South Korea will force workers to go home by shutting off their computers

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published 23 March 2018

South Korea wants its government workers to stop working so hard.

Federal employees are putting in too many overtime hours, BBC reports, so the local government is taking extreme measures to make sure they head out on time: Employee computers will be automatically powered down at 8 p.m. sharp every Friday.

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The South Korean government will consider exemptions for the new lights-out policy, reports BBC, and more than two-thirds of government workers have already asked to be excluded. The Verge reports that this is not the first instance of government-regulated screen time in the country: Children were previously barred from playing online video games past midnight unless they had parental permission. Read more at BBC.

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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.

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