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Declaring ‘Crisis,’ South Korean Firms Tell Managers to Work 6 Days a Week
韩国公司宣布出现‘危机’并要求经理每周工作6天
“Back in the day,” said Lim Hyung-kyu, a retired Samsung Electronics executive now in his 70s, “my weeks were Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday.”
“过去，”现年70多岁的三星电子退休高管林亨圭（音译）说，“我的一个星期是周一、周二、周三、周四、周五、周五、周五。”
Mr. Lim joined Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, in 1976 and rose through the ranks to chief technology officer.
林先生于1976年加入韩国最大的公司三星，并一路晋升为首席技术官。
For much of his 30-plus years at Samsung, working on the weekends was normal — and legal under the nation’s labor laws.
在他为三星工作的30多年里，大部分时候周末工作是正常的，而且根据韩国的劳动法是合法的。
“I didn’t mind,” Mr. Lim said. “It was fun for me.”
“我不介意加班，”林先生说，“工作对我来说很有趣。”
Things are different now.
现在情况不同了。
South Korean labor laws cap working hours to 52 a week: 40 standard hours with up to 12 for overtime.
韩国劳动法规定每周工作时间上限为52小时：40小时标准工时，再加上最多12小时的加班。
Weekends are generally considered off limits, and younger employees are mindful of their work-life balance in a way their parents or grandparents weren’t.
周末通常被认为是不可侵犯的，年轻员工比他们的父母或祖父母更注重工作与生活的平衡。
But over the past few months, some influential South Korean companies have told executives to work longer hours, in some cases telling them to come to the office six days a week.
但在过去几个月里，一些有影响力的韩国公司已告知高管要延长工作时间，在某些情况下，要求他们每周工作六天。
Some people in South Korean business are predicting that lower-ranked employees and managers at smaller companies will feel pressure to follow suit.
韩国商界的一些人预测，小公司的低级别员工和经理也将感受到效仿高管加班的压力。
“It’s a signal that in South Korea, working six days a week is still acceptable,” said Kim Seol, a representative of the Youth Community Union, a labor group that represents workers between the ages of 15 and 39.
“这表明在韩国，每周工作六天仍然是可以接受的，”青年社区联盟的代表金雪尔（音译）说，该联盟是代表15岁至39岁劳动者的劳工团体
The pressure on workers, especially young workers, can be intense in South Korea, which has a shrinking, aging population with one of the world’s lowest fertility rates.
韩国人口不断减少、老龄化加剧、生育率为全球最低之一，因此劳动者，尤其是年轻劳动者面临的压力可能非常大。
Fears about job security and the rising costs of housing, child care and education have discouraged working-age Koreans from having children, contributing to a demographic crisis that looms over the economy.
对工作保障的担忧以及住房、育儿和教育成本的不断上升，让处于工作年龄的韩国人不敢要孩子，从而加剧了笼罩韩国经济的人口危机。
In South Korea, the five-day workweek is only a generation old, introduced by labor laws in 2004, starting with the public sector and larger companies before spreading to smaller firms.
在韩国，每周五天工作制的历史只有二十多年，这种工作制在2004年由劳动法引入，从公共部门和大公司开始实行，然后扩展到小公司。
A 52-hour legal limit on the workweek is also relatively new: It was introduced in 2018, a reduction from 68 hours per week.
每周工作52小时的法定限制也是相对较新近的：在2018年引入，从每周68小时减少为52小时。
For much of South Korea’s postwar history, a time of rapid growth and reconstruction, workers were expected to be in the office Monday through Saturday.
韩国战后的大部分历史是快速增长和重建时期，人们期望工作者从周一到周六都在办公室工作。
“Back then, it was hard for people to get by,” said Mr. Lim, the retired Samsung executive.
“当时，人们很难维持生计，”退休的三星高管林先生说，
“Helping the company grow meant helping the country and, by extension, yourself.”
“帮助公司发展意味着帮助国家，进而也是帮助你自己过得更好。”
Samsung, like South Korea’s other multinational giants, has tracked the country’s burst of development from poverty and war to an advanced, high-tech economy.
三星就像韩国其他大型跨国公司一样，见证了这个国家从贫困和战争到先进、高科技经济的爆发式发展。
It was founded in the late 1930s as a shop selling vegetables and dried fish, started making appliances and other electronics in the late 1960s, and is now a world leader in semiconductors, smartphones and other technologies with over 200,000 employees.
三星成立于20世纪30年代末，最初是一家卖蔬菜和干鱼的商店，然后在20世纪60年代末开始制造电器和其他电子产品，现在已是半导体、智能手机和其他技术的全球领先企业，拥有超过20万名员工。
The companies now calling for executives to work longer hours have described the measures as a response to a downturn in business, citing a temporary crisis or emergency.
这些公司现在呼吁高管们延长工作时间，并称这些措施是为了应对业务下行，并提到暂时的危机或紧急情况作为延长工时的理由。
Growth in South Korea has been patchy, with weak consumer spending putting a dent in corporate earnings.
韩国的经济增长一直参差不齐，消费者支出疲软削弱了企业盈利。
The economy unexpectedly shrank last quarter.
上季度经济意外萎缩。
