Which day would you take off in a four-day workweek?

An online survey shows 40% of Korea's workers want a midweek break on Wednesday, while 25% choose Friday.

(123rf)

If your company were to adapt a four-day workweek, which day would you prefer to be the new day off: Monday or Friday to lengthen your weekend, or Wednesday to split the workweek in half?

A recent online survey of South Korea's workers showed that Wednesday was preferred by the largest share of respondents.

According to the poll, conducted by local portal site Nate, which is operated by SK Communications, 40 percent of the 11,120 respondents, or 4,528 individuals, chose to take a day off in the middle of the week.

A longer weekend with Friday was the second-most popular choice, chosen by 25 percent of respondents.

Avoiding the "Monday blues" motivated 19 percent to choose Monday as their preferred day off.

Having the flexibility to choose which day to take off was important to 13 percent of respondents, who preferred to be able to decide which day to take off.

Notably, more than half (52 percent) of respondents in their 20s wanted Wednesday off, whereas 33 percent of those in their 50s chose Wednesday, and 30 percent of those in their 50s selected Friday.

In an earlier survey conducted in February by online employment platform Catch, 1,076 Generation Z job seekers were asked how they would feel about a four-day workweek with a pay cut. More than half -- 53 percent -- of respondents replied they would be willing to sacrifice some income for working less.

Amid the spread of the four-day workweek across workplaces in the US, Europe and Japan, though it is not yet the norm in South Korea, a growing number of big-name corporations, tech companies, startups, local governments and medical institutions have already been testing the waters.

Samsung Electronics is one of them, allowing employees to work a four-day workweek once a month since June last year. As long as employees fulfill their monthly quota of working 160 to 168 hours, they can skip work on the Friday closest to the 21st of every month, payday.

By Song Seung-hyun(ssh@heraldcorp.com)