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Office buildings with their lights on as employees work at night.

Even after work, the smartphone of an individual surnamed Kim, who works in the finance sector, keeps buzzing with KakaoTalk alerts. The messages appear in group chatrooms created by the head of the branch Kim works at and her department manager.

The branch head puts up work instructions at all hours, eliciting dozens of responses along the lines of “Yes, understood.” Shortly thereafter, more detailed instructions are posted in another chatroom used by Kim’s department manager and coworkers.

“Even if our superiors aren’t actually giving us instructions about work, we’re under a lot of pressure to check and respond to their messages,” Kim said.

Messages from bosses who don’t pay attention to the time force employees to work late into the night, and their work is conveyed through the circuits of smartphones and other digital devices to people’s homes and to private meetings.

As work-related messages sent outside of working hours become a social issue, a bill has been submitted to the National Assembly that would revise the Labor Standards Act to ban companies from using text messages or KakaoTalk to give their employees directions after they have gone home for the day.

In an effort to reduce labor costs and improve conditions for employees, some companies are also pressuring department heads to stop sending unnecessary instructions after the working day is over or even taking the extreme measure of turning off the lights in the office.

Among the companies that are waging war on extra hours, one of the most striking is LG Uplus. Last month, Kwon Yeong-soo, vice chairman at LG Uplus, ordered his employees not to send work instructions on smartphone messengers on holidays or after 10 pm as part of a campaign to create enjoyable workplaces and a healthy corporate culture. Kwon even threatened that department heads who violated the directive would suffer in their performance review.

“Kwon said 10 pm, but the point was to stop sending work-related messages on smartphones after work is over,” said a company spokesperson.

Since the Lotte Group launched a flexible working hours program in January, human resources staff have been emphasizing that people should leave the office on time. After dividing employees into three work cohorts – A type from 8 am to 5 pm, B type from 9 am to 6 pm and C type from 10 am to 7 pm – the company placed a note on each employee’s desk indicating their cohort.

“When Lotte Food and other affiliates were first implementing the program, people from HR would go around the office when working hours were over and encourage people to leave on time. Now, team leaders keep a record of when employees go home for the day and file the record each month,” said a spokesperson for the Lotte Group.

There are also a number of companies that run a “shut down” system that pushes employees out the door when the working day is done. For quite some time, food company Ottogi has been turning out the lights in its offices at 7 pm except for those who have requested overtime work.

At SK C&C, music comes on the intercom system at 6 pm, urging employees to go home. At 8 pm, all the lights in the office turn off automatically.

“A culture has developed that encourages people to focus on their work during their working hours and then to forget about their work and take a break after they leave the office. People hardly ever text each other about work after they’re done for the day,” a source at the company said.

On Wednesdays, which the SJ Group has declared to be “Family Day,” the company turns the office lights off at 5:30 pm to encourage employees to call it a day.

But there are some blind spots in these overtime prevention measures. Lotte Shopping, for example, runs a “PC off” program, in which computers automatically turn off 20 minutes after working hours are over. Those who need to use a computer for longer are supposed to ask for overtime, but some bosses who are reluctant to do so reportedly tinker with the time settings on their computers so that they can keep working.

The companies that have made these guidelines are still a minority. While South Korea’s major chaebols often instruct their employees to make a habit of completing their work during working hours and going home on time, it is rare for them to prevent managers from giving instructions outside of working hours.

“Companies are always telling their employees to come back from lunch on time and checking how long they were gone. If they’re going to do that, they ought to be making sure that we’re leaving work on time, too,” said a mid-level manager at one South Korean chaebol.

By Kim Sung-hwan, Kim Jae-seob, Yoo Shin-jae and Lim Ji-seon, staff reporters

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