South Korea, Seoul: Four days work week election issue in South Korea

Jung-A Ahn interrupts the interview at a cafe in an area in Seoul where the country’s media companies gather. Her boss who has been sitting some tables from us has risen from the chair and is on his way back to the office.

-Oh, there my boss goes, I have to hurry back, says Jun-A Ahn.

The incident says some about the hierarchical and pressed work culture in South Korea. Before Jung-A Ahn got a view of her boss, she told about unpaid overtime, about the difficulty of saying no at work and about the stress and unrest in times when everyone with smart phones feels a compulsion to always be available for job issues.

– It creates a lot of anxiety. Many are depressed. A colleague who will quit this week, congratulations to her, had to answer so many work -related questions on the weekends that it became too much. If she did not answer, she was given the boss when she arrived at work on Monday. It is a toxic culture, says Jung-A Ahn, who works with marketing for a media company.

South Korea is One of the countries in the world where people work the most hours a year. The long working days are considered a reason for the country’s rapid economic rise after the end of the Korean War in 1953. In a short time South Korea went from poor to one of the most rich in the world. Until 2018, the legal limit for a work week was 68 hours. It is now 52 hours, including overtime. But many work more than that and even today it happens that people die from exhaustion after too much work, which is called Gwarosa in Korean.

Now maybe a change is going on. In the election campaign before the presidential election on June 3, shortened working hours have sailed as an election issue. Lee Jae-Myung, the representative of the Democratic Party leading in opinion polls, has presented a proposal for a shorter work week with unchanged salary. The goal is for 2030 to only work four days a week.

Jung-A Ahn is enthusiastic about the proposal.

– I have friends in the Netherlands who work 35 hours a week. With the support of the state it works well, not least they feel much better.

Even the conservative The party’s candidate, Kim Moon-so, who is second in the opinion polls, wants to shorten the work week. But not the number of hours worked. He suggests that the Koreans work an hour extra Monday-Thursday and just half the day on Fridays. Jun-A shakes his head at that proposal.

– It won’t change anything at all. Those who really need less workload already work today from nine in the morning to nine in the evening every day. For them, there will be no change.

South Korea’s presidential election takes place prematurely after Yoon Suk-Yeol’s dramatic decision to introduce war laws in the country at the end of last year. The laws were lifted after only six hours but had fateful consequences for yoon as forced to resign after being convicted of a violation of the national law. Yoon seems to have completely lost contact with the people. It does not only apply to the laws of war, which triggered Immediate protests. During his time in power, a proposal was made to increase working hours to 68 hours a week. It had to be withdrawn after the younger generation hit back.

They already work more than they really can, without any extra payment. 29-year-old Aron Jung, who is an analyst at a company that gives credit ratings, says that during May-June, he is a stressed period, averages 13-15 hours of working days. Formally, he could receive overtime compensation. But he never reports in any overtime.

– It’s part of the work culture. As a relatively new employee, you look at what the more experienced do, and almost no one reports overtime. If I were to do so, the risk is that I will receive worse grades at the annual evaluation. They judge a lot according to how much you cost as an employee.

He is too busy on The job for hearing the proposals for shorter working hours from the presidential candidates. But for him, it is more important with more flexibility in working life. Today he is expected to appear in the office from 9.30-17.30 (at least) every day. At least one day a week he thinks he should be allowed to work from home. Such a reform believes he would help solve one of South Korea’s most screaming problems – that so few children are born. South Korea’s birth rates are lowest in the world, 0.7 per woman, and the country’s economy is threatened by an aging population.

– We need to create a society where more people want to have children. It is partly about the fact that it is so expensive today to obtain housing and be able to afford to have children. But I also think a more flexible working life that gives you the opportunity to be home with your child can help.

South Korean companies is today pressed by rapidly growing Chinese companies and the economy has lost momentum. Instead of new employment, companies are pressing the employees to the utmost. Jung-A Ahn says that there are many tricks to work overtime without being seen in the company’s statistics. Where she works, the company locks the computer after the employee has worked the time within the law.

– But as the clock approaches six, you can go in and change, you can write that you started working at 11am, even though you started at nine, and work for two more hours.

In addition, you can work without a computer. She often responds to job -related messages late at night on mobile. And she never reports overtime.

– The manager must approve overtime, but it looks bad if they have too much overtime. At the same time, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. So people work instead from their mobile phone or from their private computers.

Not to respond to She does not see job messages outside working hours as an option.

– There are so many people waiting for answers in the second stage. I don’t want to be a bottleneck. It would give me a bad conscience.

In the hierarchical South Korea, a change must come from the top, she says. Therefore, she thinks it is good if politicians legislate for shorter working hours. But when I ask her how much holiday she has, it turns out that, even though she has a legal right to take out at least twelve days a year, she almost never takes time off.

– There are too many things that happen and I feel for my colleagues who have to work more if I am gone.

Some larger companies and authorities already have more flexible working hours and, for example, offer toddler parents shorter work weeks. Rho Daeyong, an analyst at a state institution for working life issues, works at 9-19 Monday to Thursday and may go at lunch on Fridays. Here, those who want to come in at 11 in the morning, or work from home. Flexibility is what he appreciates most.

– That’s the reason I’m left at my job. Government institutions often have lower wages and are outside the big city. But the benefits are outweighing. I can do cases like going to the bank on Fridays.