Don't get suckered, grow rich, work less

For those of us who see 'overwork' as a 'first world' problem, it is exactly that - a genuine bother that is identified and tackled only after a society reaches a certain level of economic maturity and prosperity. If China, after putting in work at a furious pace over the last four decades, has an increasing number of its younger people call out 'Enough!' on the overwork front, it's now South Korea's turn to point at the 'emperor not wearing any clothes'. More and more of South Korea's MZ generation (millennials and Generation Z) are pushing back on overtime and longer hours to make time for 'life'.

The government had to withdraw a proposed law to extend the 40-hour working week to 69 hours in the face of popular opposition. China has already seen an outbreak of 'tang ping' - lying flat - that has members of the younger working population slack off. Current employees, too, are embracing 'mo yu' - touching fish, a phrase that means 'lazing around at work'. The US, of course, for all its famous 'Protestant work ethic' is the original home of 'slacker culture'.

Valourising overwork - 'I have never taken leave!' - is really a mug's game for second- and third-world countries where a 'working class' is made to see itself as heroic while 'getting the work done'. Rich countries understand and value leisure. They also can afford it.