Korean Job Discussion Forums

hogwonguy1979 · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: the racoon den

Got a question for those of you who work for a Korean Company or whose SO works for one. Hogwongal got very sick while traveling for her Korean company and while at a Sales Conference in China about 10 days ago had to be hospitalized, they stabilized her and got her back to Korea.

Well over the weekend she had to be hospitalized again, this time as inpatient for the past few days, she got home last night. Well she called and emailed her office saying she was in the hospital and would be there a few days and wouldnt be in this week. So far she has heard nothing from her company other than "hope you get better" email, no phone calls, no visits, nothing.

I've been told if somebody in a office is hospitalized the staff visits, offers to help the family, and at least stays in touch,

So is this normal for a company to ignore an employee in the hospital or is her staff being a-holes since she is foreign?

thanks

Rutherford · Joined: 31 Jul 2007

Much better than being guilt tripped and pressured to come back to work before you're well.

Jonephant · Joined: 05 Jul 2010 Location: Seoul

My wife works at a small brokerage firm. A couple of months ago one of my wife's colleagues was hit and killed by a car. No one in the office was allowed time off to go to the funeral even though she had been an employee for almost 2 years. Not even the boss went. Talk about cold blooded.

slothrop · Joined: 03 Feb 2003

lemak · Joined: 02 Jan 2011

fosterman · Joined: 16 Nov 2011

fosterman · Joined: 16 Nov 2011

laynamarya · Joined: 01 Jan 2010 Location: Gwangjin-gu

When my husband got pneumonia, he had to be hospitalized for a week. No one from his company visited or called, unless they had a question about one of his clients.

But he didn't mind at all. In fact, he compared hospitalization to free vacation time. Apparently being in lots of pain and forced bedrest are way more fun than fourteen hour days and condescending bosses.

Hugo85 · Joined: 27 Aug 2010

Well they are picking up her part of the work without guilt-tripping her or complaining about it. Unless she is in critical situation, I would say that's fairly decent?

Steelrails · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Location: Earth, Solar System

I remember back home when I got sick all the bros would show up with chicken soup, balloons, and teddy bears for me.

Seriously, for a couple day hospital stay, not many people are going to come. Most won't find out about it until the day before...

"Dude, Eric's in the hospital."
"Is he alright? What's wrong? How bad?"
"Oh nothing big, he'll be out in a couple days."

Do you A) Drop everything, and cancel work or B)Plan to get him drunk as soon as he is strong enough?

Now if it was something major like gunshot wound or serious car accident or something that puts you on life support, then yeah that would be strange. And not giving a phone call or a facebook shoutout would be a little cold, but seriously, what are you expecting everyone to come over and play Patch Adams?

djmarcus · Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

I work at a Korean company with everyone being Korea except for myself (us citizen). The Korean mentality is quite different than that of western thinking. I myself am Korean by blood so I try to see things in both perspective.

From the 4 years that I've worked in a Korean company, I can tell you that people do care, but do not go out of their way to show that they care, unless they are your close personal friend. At work, you are just another worker, doing your 9-5 shift. They respect you to that degree, nothing more nothing less. If someone is sick, they may wish them to get better, but this is the extent. Citizenship has no bearing on the matter. It is just how things are done in a collective minded country.