Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PBRstreetgang21]

or is the whole "Koreans are super hardworking" a load? I came here thinking that all my korean coworkers were gonna make me look like bum even when I worked my hardest, but at my Hagwon at least none of them do a F***ing thing. I mean my director is at the office from 8AM-God Knows When everyday. But I havent seen him actually WORK. I see him chatting with his friends and chain smoking in the office but actually doing something related to like I dunno....running a Hagwon? He does so little I wouldnt be suprised if it turned out he didnt do any work because he didnt know he ran a Hagwon to begin with. The other Korean staff are the same. Do they watch my Kindy nose miners durning the breaks or at lunch? No. Four buckets of Play-Doh watch my kids. I mean Koreans certaily show up and put in long hours. But it doesnt seem like they actually get anything DONE. Am alone in this? Is this just a Hagwon thing? or is this a microcosm for the rest of the country?

[wylies99]

Some on here will post that their Korean co-workers are the greatest people in the world. Take that with a grain of salt.

You teach at a hogwan? So do I, and, yeah, my Korean co-teachers have been pretty much a bunch of lazy and worthless losers. It's a common experience.

[whatever]

It's all for show.

[SHANE02]

Yes ....alot of hours with very low productivity.

[xingyiman]

Koreans think that just being at the job is all that is necessary to be deemed a good worker. It doesn't matter if they are chatting online or screwing around.

[Richard Krainium]

In other words...work long, not hard...

[xingyiman]

[blaseblasphemener]

At my hagwon, the first week they introduced a kindergarten, two children got burned hands on the space heaters. The Korean teachers were in the office talking on their cell phones when the first, and the second, incidents occurred. Both events did not change the Korean teachers philosophy of, if you have 2 teachers, both should take breaks simultaneously and leave the kids unsupervised for 15-30 minutes.

[Mr. BlackCat]

I couldn't agree more and it really frustrates me. I've been told that I'm not a good teacher because I'm not at work long enough. I do work at home and I'm at the office more than my contracted hours. Plus, to me, its what I do inside the classroom that counts. But my bosses here have told me that a good teacher is one who is in the office from open to close regardless of productivity.

At my first job the Korean teachers basically lived at work, but were online shopping, talking on their cells, making food, etc., probably 80% of the time. Not to say that, overall, they didn't do their job. But they'd always say something like "It must be nice to leave so early". HA! At that job I was working 10 hours a day for a mere pittance. And I actually worked while I was there. My boss would start every sentence with, "Well, the Korean teachers..." to guilt the foreigners into doing so much extra stuff.

At my job this year its almost all foreign teachers and unfortunately most of them have bought into this 'logic' as well. A few times I've come in more than an hour before I was supposed to just to get stuff done and 7/8 of them were already there.

My boss always comes up to me when I'm coming in and asks "Have you done this yet? Did you proofread this?" When I say I just came in (obviously, I'm still signing in) she looks at her watch with a frown and walks away. She holds 'meetings' way early and then says I, or whoever, doesn't know what's going on because we came in 'late'. I'm talking 1 hour before the start of our (unpaid) prep-time.

What I find even more frustrating is when this aspect of Korean life is combined with the last-minuteness and general running around with your head choped of-ness of the hagwon business. Head office can't get its act together to get anything to us teachers on time (books, worksheets, exams, etc.). Then the morning of comes and BAM! everything shows up. 9 teachers with 3 exams each, one computer, one printer, one photocopier. It becomes our fault for not coming in at 6am to get everything ready.

Thanks for bringing this up and letting me vent. I find the whole "Everything's for show" thing incredibly pathetic. And I'm sure someone will be on this thread within minutes telling me I don't understand Korea and that it is I who is wrong. Fine. If needing genuine substance in my life is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

[pest2]

[mithridates]

I like the office culture here. Companies don't care if their employees do a bit of chatting or checking something out on the Internet as long as they get all the work done. Something like this would never be needed in Korea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostzilla

[Yo!Chingo]

[PimpofKorea]

You know what it is....Koreans have to do everything in a group. Since they are born..they go to school in large groups and do all their out-of-school activities in groups. At work they have to stay there all freakin day long because thats where the group is. They get nothing whatsoever accomplished most of their 12 hour days...but they are with their groups....and thats the most important thing.

[sojourner1]

Yes, I noticed pretty much everything mentioned in this thread. This thread is decent as it does not flame Koreans, but explores some of the inner workings of their way of life. Like all societies in the world, there are critical flaws present, but can't be easily fixed on account of cultural norms imposed by history and what superiors expect.

What you see and experience in hagwons is largely Korean work culture with the exception that teachers may not go out every night and drink soju with their bosses like many in non-teaching professions do. The latter are more extreme in the work customs mentioned in this thread. Hagwons seem to be lightweight compared to how difficult the guys in shiny pin stripped suits are living with long unproductive days and expected long nights of drinking. It's total burnout for them as I know a 30 year Korean man who is in Samsungs local finance and accounting department who hates his job for these very reasons. On the blue collar spectrum of work culture, its long days, often 7 days a week working like a sloth and drinking soju every night with co-workers and the boss. Every Saturday and Sunday, I got manual laborers working all around were I live which I dislike very much, I wish they would take a break. Work culture appears to be the primary way of life, it's not about being an individual with lots of free time to be himself or herself, though this is slowly changing with rumors of Korea adapting to a 5 day work week which my hagwon already is doing.

The office culture was a shock to me with being allowed to surf the net as you would get fired at home for being caught doing anything outside of the business applications company computers ran. I actually enjoy working here with having no micro-managing control freaks commonly present in American work places. The only micromanaging I see is the issuing and usage of stationary supplies. I am surprised they let us use computers for personal use with how ridiculously conservative they are about electric, water, gas, and stationary supplies usage. The deal with one computer, one printer, and on copier is a huge inconvenience in producing supplementary materials and tests. Not to mention that the copier and printer are never loaded with paper until you load your own paper that was issued to you after being recorded in a log book.

The deal with Koreans doing long days in the office with low productivity as a result of mostly doing personal stuff like talking and eating has to do with life mostly being experienced at work, albeit, I visibly notice that my co-KT's are very unhappy which is why they may not be inclined to ambitiously work to the point it causes last minute crunches and overall disorganization. They all would rather had achieved greater career opportunity, but did not since there is a pecking order as a result of those exams they take in high school that determine what their careers are to be.

[Ozabout7or8]

I must concur,

I was flabbergasted when I saw gorwn men sleeping at their desks in my public school job.

My Korean Co-Teachers openly told me they hated going to the "Social Meetings" but they had to and when they were there they were basically forced to drink alcohol. They often said they were sick to get out of it, but couldn't do this too often.

It was hilarious to me when the School Audit was going on, or on other occasions when teachers were forced to stay late after hours to get things in on deadlines. Most of this was to submit teaching plans and outlines to the local education office when they were given something like 4 days notice ...I am sure they must have known this request was coming at some point.

Also have to 100% agree with the behind closed doors (fair game)/public displays of affection (almost never), issue that someone else brought up. ALot of it has to do with fear of what others will think and the effect on her/his family.

It is a confucian ideal that the Korean office worker puts their employer in-front of their family, leading to absent fathers and long days at the office. WHen it becomes a habit though, and the goal is time rather than output, then that can lead to low productivity.

Don't expect any of this to change much in the short term unless the education system and company mangement go through huge changes. I would give it 10 - 20 years before we see any measurable improvement.