Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

You go to a government building (or bank). You arrive a few minutes before lunch. Many workers are exiting. One of them says (in Korean), "Come back after lunch."

Has this ever happened to you in Korea?

It is almost like work cannot be done between 11:45 AM and 1:30 PM.

[Real Reality]

Hub of Asia?

[mindmetoo]

Oh well. Poor SOBs have to work until 10 pm at night until their boss leaves... I'll grant them a peaceful lunch hour.

[Wangja]

For those who may not know the Korean office envirnoment, public and private, the lunch break is sacred. As mindmetoo said, more seriously taken than the leaving time.

It runs from 12:01 to 12:59 - no flexibility. Most people bolt down for lunch and are back 10 minutes later to sleep. Some offices switch the lights out and put classical radio 93.1 through the PA to ensure a relaxing snooze.

It all comes back at 12:58 with the company anthem blaring out to remind us all that it's time to work.

yep, give 'em their lunch break.

[jaganath69]

[Wangja]

[Squid]

New Zealand, Auckland (most populous city), lunchtime bank tellers=1, customers=8 million.

You just know not to go.

[Real Reality]

You arrive a few minutes before lunch. (11:45)
Your business will take a few minutes (perhaps, less than a minute).

"Come back after lunch."

[Real Reality]

New Zealand, Auckland = Hub of Asia

[mindmetoo]

I guess in Spain and Latin American nations RR would be upset about the siesta...

[Real Reality]

....intransigent government bureaucrats, inflexible and militant labor organizations, and a shortage of highly educated individuals with strong English-language proficiency and an international, outward-looking mindset.

As the country manager of a major US firm here said, "We have a very hard time finding people who can think beyond Korea, people who can think strategically, in a global sense."

The tale and tail of the mouse, and the bureaucrat
The government adds concrete (literally) assets, enacts new laws and issues edicts, but changes in the legal code must pass through the Korean lens of people and institutions. Laws and regulations, while numerous, are often deliberately vague so as to give the bureaucracy power in defining and implementing them.

It was traditionally said that the salary of a government bureaucrat was like the tail of a mouse, not enough, in itself, to sustain the mouse - or the bureaucrat. The vague and ambiguous nature of rules and regulations encourages monetary compensation for favorable interpretations. The Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development ranks South Korea's civil servants 35th in the world in efficiency; last year China's were ranked 23rd. As the president of the American Chamber of Commerce, Tami Overby, and others have said, the South Korean government often makes it more difficult, not less trying, to do business. While civil servants in other countries usually try to encourage and help corporations, in Korea many will not budge or show flexibility they if there is the slightest suggestion in the rules that might inhibit or restrict giving help.

Koreans also frustrated by red tape
Foreigners are not the only ones who complain about doing business in South Korea. Korea's small-business people are also upset with the government's bias toward the large over the small, especially among those working in import trade.
'Dynamic Korea: Hub of Asia' - or is it?
By David Scofield, Asia Times (March 6, 2004)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/FC06Dg05.html