Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

Holy... this girl I am seeing worked 17 hours in a row last night from 8:30 am until 1:10am!! Also she was slightly hung over in the morning before starting this incredibly long day... She works for Hyundae as an auditor for their construction (of huge buildings) and apparently this is becoming the norm for her... huge work days... where she can hardly get only 7 hours in the day where she is not working, and can only sleep... they even make her work Friday and Saturday night going on business trips to Daejon...

How can Koreans possibly put in these kinds of insane hours!? Shouldn't it be illegal? Do you know of any people who work these horrible hours? I can hardly believe it, but this is after all, Korea.

[PGF]

Yes. I used to work hours like that here in the states. Anytime there was a big trial coming up or discovery for trial I would put in 12 up 20 hour days. One year I worked 52 weekends in a row!

Needless to say, I burnt out and changed jobs to a 9-5. The 9-5 was just boring so I changed careers.

Anyway, I know lots of people who put in insane hours here in the states. Most professionals I know work 10-12 hours/ day on a regular basis.

It's fairly typical, I think.

[JongnoGuru]

I've done it. I've done it voluntarily and at the end of a company bayonet. Of course, it's much easier when you're working for yourself and there's a big, fat, juicy "won sign" at the finish line.

Auditors? Sure I can believe that. That's the nature of the work. Hyundai? I can double-believe that. That's a given. Though they're stupid to hire women to work those kinds of hours.

[Nemo]

The big question is, how efficient were those 17 long hours?

[JongnoGuru]

[theatrelily]

Used to work those long hours all the time...I was managing two departments in a medium-sized hotel and working as an emergency night audit person to help out a fellow manager.

I would work my two departments during the day and then hop onto night audit 3 nights a week on average (emergency ended up being not-so-emergency).

Got tired of it. At one point is seemed useless to even bother going home...there were a few days when I would just have all my meals at the hotel and slip into an empty room for a few hours before starting the next round....

[xtchr]

[Paddycakes]

This is standard in IT.

However, your brain starts to get tired and you make mistakes. It gets counter productive after a while.

[JongnoGuru]

[rawiri]

Woop de woo man. whats the big deal sitting on your butt punching numbers or whatever? At sixteen my first job was with a catering company on saturdays from 9am prepping and cleaning to 3am some shifts. I've also worked 14-18 hour days in hulls of fishing boats unloading frozen boxes of fish.

Tell her to suck it up, is working hard a novel concept for you or something?

[jaganath69]

Yeah, ditto above, spent a few months lumping 20 kg bags of carrots around a frozen warehouse in Norfolk 16-18 hours at a stretch. Also worked at a meatworks in Somerset where it was my job to carry quarter carcasses from one fridge to another, some of those suckers topping 100kgs. XMas time rush shifts would often go up to 17 hours.

[JongnoGuru]

[MissSeoul]

My sister was a school teacher in korea,
now she is doing her own business in States, works 12 hours a day 6 days a week, at least it seem pay off that she now have 13 employees.
This is not just her story, most Korean in States work like that, some even longer hours, something like 16 hours a day 7 days a week...

[periwinkle]

Guru, your job is quite mysterious. Can you give us a hint of exactly what you do? Sales, PR, advertising, legal dept., finance....?????

[denistron]

Hey JongnoGuru you are weird.