|
Following the practice of the presidential Transition Committee, our new government takes no holidays. As Cheong Wa Dae convened a meeting of chief presidential secretaries on Sunday, so the Foreign Ministry has decided to hold regular meetings on Saturdays. Other ministries may well follow suit. No person or organization in Korean society can survive such pressure. As the chief executive convened a Cabinet meeting at 8 a.m., an hour and a half earlier than usual, ministries are likely to advance the start of their working day by an hour. But anyone leaving the office as much earlier in compensation, as their counterparts in developed countries do, is bound to be blacklisted right away. Public servants will eventually be deprived of holidays and their office hours will be extended in both directions.
From the viewpoint of taxpayers, nothing seems wrong if civil servants work on holidays. But looking at the issue more closely, we have to ask, "Do we still have to do this?" If a student prepares too ambitious a study program, it always turns out to be impractical. Yet it is a hallowed tradition in this society that when any major event takes place, staff are first denied holidays, made to report to work earlier and not permitted to leave the office at the closing hour. All office workers are aware that such practices contribute nothing to boosting their performance. Above all, such outdated practices are incompatible with the advancement, creativity and pragmatism the Lee Myung-bak administration has been trumpeting.
A third of the Nobel laureates since Nobel Prize was instituted in 1901, excluding literature and peace prizes, are Jewish. One fifth of U.S. Ivy League university faculties and one fifth of 100 wealthiest Americans are Jewish. This miraculous strength of the Jews stems from education. The core phrase Jewish mothers teach their children is, "Use brains, not brawn." Even the performance on a building site differs between a worker who uses his brain and one who doesnĄ¯t.
Hwang Nong-moon, an engineering professor at Seoul National University, says in his book, "Absorption", "However hard you work, it's difficult for you to work twice as well as others. But if you think hard, you can do 10 times, 100 times and even 1,000 times better than others." This is also a survival rule for the state in the knowledge economy of the 21st century. But the knowledge economy minister of the new government, a newly created title, started his career by reporting to work at 7 a.m. and convening an executive meeting one hour earlier than before. The chief of a ministry tasked with taking the lead in thinking harder made his debut by working longer hours instead.
Microsoft leads the world in advancement, creativity and pragmatism. The chairman, Bill Gates, made all company executives and employees, including himself, think hard by taking two leaves a year in addition to regular holidays. The firm has no clocking-in hours. Gates knows the survival or death of corporations hinges not on the length of working hours but on making staff think. IBM's famous management motto is not "work hard." It is "think smart."
People need a certain amount of leisure to be able to think. Even in Japan, Mirai Industry gives its staff 140 holidays a year and sends all employees on overseas tours every five years. Far from going under, the firm tops the corporate industry. Corporations that let their staff think beat those that are desperate to make them work harder. Those who are unable to comprehend this principle are a far cry from advancement, creativity and pragmatism. One blushes to think of a Korean leader visiting Microsoft or IBM and telling them to start working before dawn and cancel all holidays.
The labor productivity of our workers, who are accustomed to night and special duties, falls short of a half of that in developed countries. If physical strain alone constituted competitiveness in government, our republic would lead the world. As the presidential chief of staff said, "It's hard to sleep only four hours a day." No other country would think of such a thing. What would happen if this creative and pragmatic government instructed public servants to use brains, not brawn? Perhaps they would wake up.
|
