[marcodiego]

I worked for a giant Korean company (offshore, third party outsource). Their view of workers right is very different from "the west". It was said, among my colleagues at the time, that in our country their main headquarters had a law office exclusively to handle abuse cases quickly. I heard stories of Korean lifting their voices and a case where the chair of a programmer was kicked by a Korean manager because he let a bug pass.

AFAIK, this is actually part of their culture. They are very strict about hierarchy and it is seen as a kind of honor that is ingrained even in their language. There's even a case where this resulted in an air disaster.

I really hope that the current trend of culture interchange between Korea an "the west" may influence both societies for the better.

[moandcompany]

Some aspects of hierarchy-based power dynamics (i.e. bullying and abuse) have been captured into a relatively new, and unique Korean word, "Gapjil" (갑질).

Gapjil (Korean: 갑질) is an expression referring to an arrogant and authoritarian attitude or actions of people in South Korea who have positions of power over others. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapjil)

Gapjil is typically used to describe the abusive dynamics of one person above another in a hierarchy but has also been extended to describing the power abuse dynamics of large businesses interacting with smaller ones (e.g. small suppliers).

As you mentioned, Korean language and society reflects a "high-context" culture where language itself uses and encodes social hierarchy position through the use of "honorifics," speaking to or addressing to people above by their title/rank or "treatment."

"Over 80% of public perceive 'gapjil' problem as serious: survey" (2021) https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210113000769

The practice was made illegal in South Korea (2019) under its Labor Standard Act (LSA), but the effectiveness of that law has been scrutinized quite a bit, as many surveyed state it remains highly prevalent in the workplace:

(Law fails to protect Koreans from workplace bullying) https://asiatimes.com/2020/01/south-korea-fails-to-stamp-out...

[palad1n]

Really? In 2019? This is the first I've heard of it, and I've been working here since 2017. I have no notion that this problem has been actually addressed anywhere.

[alephnerd]

I'd be pessimistic about a cultural change - look at what happened to the Doctor's strike.

The only option is to become an expat and end up perpetuating the same traumas, as Pinoy, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Indonesian, etc employees of Korean companies in their countries can attest to.

Korean work culture is itself a reflection of Japanese work culture back when SK was Japan's version of Mexico before the 2010s.

[lifthrasiir]

Doctor's strike is much more complicated than the outsider view, because the Korean Medical Association had a very conservative view for the number of seats anyway. It is true that residents are indeed overworking, but that's more like 80 hours per week, not 100 as you have suggested; and established average doctors work even much less---48.1 hours per week in 2020. Resident doctors take such burden because they'll eventually get out of resident positions and most of them will enjoy the occupational leisure, which made doctors one of the most sought occuptations for the current Korean generation.

The imbalance in medical accessibility and quality for urban vs. suburban areas was well known for decades so that the reform itself was very much desired, but the current government did it so ineffectively that they just had to give up after the strike.

[makapuf]

Can you tell us what happened to the Doctors strike ?

[alephnerd]

When Korean Legislative Elections were around the corner in early 2024, the incumbent govenenent announced an increase in the number of seats at medical programs in SK as a populist Hail Mary.

Yet they did NOT increase the number of resident positions and left reimbursement rates at the same level as almost a decade ago. Also, the average doctor in SK works 100 hours a week instead of 60 like in the US.

This meant that both junior and senior doctors ended up having to work more (they'd need to increase the number of medical students per training doctor post-degree) while still earning their existing salary and needing to pay off college loans (which in Korea are state school level despite incomes being a fraction of the US).

Instead of negotiating with doctors, the government decided to instead revoke striking doctor's medical licenses.

There is now a significant brain drain as Korean doctors look to immigrate to Japan or the US.

And this is how a strike was resolved against white collar workers.

Blue collar unskilled workers have even less leverage, because you can always import a "Trainee" from Vietnam, Phillipines, Indonesia, Nepal, etc for a pittance.

[pastage]

They seem to have dropped the plan to suspend licenses, but that is still a scary move.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

[sunrisetiger]

Being a doctor in Japan has too many requirements and has a strong network tied to schools with the "good old boys".

If they have English skills, many aim for America and other Anglophone nations. But ironically, the American Medical Association pushed for caps on schools and residencies like their Korean counterparts and it was rather humorous seeing trainee doctors complaining about this.

[rasz]

> There's even a case where this resulted in an air disaster

Lets not forget Sewol disaster 'recovery efforts' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_A8dq2fA5o https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-sinking-of-the-... where no rescue was even attempted before letting President decide (establishing video feed to command center).