Executives at Samsung Electronics will be working six days a week. That is, in addition to the five days of work, they will now also work an extra day, either on Saturday or Sunday? So, why did Samsung resort to a six-day week?
Well, for one, there has been a drastic depreciation of the won. Oil prices have gone up and so have borrowing costs. To top it all, the company’s performance was poorer than expected last year in terms of business.
The six-day work week will be implemented by the senior managers of Samsung Display, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung SDS this week itself. Other companies of the Samsung Group may also follow suit sooner or later. The move is hoped to drive home the urgency for immediate action to avert a crisis. It is expected that everyone will put in more efforts to improve the situation. Interestingly, Samsung has embraced a six-day workweek when worldwide organisations are considering shifting to a four-day work week. In Germany, at least 45l companies are trying out the four-day workweek for a period of six months starting 1 February. The objective is to find out whether productivity will increase and whether the reduction in work days will have any adverse effect on costs.
