Korean Job Discussion Forums

[deetah]

Do we get "Tree Day" off from work in April this year?

[denverdeath]

Sorry, but no holidays in April.

[mindmetoo]

Tree Planting Day was jettisoned because of the exceedingly gradual move to a 5 day work week. I think Korean business wanted Tree Planting Day and Children's Day off the stat books but the government only relented on Tree Planting Day. It seems a nudge unfair. I think currently only employees of very large companies (Samsung, LG, etc) enjoy the 5 day work week. So basically the people who are best off in Korea get an extra day off a week and the rest of the population gets screwed out of one holiday a year.

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[weatherman]

All public and private companies over 300 employees have 5 day work weeks now, but law. Arbor is gone this year, and Constitution Day on July 17 will also be removed in 2008. All public schools have two Saturdays off a month.

[Zenpickle]

[mindmetoo]

[VanIslander]

A reminder to all: Thursday, April 5th is NOT a holiday this year either.

My mobile phone has it listed in red as a stat holiday but it's a couple of years out of date, last year it being nixed. It'd slipped my mind.

I found out when booking a flight that day to Jeju for the long weekend (don't work Fridays so would've had a 4-dayer)

[happeningthang]

I thought it was pointed that the last Arbor Day saw tree planting smokers starting bushfires that killed more trees than were planted. Now, no more Arbor Day. Coincidence??

[bixlerscott]

[JohnTeacher]

The Arbor Day tree planting holiday was abandoned after some careless smokers started a huge fire on Saroksan, which burnt a vast area of land and subsequently destroyed a very old and celebrated monastery at Noksan Beach. Could've been worse though....people could have died.....

[schwa]

The govt eliminated Tree Day (& Constitution Day) as statutory holidays because with expanding weekends it was felt there were too many nonproductive days in a calendar year.

The fire at Naksan was started by a careless smoker (a butt flicked from a car) but had nothing to do with dropping the holiday. In fact there used to be two Tree Days a year with the second one in the fall. I think they served pretty well to focus Koreans on reforestation but in time became superfluous.

The govt hasnt moved any holidays to saturdays -- thats just luck of the calendar.

Most public schools now observe two-day weekends twice a month, with plans to eliminate saturday halfdays altogether in another couple years.

[bixlerscott]

Yikes, so if you go teach in a public school, your teaching a half day on 2 Saturdays a month? Thats a very constricting schedule that would not allow you much time off, except you still get free time after school each day. Of course, if they gave you Monday off instead of Saturday, that can work out just fine too. I hear many public school English teachers do get a Wednesday or Thursday off. I know it's more than enough for employed people of any sort to be held back from living thier lives for 5 days a week. 6 is just dumb, 7 would be crazy. I worked both 6 and 7 day weeks in the military and hated that and never want to go back to that. I hope Korea stops doing Saturday school soon, that is just too much for the teachers and students alike. I see the kids in suits on Saturday afternoons and just feel for them, I think it's a bit much on them. I would hate my hagwon and teaching job if they did that to us.

[Smee]

[dogshed]