"Kyle, please take a rest."
This is a phrase that has been told to me many times by various teachers at my school. Whether its a cancelled class, a day that I don't have to come to school, or even a holiday, these four words are the words of both relief and excitement for a slightly easier work day.
However, I seem to be one of the only ones living up to these words. Due to my work contract, I only am needed to work 20 to 24 hours a week. I do not have to work on the weekends, I have every major holiday off and I get a larger amount of time off in the summer and winter months.
The other teachers at me school are not so lucky.
Often I see and hear about teachers working to 8 or even 10 PM with few breaks. They are often required to do massive amounts of work both in and out of school and are often asked to come into work even on the weekend, all with no extra pay or incentives. They do it because it is what the culture has told them to do. Hard work is expected, it is part of working in Korea.
At first I wasn't sure how I felt about these long work hours. I often felt sorry for my teachers as they would lament the lack of time to go visit the places they wanted to visit and see the people they wanted to see. It seemed that while I had than enough free time to do what I wanted, my fellow teachers were left with nothing but things to do.
However, I have asked my teachers what exactly they do the entire time they have to spend at school. I was curious and wanted to know exactly they spent time doing for hours on end.
The answers surprised me.
"Well not much, its not a lot of work, just having to stay late," one teacher told me.
"I mostly just have to monitor," said another teacher. "Sometimes, I feel like I am at my school doing nothing worthwhile."
Other teachers have more work to do in a much smaller time frame.
A few days later, I was spending time with my girlfriend at a restaurant. It was a national holiday that day meaning most Korean people had the day off. When asked what her parents would do with a day of no work, she replied that they would do nothing. Sleeping, watching TV and eating were the only plans to celebrate their day off.
"Koreans, especially older generation Koreans don't really know how to use their days off from work. They just aren't used to days where they don't have to work," she said.
The thoughts on Korean work habits and break time came to mind after reading a recent article in the Korea Times. This article was an opinion piece on Korean work habits and how effective they were. In an attempt not to spoil the entire article, the numbers showed that despite being one of the hardest working countries in the world, Korea only ranks 28th in overall work efficiency.
This is due to much of long work day being spent doing "busy work" to look good for the boss and make it appear that they are always busy when in truth, this work is not efficient or effective, more or less wasting the time of everyone involved.
I'm not here to say which way or getting a job done or working is better, there are lots of cultural aspects and backgrounds that go far beyond what my short read of the article would justify. However it is something interesting to think about. Does having more time at work and less free time hurt or hinder work progress? Is this something Korea can change? Do they want to change?
I don't have answers, and even a opinion would be half-baked at best. For now, I can only think about the long hours my co workers put in, and realize my luck ability to participate in the Korean work environment, while still being an outsider looking in.
The original article from Korea Times
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