World’s Biggest Memory Chipmaker Samsung Gives Workers Some Fridays Off

(Bloomberg) -- Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, is giving staff in South Korea one Friday off each month in a bid to retain talent that increasingly values flexible work.

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Starting next week, non-factory, full-time staff can take the day off in the period they get paychecks — usually the week of the 21st, a company spokesperson said by phone Wednesday.

Local media reported the policy earlier this week.

Samsung’s move follows local rival SK Hynix Inc. adopting a similar flexible workweek last year, allowing staff to take one Friday off a month if they work more than 40 hours a week. Other South Korean technology firms, including popular social platform Kakao Corp., have also introduced more flexible arrangements following the pandemic.

The move from Samsung, which has about half of its roughly 268,000 employees in South Korea, shows just how much the pandemic has changed the way people work— even in a country with a more conservative work culture. South Koreans are among the world’s most overworked, logging about 200 hours more in 2021 than the average among OECD members.

The arrangements are aimed at retaining talent, particularly among younger workers who value work-life balance. Millenials and Generation Z— those in their 30s and under— make up about three-quarters of Samsung’s workforce globally, according to a 2022 company report.

CJ ENM Co, one of the South Korea’s largest content companies, provides two Fridays off each month.

The firm wants to “create a new Friday culture that encourages employees to catch up trends and cultivate insight,” a spokesperson said.

Here are some of the flexible arrangements adopted by South Korea’s firms:

• SK Hynix: Employees can take Friday off once a month if they work more than 40 hours a week on average.

• Kakao Corp: Gives the last Friday of each month off. Their subsidiary Kakao Games gives two Fridays off each month.

• CJ ENM : Gives workers two Fridays off a month, in the 2nd and 4th weeks of each month.

(Updates with Samsung data and plan details starting in first paragraph.)

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