The headquarters of Netmarble, one among South Korea’s main cell sport producers, was referred to as the “lighthouse of Gurodong”, the commercial district in western Seoul, as a result of its engineers usually stayed up all night time to fulfill the deadline for sport launches.
However Netmarble’s tense work setting got here beneath the highlight following a collection of employee deaths in 2016, sparking public criticism of so-called “crunch mode” — when builders within the IT business put in lengthy durations of additional time to complete a venture.
And Netmarble was not alone. Naver, South Korea’s largest search engine, got here beneath hearth in 2021, when a developer in his forties died by suicide, leaving a be aware indicating excessive stress from relentless additional time and office bullying.
Now, although, after these instances uncovered obvious failures to care for workers’ psychological well being, a cultural change is afoot in Asia’s fourth-largest financial system — albeit slowly. South Korea’s authorities has promised to overtake the nation’s psychological well being system, whereas massive corporations are offering psychological well being programmes for his or her employees.
“Following the tragic incidents in 2016, we’ve got been actively working over the previous eight years to encourage a more healthy work-life steadiness for our staff,” says Seijin Park, Netmarble’s spokesperson.
The corporate has eradicated the so-called “blanket wage system”, beneath which staff had been pressured to do additional time totally free. It has additionally arrange an on-site healthcare centre staffed with skilled counsellors.
Naver, in the meantime, has established an inner human rights committee and says it repeatedly assesses its company tradition. It additionally runs a counselling centre for workers and gives a free annual psychological well being check-up.
“Staff’ [personal] development and wellbeing are immediately associated to company competitiveness,” Naver says. “We try to make sure that our staff can exert their finest means of their finest situation.”
Consultants say Korea’s wider work setting has improved because the nation restricted the utmost working week to 52 hours in 2018 and enacted a legislation in 2019 to crack down on office bullying.
“Productiveness has grow to be far more essential for Korean corporations because the work hours get shorter,” says Jeon Sang-won, who heads a office psychological well being institute at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul. “Massive IT corporations are actively investing in staff’ psychological care as they’re more and more conscious of the seriousness of presenteeism in addition to absenteeism.”
Nonetheless, many staff nonetheless complain of frequent additional time and a hierarchical company tradition. The nation has among the many longest working hours within the OECD, and accusations of bullying proceed because of the inflexible, top-down administration type.
“I’ve to work additional time nearly on daily basis when it will get busy,” says a 34-year-old workplace employee in one among Samsung’s items. “I’m exhausted due to excessive efficiency strain. I actually needed to stop when an govt not too long ago cursed at me.”
Like many different massive Korean corporations, Samsung — whose electronics subsidiary is ranked forty ninth on the Greatest Employers Asia-Pacific listing — gives free psychological well being counselling.
The worker says he by no means used this due to fears that the knowledge might be shared by his managers, however the firm insists that the service is strictly confidential.
Samsung says it abides by authorized working hours and helps its staff’ work-life steadiness. It additionally runs varied programmes for his or her psychological well being and offers firmly with any reported verbal abuse.
Jeon estimates that 60 per cent of Korean staff’ occupational stress comes from relationship battle, and attributes it to the worth placed on group work in Confucian tradition.
“They endure from every kind of battle stemming from generational, gender and rank variations,” he says. “Particularly, younger staff are pissed off with the nation’s company tradition lagging behind generational change, whereas working moms present greater occupational stress resulting from prevalent gender discrimination.”
DH Kim, a communications supervisor at one of many nation’s largest conglomerates, not too long ago acquired exterior counselling for insomnia due to her heavy workload and battle along with her colleagues.
“It’s so tense to regulate to the collective tradition,” she says. “For instance, it’s a must to attend an organization dinner even should you don’t need to.”
Like Kim, many Koreans stay sad regardless of the nation’s quick financial development. South Korea’s suicide fee, at 27.3 per 100,000 folks final yr, is the very best within the OECD. And, in accordance with the Ministry of Well being and Welfare, the variety of South Koreans searching for therapy for psychological sickness elevated from 3.2mm in 2017 to 4.3mn in 2022 — a 35 per cent rise.
Final yr, President Yoon Suk Yeol arrange a committee to supervise new psychological well being initiatives. He additionally promised to supply free counselling providers for 1mn folks and to extend the variety of psychological healthcare services by the point his time period ends in 2027.
However Jay Kwon, a senior counsellor at MindGym, which supplies company wellbeing providers, says corporations are nonetheless too centered on efficiency to provide psychological well being the eye it deserves.
“Staff in cutting-edge industries are extra harassed due to stronger efficiency strain, however these corporations are inclined to care extra about development and income than their staff’ psychological wellbeing,” he observes.
Jeon believes Korean corporations must make a scientific effort to overtake poisonous cultures — however reckons most see cash spent on standard administration consultancy and services as a greater technique to enhance productiveness than investments in psychological well being.
“Most prime managers nonetheless shun consulting on company tradition as a result of they don’t need to reveal the darkish aspect of their firm,” he says.
Nonetheless, he provides: “When a fish struggles to breathe, you might want to change the water within the fish tank.”
