The government in South Korea's capital is introducing a new initiative to force its employees to leave work on time - by powering down all their computers at 20:00 on Fridays.

 

韩国首尔市政府将实行新举措，每周五晚8点切断办公电脑的电源，强制政府工作人员按时下班。

 

It says it is trying to stop a "culture of working overtime¹".

 

South Korea has some of the longest working hours in the world.

 

Government employees there work an average of 2,739 hours a year - about 1,000 hours more than workers in other developed countries.

 

The shutdown initiative in the Seoul Metropolitan² Government is set to roll out across three phases over the next three months.

 

The programme will begin on March 30, with all computers switched off by 20:00.

 

The second phase starts in April, with employees having their computers turned off by 19:30 on the second and fourth Friday that month.

 

From May on, the programme will be in full-swing, with computers shut off by 19:00 every Friday.

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