The reason why LG and Samsung stopped holding year-end parties, encouraging employees to take full leave

According to Korea Times, this year, some large corporations in Korea such as Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motors and LG will all end the year in a quiet way instead of holding a grand year-end party.

Such events have become a thing of the past as a culture that values ​​work-life balance becomes more prevalent. Instead of having a party, many companies encourage employees to take advantage of the remaining leave to enjoy the year-end holidays. Even New Year’s parties have been reduced in size or moved to an online format.

Samsung Electronics has no plans to hold a year-end party. The company underwent a large-scale personnel reshuffle at the end of the year and held other important events such as the global strategy conference for device solutions (DS) on December 2, the grand opening ceremony research and development (R&D) center in Vietnam on December 23. In addition, the company will participate in the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 (CES 2023) scheduled to take place early next year.

The company’s New Year celebration is scheduled to be held on January 2, 2023 at Samsung Digital City in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, with the attendance of DS Department Head Kyung Kye-hyun and senior executives is different. Previously, on January 3, 2022, Samsung held a New Year celebration in Suwon with the participation of about 100 senior directors and employees.

Meanwhile, SK will not hold a group closing ceremony but is expected to let each branch decide whether to hold the event as many directors and their employees decide to go on vacation for the last holiday. five.

” With the spread of a culture that values ​​work-life balance, the use of year-end holidays has become popular, which naturally reduces large-scale gatherings ,” said one. senior figures in the industry said.

SK has not held a New Year event since the outbreak of the pandemic. Instead, Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will send New Year’s greetings emails to senior directors and employees.

Korea Times reported that Hyundai Motor Group will also not hold a year-end party. Instead, they plan to end the working year on December 29 so that all employees can take the day off work from December 30.

Earlier this year, President Chung Euisun gave a New Year’s speech in a video broadcast on the metaverse. It is not clear which form this corporation chooses to welcome in 2023.

With the retail industry, most businesses will not hold any special events at the end of the year. Lotte On e-commerce platform held an online closing ceremony with all employees on December 22 and delivered food and drinks to employees’ homes.

For its part, LG Group and its important affiliates such as LG Corp., LG Electronics and LG Chem ended this year’s business operations on December 23, and recommended that their employees take a vacation from February 26. 12 to 30 December.

A company leader confirmed that they will not be holding a party this weekend and encouraged employees to take a vacation on this occasion to recharge their batteries to welcome the new year.

On December 20, President Koo Kwang-mo was the first to deliver a New Year greeting. LG will start working from January 2 next year without any special events and will send New Year’s speeches from each branch’s leaders via email and video.

Lotte Department Store and supermarket chain are also encouraging employees to use up the remaining days of leave. Meanwhile, Kumho Petrochemical Corporation has chosen December 23 as the last working day of 2022. After that, the entire company is on holiday until 2023.

Source: Korea Times