The Korean drama 미생 ("Misaeng" - Incomplete Life) has been a hit among office workers in South Korea because it depicts the Korean work culture, which is significantly different from the Western culture. If you want to work in South Korea, you should consider the following work culture trends:

A hierarchical work culture

Koreans place a high value on hierarchy, and most Korean businesses operate on a top-down model. This was influenced by patriarchal Confucian beliefs, Japanese values during the colonial period in the early twentieth century, and authoritarian administrations in the 1960s and 1970s. Staff are supposed to be submissive and not question their superiors. Saying "no" to a superior is considered disrespectful.

Because the younger generation, which has been exposed to more Western influences, is more outspoken than the older generation yet is unable to speak freely in the workplace, "Blind" (an anonymous gossip app created in 2013) has grown in popularity among younger generation workers in their 20s and 30s. People can use this app to freely discuss their supervisors, colleagues, work-related stress, pay, and even labour unions.

The gender gap still exists.

While the status of women in Korean culture has improved significantly in recent years, in 2013, there was still a 39% gender pay gap, the biggest in the OECD, and women occupied just around 10% of senior executive positions. This could be due in part to the fact that it is usual for women to leave their employment after marrying or having a kid.

회식 ("Hoesik" - meetings with coworkers).

While there are lunch gatherings with coworkers because people are busy working during the day, gatherings with coworkers are usually in the form of dinner gatherings with heavy drinking and visits to karaoke bars, with 2 or 3 rounds of drinking at different places before everyone can go home, usually around 2-3 a.m. People may need to return to the office as early as 6 a.m. the next day. Lower-level employees are expected to serve and amuse their superiors during hoesik, and poor behavior may hurt their relationships with their superiors as well as their performance reports.

There have been recent changes in hoesik culture. As the younger generation of workers is less likely to attend hoesik, several companies are beginning to embrace milder forms of meetings in which drinking is not excessive. Furthermore, some businesses would wish to avoid excessive drinking, which could impair work efficiency the next day. To prevent excessive drinking, Samsung is believed to have instituted a "1-1-9" rule, which entails one round, one type of alcohol, and a finish time of 9 p.m.

Long working hours.

In South Korea, employees are expected to work overtime, with work hours ranging from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. In 2013, the average Korean worked 2,163 hours, which was 1.3 times the OECD average and ranked second behind Mexico, which ranked first with 2,237 hours among OECD countries

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labour's 2014 survey, 43.65% of employees worked at least one hour of overtime every day. The reasons for overtime included "it was considered natural" (25.8%), "low work efficiency during work hours" (20.9%), and "pressure from senior workers" (9.4%). On the other side, approximately 30% of employees failed to use half of their allotted leave, citing "mindful of their bosses" (33.2%) and "wary of a negative performance assessment" (21.9%). Burnout was experienced by almost 70% of the workforce.

Foreign employees in South Korea appear to face the same scenario. According to the "2014 Foreign Employment Survey Results" by Statistics Korea, as of May 2014, more than half of foreign employees work more than 50 hours a week.

In order to increase work efficiency, the Seoul Metropolitan Government allowed their employees to take naps for up to an hour between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. in lounges, conference rooms, and other places beginning in August 2014, on the condition that they submit an application to their supervisors in the morning and make up for the nap hour by arriving to work earlier at 8 a.m. or leaving the office later at 7 p.m. .

If you want to work in South Korea, be prepared to deal with the Korean work culture to prevent culture shock.

Happy working! 🙂

Reference: koreancultureblog.com