The Korea Herald runs a series of articles titled ‘What‘s Happening,’ which looks into the culture and trends of companies operating in South Korea. -- Ed.

A marketing official at a Samsung affiliate, surnamed Shin, recently received a warning via email from his team leader.

The email read, “Your workhours surpassed 52 hours last week. Please clarify reasons for the overtime.”

Shin had to reply right away, retracing his work in the past week, as excessive work hours would not only affect him, but his senior who would get a lower performance grade in team management.

Senior officials at Samsung affiliates these days have to pay extra attention to when their subordinates leave the office and why they need to work overtime ever since the trial introduction of the government-promoted 52-hour workweek late last year.

For Jeong, who works for the IT & Mobile Communications division at Samsung Electronics, the mood is definitely different as the company readies to unveil its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone series this Sunday.

“It was nearly impossible to go home before midnight when we were working to launch the Galaxy Note 8 smartphone last year due to enhanced battery tests after the Note 7 battery explosion debacle,” he recalled. 

Due to the 52-workhour system, Jeong does his best to finish daily work before 10 p.m., despite the fact that the company is entering the busiest time of the year to roll out new flagship phones.

When he fails to hit the deadline, he lets all of his teammates and the leader via the Kakao Talk messenger know that he overworked -- for instance by one hour -- and so he will be back in office an hour later tomorrow.

Under the Moon Jae-in government’s initiative to put quality of life over work, a growing number of companies are volunteering to follow the government’s guidelines -- whose revision remains pending at the National Assembly -- to not exceed 52 work hours per week, including overtime.

If the bill passes, the revised labor law will take effect from July to legally ban companies from having their employees work more than the limit.

Samsung, the country’s No.1 conglomerate by market cap, took the lead in cutting workhours last year, but the actual implementation appears to need extensive adjustments of how things are done.

“Units that absolutely require overtime work are hearing complaints from employees about being unable to report their overtime hours,” said a Samsung employee in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. “The hours that exceed 12 hours for weekly overtime work are considered our free service, resulting in reduced extra pay and benefits, including cab fees.”

Some express regrets about being held by the labor law at a critical time for Samsung to focus its efforts on catching up with global IT moguls on new technologies such as artificial intelligence, voice recognition and Internet of Things.

“Korea still needs to do more on AI,” said an industry source, who wished to remain anonymous. “For instance, even when Samsung is working painfully hard, some in the Silicon Valley are working even harder.”

The ongoing government campaign to strike a balance between work life and home life, reduce labor costs by not paying extra for overtime and share jobs with the unemployed may hurt hard-sought innovative efforts by companies like Samsung, the official suggested.

Being aware of the unsettling workhour system, Vice Chairman Yoon Boo-keun mentioned early this month, “We are seeking various measures to shorten the workhours (in an efficient manner),” after a meeting with the country‘s industry minister.

Samsung is currently considering adopting a more flexible system than the government’s, including a plan that permits employees who need intensive work hours without the upper cap to do so during a certain period of time.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)