When a five-day workweek just isn’t enough to get the job done, it’s time to work weekends. Or so thinks Samsung Group, which is ordering its executives in South Korea to work a six days a week in a bid to raise its bottom line.
Citing company officials, the Korea Economic Daily (KED) reports that top brass in Samsung’s manufacturing and sales divisions have to work on either Saturday or Sunday following their usual five-day schedule, with some starting as early as this week. Executives at three of Samsung’s units — Samsung C&T Corp., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung E&A Co. — began voluntarily working six days a week at the start of this year.
“Considering that performance of our major units, including Samsung Electronics Co., fell short of expectations in 2023, we are introducing the six-day workweek for executives to inject a sense of crisis and make all-out efforts to overcome this crisis,” one Samsung executive told the outlet.
The company is struggling to adapt to a turbulent business environment, particularly with regards to the geopolitical uncertainty around wars in both Ukraine and the Middle East, the KED reported.
Samsung did not immediately respond to Quartz’s request for comment.
Four days, six days, who’s to say
Samsung’s six-day mandate comes in contrast to a growing global movement to change the standard workweek — by making it shorter, not longer. In nations like Iceland, Belgium, and the United Arab Emirates, governments are piloting and implementing four-day schedules. In the United States, a bill proposing a national four-day workweek landed in the Senate last month. And worldwide, worker groups are agitating to solidify four-day movements.
The benefits have been proven, too. Last year, after 61 U.K. companies trialed a four-day workweek, 92% of the organizations said they would continue with the practice; the trial’s report found that apart from physical and mental health benefits to workers, company revenues rose and absenteeism fell.
Samsungs slips and CHIPS
Meanwhile, the South Korean technology behemoth is looking to play catch-up after a difficult 2023. Its fourth-quarter operating profits plunged almost 35% from a year earlier. Sagging global demand also weighed on its semiconductor business, which booked a record loss of nearly 15 trillion Korean won ($11 billion) — down from a profit of 23.82 trillion Korean won ($17.2 billion) profit a year earlier.
But it’s expecting a quick turnaround, with chip prices riding on growing interest in artificial intelligence (which has already caused competitors Nvidia’s and Super Micro Computer’s stocks to boom this year). Samsung projected that its operating profit would reach about 6.6 trillion Korean won ($4.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024 — a roughly 930% increase from a year ago, and Samsung’s highest operating profit since the third quarter of 2022.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced that Samsung will receive up to $6.4 billion in direct funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, a move made to encourage the world’s largest memory chipmaker to continue developing its technologies in the U.S. Samsung is building a new chipmaking hub in Taylor, Texas, in addition to its existing Austin facility.
It also comes as the Korean won remains particularly weak: On Tuesday, it dropped to 1,400 versus the dollar for the first time since late 2022, as the strengthening dollar continues to batter regional currencies.