korean business are predicting that lower-ranked employees and managers at smaller companies will feel pressure to follow suit.

“It’s a signal that in South Korea, working six days a week is still acceptable,” said Kim Seol, a representative of the Youth Community Union, a labor group that represents workers between the ages of 15 and 39.

The pressure on workers, especially young workers, can be intense in South Korea, which has a shrinking, aging population with one of the world’s lowest fertility rates. Fears about job security and the rising costs of housing, child care and education have discouraged working-age Koreans from having children, contributing to a demographic crisis that looms over the economy.