I could do my job in 4 days instead of 5. I would need to work hard, but it could be done. There would also need to be some staggering with the secretaries so that one or two are here on Fridays because everything is time-sensitive with my job, but it’s not an insurmountable problem. I hope this movement gains some traction.
One of the petitions asked that the government make Taiwan the first country in Asia to implement a three-day weekend, while the other appealed to revise Article 30 of the Labor Standards Act to lower the number of working hours to six or seven daily, or 30 to 35 hours per week.
They garnered 5,736 and 5,140 signatures, respectively, more than the required number (5,000) that are needed to solicit a government response.
I’m not saying this is a good thing – far from it – but in some (many?) companies, like tech companies, in China, employees need to work 72 hours per week, 6 days per week, under the so-called 996 system.
I don’t believe that would be legal in Taiwan. In any case, any intelligent employer would just split up those 72 hours between two shifts of employees working 36 hours each, so they don’t have to pay heaps of overtime.
I’m fairly certain that a foreigner with an APRC would not be eligible to sign the petition so I didn’t even look to see where the petition is.
I’ve heard of this. It’s so opposite of what’s happening everywhere else in the world, and opposite of how effective less work hours is (the same or even higher productivity). It sounds like a nightmare and a throwback to Korea, Japan, etc. in the 90s.
I know that the two Chinese companies we work with will send us emails late at night (I see the time the next day) and even on the weekends. So from my minimal exposure Chinese companies, long work hours seem common in China.
I think it won’t get much support due to the number of SMEs in Taiwan and also the heavy manufacturing concentration. A lot of people are doing shifts now already in that sector.
For service industry again electronics is notorious for overworking, not much support I would predict as those people need to turn around their work in 12-24 hours (this is a thing in Taiwan, it’s called 1 day turnaround responsibility…even within the same day).
IF the SME boss would like to do a 4 day week it will work. But no way a boss is sitting there on Friday and his/her employees not there too.
Civil servants and maybe some finance folks will support it.
Why would the boss be sitting in the office on a Friday if that became a weekend?
When Saturdays became a weekend in the early 20th century, bosses didn’t still come in on Saturdays.
At any rate, this is not just a Taiwanese initiative. The world is moving toward shorter work weeks, and I foresee Fridays will become a weekend within the next decade.
At first, they only allowed Sundays off to accommodate Christians, then later they gave Saturdays off to accommodate Jews, and I believe we will start getting Fridays off to accommodate Muslims now that they have more influence in the West.
Yes I get it. The issue is that many bosses might not want to do a 4 day week, and if they don’t want it, the employees got to turn up as well.
In practice many organisations operate a 4.5 day week, not organising much on a Friday afternoon. But Taiwanese companies…not so much although some are good like that too especially if the managers like going camping or away for the weekend.
Lol, its a dream. Such thing can never happen in taiwan without facing serious backlash from all those taiwanese bosses who wants nothing but their employees stay on their ass all day in office even weekends
I would say the biggest issue with this is education. Plenty of Junior and senior high schools expect students and teachers to be in class seven days a week in the time leading up to the big exams. Outside of big exams, K-12 education pretty much exists so parents don’t have to look after their children. I suppose this can help the cram school industry quite a lot though.
I’m also thinking of how many employers will take advantage of this and lower wages. Or not give raises. How many people have come on this forum to complain about getting pay docked massively for each minute late while never being paid overtime?
Yup, evil isn’t it. I still vividly recall checking my pay statement back in the day wondering where my salary had disappeared to after putting in some overtime every single day.
