Samsung shifts executives to six-day workweeks to 'inject a sense of crisis'

tooba | 60 points

I hate Koreans for doing this to other Koreans. I will never ever get over how koreans basically turned the whole country into hell joseon and there is no escape. Korea would be a much better place if they allowed themselves some slack.

mathverse | 13 days ago

Executives are often always working as the job can be demanding, but I think it is a real step backwards to make that the culture of the whole company. People need to be able to live their private lives, outside of working. And in creative work, productivity won’t increase with more hours - at best you can pull off a short term increase like if you’re getting ready to ship something. But beyond that, it’s counterproductive and naive leaders may end up rewarding people who make their extra hours visible over people who actually add value.

blackeyeblitzar | 13 days ago

I've been reading Cal Newport's stuff on Deep Work and Digital Minimalism and have some of his other books on my to read list. Considering the stuff he talks about and his new book on slow productivity, this move seems like a really bad idea. I'm curious to see the outcome of this.

I've adopted a more deliberate, focused work day and already seeing some improvements in my work quality, energy, and creativity.

chilldsgn | 13 days ago

Similar to what Musk did at Twitter with his “extremely hardcore” directive.

Maybe we’ll soon see Samsung executives post pictures of how they’re sleeping under their office desks on a Saturday night, like happened at Twitter.

The manager who posted those pictures was laid off from Twitter anyway a few months later. Performative crisis mode probably isn’t very useful to anyone.

pavlov | 13 days ago

Why the heck would anyone want to “inject the sense of crisis” into their company? That invariably leads to short term thinking and epic fails. Inject calm confidence instead.

ein0p | 13 days ago

The beatings will continue until moral improves

rapidaneurism | 13 days ago

How does working harder solve "rising borrowing costs and oil prices and a rapid depreciation of Korean currency"? Those are all exogenous factors.

Mengkudulangsat | 13 days ago

Ugh - the “burning platform”. Is it ever used authentically? Does it ever go well? I do believe that its typically inauthentic use is mostly self-defeating – people can smell inauthenticity a mile away.

asplake | 13 days ago

They should send the executives a pet hornet so they can also have a sense of continuous anxiety about the angry buzzing stingy thing in their room.

globalise83 | 13 days ago

The source (per HN guidelines - in the article) is: https://www.kedglobal.com/corporate-strategy/newsView/ked202... .. posted 5 hours ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40081798

gnabgib | 13 days ago

More of the same, that's the solution right? When what you're doing isn't working. Brilliant.

eemil | 13 days ago

... because what everyone really needs is for their executives to have a sense of crisis. I'm sure that will help a lot.

seanhunter | 13 days ago

Does anyone have a theory why Korean currency is depreciating?

bdjsiqoocwk | 13 days ago
[deleted]
| 13 days ago

Most real executives already work seven days a week anyway.

Daz1 | 13 days ago

yeah, because nothing makes you want to work - and work good - if not a "sense of crisis"

_ZeD_ | 13 days ago

Only for executives? Sounds like a good move actually.

raziel2p | 13 days ago