The policy forcibly shuts down all access to employee computers at 6:30 p.m. sharp, 30 minutes after the official punch-out hour. (image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s onerous corporate culture is slowly making progress.
LG Uplus, one of the three major telecommunications companies in Korea, became the first IT company to implement a “PC-off” policy.
As the name suggests, the policy forcibly shuts down all access to employee computers at 6:30 p.m. sharp, 30 minutes after the official punch-out hour, which officials expect to help root out any unnecessary overtime or lingering at work.
LG Uplus began a pilot project for its new policy on January 9. The full implementation will take effect in March, a company official said, with exceptions for employees that need to work overtime or late hours.
“We can make minor changes to the policy during the test phase, after gathering feedback from employees,” said an official. “But our fundamental intent to promote a culture of letting workers go at designated hours will remain unchanged.”
The practice has been adopted by several major Korean firms in recent years, including Hyundai Department Store, ING Life Insurance, and Lotte Shopping to name a few. It has been met with critical acclaim especially among younger employees who say that they can now “finally go home without having to mind their bosses.”
But at the same time, it’s breeding side effects of workers coming to work earlier to finish the same amount of work in less time, as well as a sense of segregation, when employees in specific departments get to leave their offices earlier than others.
Meanwhile, LG Uplus also decided recently to take disciplinary action against those assigning work to junior employees via mobile messenger after 10 p.m., another practice that has been criticized for damaging the work-life balance of Korean employees.
By Joseph Shin (jss539@koreabizwire.com)
