Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Lee's Aide Calls for Working Harder, Longer
By Kang Hyun-kyung, Korea Times (July 25, 2008)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/07/116_28208.html

[Jeaves]

Hmm so how does one work longer hours when they are already out the door at the crack of dawn, spend all day at work, drink with co-workers until the wee hours, and then stumble home for 4-5 hours of sleep? Seeing that the sacred ritual of drinking with co-workers must remain intact, the only possible way to work more is to sleep less... or am I missing something?

[Join Me]

A little closer attention to detail and a little more sleep (less work and drinking) would vastly improve productivity in South Korea. Try telling that to any Korean who is a business owner or a manger though. Productivity won't be improving much in South Korea until robots and computers eliminate the need for humans as they have in the US.

[cdninkorea]

It should be quite clear to anyone, especially the president of the country, that what's needed is not people working longer but more productively.
After discussing this with my businesspeople students, the impression I get is that if office workers started at, say 8 and finished at 6* but made a point of being productive, there would be more work done than there is now from 8 am-10pm.

And since no one has brought it up yet, let's talk about vacation: a lot of my students get less than a week per year


*8am to 6pm is still a long day, but a major improvement over what's expected of them now.

[PeteJB]

Someone I know recently started an Intership in Seoul, in Yeoido. She told me that she rarely does anything all day, and most of the day she is sat at her computer surfing all the internet. Now something tells me this is quite common here. If that was an internship in the UK, you'd be so overloaded with work you'd want to die.

[big_fella1]

[Nok Yong]

Are you kidding me - work longer hours? Koreans are too obsessed with looking busy for 80 hours to please their slave masters...er, bosses. Yet they accomplish less than most westerners would in under 40 hours given similar responsibilities. Korea Spelunking!

[I_Am_The_Kiwi]

they need to work SMARTER not harder...

time spent at work does not equate to work actually done.

too much sleeping, fuking about, slacking off.....but if they stay 13 hours then its a good days work....

*beep* that. you can accomplish soooo much in a normal 8 hour day at work. They just dont do it right.

[Quack Addict]

[SHANE02]

Its acceptable to sleep on your desk in Korea, I'm just not good at it yet.

[wylies99]

The heavy drinking is taking a measurable toll on the nation's productivity and economy.

[Yaya]

Most people consider working for a Korean company and enduring the corporate culture there an exercise in torture. Managers who are useless but good at politics, staff who are regularly exploited for more work and overtime, and big funds either wasted on stupid stuff (or drinking) or embezzled outright by execs.

Korea ranks 13th in economy in the world but around 41st in corruption.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

I don't think you can totally blame the long hours for Korea's lack of productivity. Japanese workers also work very long hours, and yet they are very productive. Actually, Americans and Canadians work a lot too... it's just that they do it at home. They are given vacations, and then they don't use them.

English teachers aside, most Westerners usually work very hard, but more importantly, they are capable of working as an actual team-- in many cases, your boss tends to distribute the work fairly and evenly, is usually willing to pick up the slack, and if someone isn't busy they'll help someone else, and no one considers any part of the job to be beneath them. Basically, everyone takes an equal share and if not they are socially ostracized and eventually fired/replaced.

Korea's productivity suffers because the social hierarchy means uneven work distribution-- the bosses do absolutely nothing except take credit for everyone else's work, the second ups do verrrry little at a slow pace, the people below them do slightly more at a slightly faster pace, and then the person at the bottom does almost everything. Also, they are socially conditioned to accept it-- it's perfectly acceptable for the boss to play computer games all day while watching his latest employee suffer through day after day of absolute hell... and everyone just takes it, because they're Korean, and that's what being Korean is all about.

[bassexpander]

Lee can shove it straight up his ying-yang.

My wife works from 9:30am to 8:30 PM every freaking weekday, and then brings home work to do on weekends.

Overwork is a problem in Korea, and the birthrate is suffering.

What a stupid idiot.

[Guri Guy]

What a joke. Have Koreans never heard of the Law of Diminishing Returns?