employment
38810
Government Roasts Paris Baguette for Half-Baked Employment Practices
Going by its name, you probably wouldn’t guess that Paris Baguette’s company history begins in the poverty-stricken Korea of 1945. In a video on its website, South Korea’s SPC Group, parent company of the ubiquitous bakery chain, claims that everything started with a bakery in what is
Non-Korean White-Collar Jobs Still Limited to Language Skills
Before entering the Job Fair for Foreign Residents in 2017, each foreigner filled out a form and was outfitted with a lanyard that displayed a version of their name written in the Korean Hangeul script, with their country of origin in a smaller font below. Few events can rival job
The "Mad Bitches" of S. Korea's Irregular Workforce Fight Back
For sixteen years, Pak Geum-ja was a cafeteria worker at a public school in Suncheon, South Korea. She worked next to appliances that made so much noise that she began to lose her sense of hearing. Her job wore her down so much that her mouth was constantly full of
Dear Customer, I Love You: Emotional Labor at South Korean Call Centers
One call center is bringing back its old greeting: “Dear customer, I love you.” The needlessly romantic phrase appeared in mid 2006, but was put to an end in little more than two years after accusations that forcing call center workers to address callers “with love” constituted “emotional
Misfortunes of South Korean Security Guards
A few years ago, I saw a notice up in the elevator of my apartment in Seoul. It was about replacing security guards — at least fifty in all seven buildings of the compound — with machines. The resident representative announced that a “new security system” would curtail management expenses.
Fines Won’t Change Discrimination in Job Search
A fresh graduate from university, looking to land his or her first full-time job, has a number of steps to go through. Scouring job boards for openings, painstakingly editing and re-editing her resume, and, of course, going to a studio for a professional profile photo to attach to the application
Weekly Brief: August 22nd - August 28th
Migrant fishermen vulnerable to abuse In news that everyone in South Korea should know but very few people hear about, the 22,000 migrant workers in South Korea’s fishing industry face rampant abuse, including unfair wages, exploitation, verbal abuse and physical abuse, in some cases amounting to forced labour
Job Search
I am now trapped in a tight, borrowed business suit. My hair is tamed into a tidy ponytail. I ditched red lipstick in order to look modest. Such a stereotypical job interviewee. Anyone could tell what I am up to. Today’s destination is a satellite city in Gyeonggi-do. The
Preponderance of Workers
When I’m in South Korea what always surprises me is the number of employees in department store food corners, usually women middle-aged or older. They welcome customers, let them taste dumplings, tofu and so on. It almost seems there is one person for each shelf of goods. I don’
Inside One of South Korea's So-Called Global Firms
From Wikipedia I have been the sole foreign employee at a vaunted South Korean technology firm for about 15 months. Given my company’s fame, people often want to know what that’s like and at times the simplest answer I can give them is this: It’s been as
Disposable Workers of Hyper-Capitalist Korea
A call-center manager beats her subordinates with an umbrella at an office in Jongno, Seoul. She slaps them in the face over and over. She pushes them around till they cry. All for not selling enough magazine subscriptions. As a contributor to the publication of the International Trade Union Confederation,