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

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41–50 of 72 posts

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

#41

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.

Cal Newport has his theories, Samsung executives have theirs. Samsung executives' theories about how to run Samsung are more valuable than Cal Newport's because they know Samsung better than he does.

It's why I said I am curious to see the outcome of this. Will it help the company or damage it? We'll see.

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

#42

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 counterprod…

Samsung is already known for its culture of over-work. This is just getting more and more extreme.

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

#43
post #31

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

Working harder at something will create better outcomes. There is a lot to think about, mitigate, deal with. The more time you put on something, the better the results. For example, your crops are getting attacked by insects. It's exogenous yet if you wake up in the night to come out and kill them, you'll save more crops.

> The more time you put on something, the better the results.

You'll rarely get worse results but it doesn't guarantee better results.

Which is exactly the sort of calculus that leads to people pushing so hard they actually do get worse results. See also: crunch culture.

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

#44
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shit trickles down. I foresee Saturday morning meetings for their direct reports, etc until everyone works 6 days, or signal themselves as disloyal non team players.

It's a pity managers see themselves as "up". They should see themselves as below the engineers and accountants and whatever. Managing is a supporting role if done properly. The boss mentality is corrosive.

I tend to sympathise with this view. The "up" part is only justified if responsibility also falls on their shoulders when shit hits the wall due to their decisions.

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

#46

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.

Cal Newport has his theories, Samsung executives have theirs. Samsung executives' theories about how to run Samsung are more valuable than Cal Newport's because they know Samsung better than he does.

That’s such a weird take. It’s like saying that I know more about repairing my car than the mechanic because I drive it every day. That the executives of Samsung run the company doesn’t mean that they are experts in how the brains of their employees work.

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

#47

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 counterprod…

Also, crises makes people think less. They'll make more decisions without thinking. I don't think this will end well.

I was thinking that despite I prefer iPhones, their SSDs were pretty good. I guess getting some of their 980s and 990s recently was a good investment for my (personal) IT budget. If they push people like this, I bet their products will become worse, not better.

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

#48

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.

Aren't Japan and China very similar? They are all societies where the group is valued as more important than the individual.

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

#49
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cal Newport has his theories, Samsung executives have theirs. Samsung executives' theories about how to run Samsung are more valuable than Cal Newport's because they know Samsung better than he does.

That’s such a weird take. It’s like saying that I know more about repairing my car than the mechanic because I drive it every day. That the executives of Samsung run the company doesn’t mean that they are experts in how the brains of their employees work.

Cal Newport is a self help author. He's not comparable to a mechanic. Samsung executives are working there. They are mechanics.

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

#50
post #15

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.

A small country that effectively operates as an island with angry nuclear-armed neighbors and no natural resources has figured out how to survive in the world through the skills nurtured within its own people. South Korea doesn't have the privileges that Canada and Finland both have of friendly adjacent neighbors and natural resources, which provide opportunities when Nortel and Nokia respectively stopped succeeding…

There are few countries in Europe with more in common with South Korea than Finland. For them, Russia is as China is to S. Korea and Sweden is what Japan is to S. Korea.

This is reflected in the structure of their armed forces. Per capita, they have the largest army in Nato if they mobilize.

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