海角大神

South Korea鈥檚 鈥渘ut rage鈥� scandal has unleashed long-simmering public resentment over the makeup of family-run conglomerates here.

Now the saga 鈥� where the daughter of Korean Air's chairman turned around a taxiing aircraft after being served bagged nuts in first class 鈥� is casting a light on the country鈥檚 relentless work culture. New revelations show the chief flight attendant who oversaw the nuts presentation was ordered to work shifts lasting up to 18 hours.

Testifying at the trial of the daughter, Cho Hyun-ah, who at the time was a Korean Air vice president, flight attendant Park Chang-jin said he was assigned a 鈥渨ork schedule from hell鈥� after the incident that received international press attention. Ms. Cho聽potentially faces three years in prison if convicted of assault and aviation-safety related charges.聽聽

Korean Air denies that it sought to punish Mr. Park. It聽told a local newspaper that the flight attendant was not being victimized and that his work schedule was similar to other employees in his position.

Mr. Park鈥檚 testimony resonates strongly in a society with some of the longest work hours in the world, undergirding a work culture that has seen South Korea rise from poverty in the 1960s to the top ranks of world economies.聽

According to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Koreans on average work 47 days more days a year, about a month and a half, than their American peers.聽

Yet as Korea punches above its weight as a economic force after decades of a work ethic designed to help it surpass its neighbors, and former peer North Korea, a new round of grumbling about over-work and work place policies is starting to emerge.聽

No time for hobbies

Son Hye-jin, a sales representative at a clothing export firm in Seoul, for example, often feels she has no life outside the office. She begins work at聽8 am, and doesn鈥檛聽finish until 7 or聽8 at night.聽Weekends are no guarantee of relief, as work often extends to Saturdays.

鈥淚f I had some free time, I think I would like to learn this or that, or take up a hobby, but it鈥檚 impossible because I don鈥檛 know how much overtime I will have to do,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e no choice but to work, right?鈥�

Small and medium-sized firms are notorious for pushing employees to work schedules at odds with labor laws that are supposed to strictly regulate work hours and pay.聽

As an employee at a mid-sized IT firm, 24-year-old Lee Eun-woo says she often worked for up to 17 hours to please her boss.聽鈥淚 was depressed. I really wanted to quit my job, but it was impossible because it is extremely hard to find a job in Korea these days.鈥�

Like Son and many others, Lee wasn鈥檛 compensated for the mountains of work that extended outside her official workday of聽9 to 6 and that she was expected to handle.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the reality at most small and medium companies. In our country, the places that actually give you money for overtime are large companies. At other small companies, it鈥檚 really hard to get.鈥�

Social gatherings after hours

The rigors of work don鈥檛 end in the office. Employees often must attend afterwork dinners that turn into drinking sessions, called 鈥渉oesik.鈥� While ostensibly set up to relieve work pressure and encourage bonding, such gatherings are often stressful, especially for women because of hierarchical norms.聽

鈥淚n the 鈥榟oesik鈥� culture, as a woman, the boss forces you to drink and tells you to show off your 鈥榓egyo,鈥� says Lee, referring to a Korean expression for a type of affected cuteness prized in women.

At one such drink-fueled outing, Lee says she witnessed her former boss hit a subordinate for no apparent reason. As a lower-ranking employee, he had no choice but to accept his boss鈥檚 abuse, she says.

Korea鈥檚 demanding work culture largely stems from its rapid industrialization after the Korean War, according to Park Tae-gyun, a history professor at Korea University in Seoul. Park Chung-hee, a dictator who ruled for 17 years from the early 1960s, and is widely seen as the father of the country鈥檚 modernization, used South Koreans鈥� insecurities toward regional rivals like Japan, the former colonial power, to implement an intensive and regimented work culture.聽

鈥淎ctually, South Korea at that time was poorer than North Korea, so people believed that we should catch up with North Korea, and that was achieved in the early 1970s,鈥� Prof. Park says, adding that a similar mentality pushed people to strive to catch up with Japan.

A culture of striving continues to guide society, he says.

鈥淓very day, most parents say to their sons or daughters that, first of all, if they are students, 鈥榮tudy hard鈥� -- if they are more than 20, 鈥榩lease work hard.鈥� So that鈥檚 kind of Koreans鈥� habit still. They believe working hard is a way to live better.鈥�

Signs of change

Albeit slowly, conditions are changing, as well as expectations. While still near the top of the global rankings, South Koreans today on average work about 350 fewer hours a year than they did in 2000.

Legislation to abolish the six-day work week at many companies came into effect in 2004. Successive governments have recognized the need to reduce work hours, for both economic and social reasons, although some businesses, as well as workers who want overtime pay, have opposed such moves.聽

Park says the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which led to unprecedented mass layoffs, effectively upended many Koreans' expectations of a job for life. Some began to prize their leisure time and develop interests outside the workplace.聽

But for some Koreans, change can鈥檛 come fast enough. Fed up with negative experiences of the workplace and job market in her country, Lee moved to San Francisco in July to study English and plans to pursue a career in software development abroad.聽

鈥淜orean society is rampant with a culture of poor workplaces,鈥� she says.聽