The New Korea: An Inside Look at South Korea's Economic Rise

176

The Culture of Business:

What It’s Like to Work

and Play in Korea

SUNG-HEE WORKS in a cramped offi ce on the tenth fl oor of an

offi ce building located along a busy, commercial thoroughfare in

Gangnam, an affl uent neighborhood of Seoul. At her company, an

English- language school with 100 employees, the twenty- nine- year-

old woman teaches a variety of English classes and helps prepare

adults for college entrance tests.

For Sung- hee and her colleagues, the workday always starts by

8:40 a.m. That’s when she must be seated at her desk, even though

her actual start time is 9 a.m. If she comes in even fi ve minutes late,

two of her bosses lose ...