Culture notes 1 - Korean Work Culture - the harder you make it, the more they work ....

Hi there team,

Well, this little topic for today stems from a rather interesting conversation that a group of us had with our foreign teacher boss last night where we all live.   It was basically about what is considered to be one of the basic tennets of both Korean work culture and Korean culture generally, and I thought it to be really true and interesting, so I have decided to share it with you all here today.  

Our chat basically centred around why Korean people are always going pretty hard at it, generally diligent, and never appearing to argue in times of adversity, and how this all compares with the western attitudes toward work and life in general. 

It basically comes down to this.   In the West, we seem to like to have everything as easy as possible, and we seek to make that a reality at every possible chance we get.   We like to be entertained.   We like to voice what we believe to be our perceived rights.   We like to have everything stated in contract form.   Basically, if its not 100 percent clearly documented and clear for us, we dont seem to adjust too well to it. 

Well team, Korea is different.   Very different.   You see, Korea is like a lot of Asian cultures in that it is based upon Confucian cultural ideals of respect, sacrifice, virtue and right treatment.   Korea is also a strong buddhist country and also partakes in the thought that life indeed is suffering.  

You could say that, as a result of this, Koreans believe that life generally should not be easy.   Koreans tend to percieve that if life is easy, then something must be a little amiss somewhere.   Hence in the workplace, you see them putting in some very long hours, being paid a little less then us foreign counterparts, not being prepared to argue with their boss about matters, and having to show strong levels of respect most of the time. 

Koreans are much more prepared to sacrifice for something higher then themselves than we westerners are.   We tend to have a " Whats in it for us ? " attitude, where as the Koreans seems much more inclined to be prepared to make sacrifices as need be in order to keep things harmonious, even if they do put themselves out of joint in the process.   They can tend to be selfless as a result.  

This can indeed raise some pretty interesting conflicts between Koreans and westerners in the work place, and its something we need to be careful of as westerners I think.   As co-workers in a foreign culture, we need to pay close attention to what that culture requires of us in order to fit in.   Personally I find the Korean way of work is not a bad thing and its a medium that we as westerners can learn alot from.   Maybe we westerners can learn the value and the importance of being able to put something higher then ourselves in a position of priority.    Maybe we can relearn that if we really want something, then we must struggle at times and maybe even have to put ourselves out of joint in order to achieve our goals.   In the workplace, we foreigners get it easy compared to the Koreans.   Its not us that generally has to account for things, yet Korean workers are held accountable and even scolded quite badly at times by their bosses for getting things out of place so to speak.  

People are expected to work hard here, as its believed that people get soft when things get easy.   Hard work is believed to keep people on their toes and in line.   It keeps people stimulated, always careful, and always having to give their best at all times.  

I think we really do need to adapt that to the way we do things in the west.