81% of Office Workers Say "Flexible Work Hours Need to Be Expanded"

Introduction of the 52-Hour Workweek Generally Satisfactory

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] A majority of office workers also agree on the need to expand flexible working hours. Many believe that strictly regulating working hours can actually hinder work efficiency since work performance often does not correlate directly with working hours.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently conducted a survey on the perception of working hours among 300 office workers. When asked whether there is a need to further expand flexible working hours, 81.3% of respondents answered "necessary," significantly outnumbering the 18.7% who said "not necessary," the Chamber announced on the 23rd.

The main reason office workers think expanding flexible working hours is necessary is that "working hours and performance are not proportional." In fact, when asked whether their working hours and work performance are proportional, 54.4% of respondents answered "not proportional."

Since working hours and performance are not proportional, strictly regulating working hours inevitably leads to inefficiency. When asked if they have experienced inconvenience at work due to strict working hour management, 62% of office workers responded "yes."

Specific inconveniences included "difficulty responding to urgent tasks" at 42.8%, followed by "difficulty concentrating during work" (33.9%) and "inconvenience in daily life due to rigid commuting hours" (22.8%).

Office workers first expressed the need to improve the "Selective Working Hours System." This system allows employees to work beyond the statutory working hours in some weeks within a certain settlement period and take equivalent compensatory time off in other weeks. Although the National Assembly expanded the settlement period from one month to three months for research and development (R&D) work on December 9, 76.3% of office workers responded that the settlement period should also be extended to jobs outside of R&D.

Many office workers also agreed on the need to introduce the White-Collar Exemption system. The White-Collar Exemption exempts high-income managerial positions, where the need for working hour management is relatively low, from working hour regulations. This system is used in countries such as the United States and Japan.

When asked whether there is a need to introduce the White-Collar Exemption system domestically, 87.5% of respondents said "introduction is necessary." This means that an overwhelming majority of office workers believe that working hour regulations are unnecessary for high-income employees.

Positive Evaluation Prevails on the 52-Hour Workweek System

Meanwhile, office workers generally have a positive view of the 52-hour workweek system. When asked about their satisfaction with the 52-hour workweek, 58.0% of respondents said they were "satisfied." In contrast, 11.3% expressed "dissatisfaction," and 30.7% were "neutral."

The main reason for satisfaction with the 52-hour workweek was "reduced working hours," cited by 65.8%. Other reasons included "reduction of unnecessary tasks" (18.4%) and "increased work concentration" (11.4%). <"Establishment of performance-oriented culture" 4.4%> On the other hand, the most common reason for dissatisfaction was "income reduction" (37.0%), followed by "reduced work efficiency" (29.6%) and "increased work burden" (22.2%). <"Relative deprivation" 7.4%, others 3.8%>

Jeon Insik, Head of the Employment and Labor Policy Team at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, pointed out, "To compete with global companies, innovation must flow from research labs and offices, but the 52-hour workweek system should not operate as a uniform regulation." He argued, "While preventing long working hours in the era of the 52-hour workweek, it is now necessary to legislate improvements to flexible working hours at the level of advanced countries so that talented individuals can work freely when working and rest sufficiently when resting."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.