It’s not too terribly often we get the opportunity to report on gaming companies doing the right thing by its employees (even if it is also to not run afoul of local government), so allow us a moment to eagerly report on NCsoft’s “Gate Off” protocol, which effectively prevents employees that have been working at the company’s office in Korea for too many hours from even getting in the door.
This is all reportedly done through electronic gates at the office’s entrance, which tracks whether the employee trying to get in to the building has hit the maximum of 208 hours of work for the month and barring their entrance if they have. The policy is currently being applied as part of a trial period, with NCsoft asking for feedback from employees to further refine it.
This new command comes as part of overall reforms to the Korean games industry, where workers experienced such high levels of crunch that they were literally dying; readers will recall the case of a Netmarble employee’s death in 2016, prompting an official Korean government response and Netmarble instituting new working hours policies.
