Dear MEL Topic Readers
South Koreans are working themselves to death. Can they get their lives back?
It seems that necessity to work hard to rebuild the country became a custom and obsession in South Kora. The nation underwent the deadly and destructive three-year-war until 1953. People had no choice but to work whatever it took to put food on the table. And men seem to have been expected to do the job for their families and by the employers ever since. Workplaces are understaffed, workers are overburdened, and organizations are mismanaged. Korean workers worked much longer hours than other OECD member states. As a result, the numbers of deaths by overwork went so high that a word dedicated to such death was created, gwarosa.
Good news is that a new regulation will be put into effect next year to limit weekly working hours to 40 from 68. That’ll make significant changes to workplaces, workers and their families if it is enforced. The problem is that the law applies only to large companies that employ 300 or more workers, at least for a while.
Read the article and learn what working could mean in different cultures
No comments:
Post a Comment