"Rest Properly When Taking Breaks"... Choi Su-yeon, Naver CEO, Introduces 'Shutdown' System

Reached Maximum Legal Working Hours
Company System Blocked 4 Hours Ago
Vacation Pay Support and 6-Month Unpaid Leave

Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] ‘Working mom’ Choi Suyeon, CEO of Naver, is accelerating efforts to reform the organizational culture. Even before her appointment, CEO Choi communicated with employees emphasizing that the new Naver should have a culture where employees work when they work and rest when they rest. She has decided to fully implement the rarely seen ‘shutdown’ system in the IT industry.

On the 6th, Naver announced that it will introduce a shutdown system that blocks access to the company’s systems four hours before reaching the maximum legal working hours. Mobile messenger Line, collaboration tools Naver Works, Slack, and others used for work will be included in the shutdown system.

The introduction of the shutdown system is a follow-up measure to the special labor inspection conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor targeting Naver. Naver had considered implementing a ‘gate-off’ system restricting building access upon reaching the maximum legal working hours, but decided to adopt the shutdown system instead, as the effectiveness of gate-off was deemed low in the current environment where remote work is established.

Born in 1981 and raising one child, ‘working mom’ CEO Choi has been interested in employee welfare since her executive days. Known as ‘smart and playful,’ CEO Choi has consistently received feedback on organizational culture and welfare systems through communication with young executives and employees. Especially after being appointed and after taking office as CEO, she has devoted the most effort to communicating with employees to reform the organizational culture.

In her first internal meeting after taking office, CEO Choi emphasized creating a ‘great place to work.’ She stated, "We will establish systems such as vacation support and leaves for self-development or rest to create a culture where employees work when they work and rest properly when they rest," adding, "I want to build a company where the best IT talents, thirsty for challenges, want to join."

Under CEO Choi’s strong will, Naver is rapidly changing. In addition to the shutdown system, from July, lunch and dinner will be provided free of charge, and employees with more than three years of service will be granted up to six months of unpaid leave. Employees who take two or more consecutive days off will receive 50,000 KRW as vacation support, emphasizing the creation of a company atmosphere where employees ‘truly enjoy their time off.’

Naver is also proactive about salary increases. On the 2nd, labor and management agreed to increase this year’s salary budget by 10%. It is expected that salaries will increase by at least 3 million KRW. In response to last year’s incident where an employee took extreme measures due to workplace harassment, measures have been established to create an independent harassment investigation body under the board of directors to conduct investigations on workplace harassment reports.

CEO Choi, who conducts organizational diagnostics annually and has announced plans for regular reviews, is scheduled to finalize and announce the new work method in May.

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