People walk through Gwanghwamun Station in central Seoul on June 25, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Roughly half of the labor force in South Korea self-identify as worhaholics, a survey showed Monday.
Online job search portal JobKorea conducted a survey of 855 workers, 48.5 percent of whom regarded themselves as workaholics.
Among those claiming to be workaholics, 52.5 percent said they had no choice but to become one since there was so much work to do.
Another 47.5 percent said they “prefer to work than rest.”
One-third of workaholics said they work overtime at least three days a week, while 20.5 percent said they do overtime twice a week, and 10.4 percent said they work overtime four or five days a week.
As for the length of overtime, 36.6 percent of respondents said they usually work two hours of overtime per day, while 27 percent said they work three hours of overtime per day.
Many workaholics experience burnout, the survey showed.
Burnout is a condition in which a person runs out of physical and mental energy, and experiences lethargy or depression.
Among the respondents, 57.6 percent said they experience burnout “quite often,” while 20.2 percent said they experience burnout “frequently.”
A total of 77.8 percent of workaholics said that they experience burnout.
The amount of stress they got from excessive work was enough to prompt them to consider moving to another job.
Among workaholics, 55.2 percent said they were “considering moving to another company due to excessive work.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
