Most of us count down the days until we can take a holiday and enter into a sun-drenched zone where work morphs into abstract vagary.

Some workers even use a picture of the beach they are planning to visit as their screensaver to remind them that one of the best things about having a job is the time off.

This is not the case, however, in South Korea where employers have to take extreme measures to keep employees out of the office during their compulsory annual two-week holiday.

Bosses at the Shinhan Financial Group, based in Seoul, have had to resort to locking employees out of their computer systems to prevent them working if they come into work during their holiday.

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