When Korea imposed a limit on working hours, did it make people happier?

Posted on November 26, 2014

Photo: flickr

Across different professions, many people are familiar with the sense of having to deliver more with less, meaning clocking-off time falls later and later. One way to protect workers' rights, and look after their wellbeing, is to introduce working hours restrictions. But a new paper by Korea University's Robert Rudolf investigates the impact of such a reform, and its conclusions are disappointing.

Beginning its roll-out in 2004, the (South) Korean Five Day Working Reform was intended to manage the nation's subservience to the office: employees there work some of the longest hours among the OECD countries - more than 50 per week on average.

Looking at the effects of imposed reductions in working hours helps reduce the complicating influence of other factors - for example, if people choose to downsize their hours to make space for a highly fulfilling new hobby, this could give an inflated impression of the value of shorter hours. The new data showed that although employees, especially women, reported a preference for their decreased hours, there was (for both genders) no significant effect on job satisfaction, and no hint of an improvement in life satisfaction. Unasked for drops in hours did not make people happier.

Click on the link below to read the full article


Category(s):Mental Health in Asia, Workplace Issues

Source material from British Psychological Society