https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/04/asia/korea-working-hours-intl/index.html
Chae soo-hong, husband to Park Hyun-suk, died of overworking in South Korea. His job was the regulation of the production of a food supply company. Weekdays he'd travel to the factories to look over production, and Saturdays he did paperwork in the main office. Even when he would come home he would have to call factory employees often, and continuously worked. When he was free at home he would sleep. He went to work one day and collapsed on the floor. He's one of hundreds who die from overworking in South Korea yearly. Many South Korean citizens don't even realize they are being overworked, because the societal view that working long hours equates to being successful and doing a good day of work. One company, KT, Korean Telecom, has started to make an announcement telling workers to finish up work and go home at a normal time. A new law restricting a limit on working more than 52 hours a week has caused the creation of more than 43,000 jobs since companies must add more jobs to compensate the lesser work load for each worker. The hope is the climate will continue to improve, and South Koreans won't be so overworked.
Previously I had no idea that South Koreans actually work more hours than Americans. It makes me question whether Americans are also blind to the fact that we also overwork our citizens. It makes me sad to think that you're forced to work to make a living, but you don't realized that that life you're striving for comes from dying to complete a job. It's quite scary honestly. On a lesser scale, this can be compared to the concentration camps during WWII. Inside the camps, Jews, artists, teachers, families and millions of others created weapons and war materials for Hitler's miltia, on barely any food or sleep. Millions starved to death, were overworked, or were beat to death. South Koreans aren't being starved, but they are being deprived of down time, committed so much to work they are killing themselves, whether or not they know it.
i think this is one of the many stories that we dont learn about in our daily lives that is actually killing people, sweat shops exist and can be so harmful for the people working in them. don't buy from companies that use slaves and sweat shops people !!!
ReplyDeleteIt’s so sad that this is still happening all around the world and taking so many lives. I think we need to figure out a way to stop this type of stuff from happening to other people ~ Stephannie Hernandez
ReplyDeleteAs I read your post, all I could think about was
ReplyDeletehow exhausted I am all the time, and how much worse it must be for those workers. Also, this may sound irrelevant, but this reminds me of when Ms. Cotie was telling us that our generation over-stresses and overworks. If our generation doesn't change that, then we're gonna be the ones literally working ourselves to death. As a society, we need to change this mindset. Although work is good, mental and physical health, family, and happiness are just as important.
The idea of implementing a law that limits hours is really smart for them to do. It knocks out the 2 main issues; overworking and lack of jobs.
ReplyDeleteGRAYSON DECKER