[hnzix]

The article isn't saying the "prison retreat" thing is common, it's a meta commentary on the stress of Korean corporate life.

I have seen a question on HN about Japanese "Black Companies" before, and I believe patio11 said that they were an actual thing. So I'm not surprised a similar culture of overwork exists in South Korea.

(My only direct experience of South Koreans is that they always kick my ass at online games).

[patio11]

Black Companies [0] are a thing, but the discourse of Black Companies mostly serves to protect the mainline of Japanese work culture from the degree of criticism it deserves.

[0] A company so abusive of workers that it literally disgusts Japanese salarymen. Common elements include withholding pay, withholding pay for large amounts of mandatory overtime, ordering overtime in quantities sufficient to cause death by exhaustion, physical violence against staff, harassment of staff by management in a fashion far surpassing social norms, etc.