South Korea Works Overtime To Tackle Vacation Shortage (Leads World in Refusing to Take Vacations)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 03/02/2010 | Evan Ramstad and Jaeyeon Woo

[SeekAndFind]

SEOUL—The government here is cracking down on vacations: Workers, it seems, aren't taking enough of them.

South Koreans were told for decades to sacrifice everything to build the country's economy. Now South Koreans are world-champion workaholics, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, logging more hours a year on the job than people in any other developed country.

The government is trying to change that. The ministry in charge of government personnel issued a directive in January requiring the country's one million state workers to submit to their bosses a plan to take 16 days off this year.

The hitch: In a hierarchical society where superiors set the tone in business and politics, some of the very bosses behind the vacation push can't be bothered to take them.

President Lee Myung-bak raised the national vacation deficit at a cabinet meeting last summer, pointing to a survey showing that the typical government worker took only six of the allotted 23 days. Mr. Lee's personal tally since taking office in February 2008, according to media reports: four days.

One member of Mr. Lee's cabinet, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, told The Wall Street Journal he passed the government's vacation directive throughout his agency, which is responsible for South Korea's dealings with North Korea. But he has taken no vacation himself.

"I want them to take more time off," Mr. Hyun says. "But as for me? I don't know."

To cajole reluctant holidaymakers, the government has brought in the heavy artillery: a guy from Germany, home to some of the world's top vacationers.

[Bryanw92]

>>President Lee Myung-bak raised the national vacation deficit at a cabinet meeting last summer, pointing to a survey showing that the typical government worker took only six of the allotted 23 days. Mr. Lee’s personal tally since taking office in February 2008, according to media reports: four days.

Don’t worry. Our pResident takes that many vacation days a month.

[pnh102]

I don’t get why South Korea bothers with having a Ministry of Unification. Their absorbing the North would hold back both countries for at least 50 years.

[SeekAndFind]

Kim Jong (mentally) IL is not going to live forever and eventually someone from the North will begin to realize the delusion of idolizing someone who has held their country in starvation and bondage for over half a century.

Mao Tze Tung is hardly ever mentioned as an ideal leader to emulate in China anymore.

The South realizes this and is preparing for the eventual downfall of the Northern “Kingdom” much the same way East Germany and the Berlin Wall fell.

[SeekAndFind]

I find this piece of news to be intriguing... we here in the West complain that we do not have enough days off, while the Koreans DON’T KNOW what to do with days off...

READ THIS FROM THE ARTICLE :

Some workers say they don’t know what to do with the free time. Others are protesting the state’s vacation push, accusing leaders of trying to save money: In many government agencies, employees are rewarded with extra pay for unused vacation days.

“You should be able to take a vacation whenever you feel like,” says Yoon Jin-won, spokesman for the Korean Government Employees’ Union, the biggest union of government workers. “When the government forces you to do it, I would say it violates human rights in a sense.”

[hinckley buzzard]

I think the whole world would be better off if more people took more vacations.

[GeronL]

How is this a governments business?

[GeronL]

Back 50 years would be a huge leap forward for North Korea.

[9YearLurker]

They sure don’t sound like our government workers!

[9YearLurker]

So they’re pressuring them to take work furloughs, it sounds like.

[pappyone]

I call BS on this article. Anyone that's been in S Korea during Cusack knows that the Whole country is on vacation, and also on the move. It is the only place in the world that the Army declares the road condition “black” (no soldier travel permitted)for peacetime. Also, during the new year most folks take time off. And just to be a little bit smart @ss, every night the S Koreans are hitting the Soju, and beleive me that stuff will definitely put you on a mental vacation.

[Neidermeyer]

This story ran just over a month ago

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Workers given time off to make babies

By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy

Posted Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:03am AEDT

South Korea's government is ordering some of its staff to go home early once a month in a bid to encourage them to have babies.

Officials in Seoul say the lights in health ministry offices will be switched off early every third Wednesday of the month to compel staff to go home.

In a statement, the ministry said it wanted to help civil servants become more dedicated to having children.

It is also offering cash gifts for staff who have more than two babies.

There are fears that South Korea's population will begin to shrink within a decade due to one of the lowest birth rates in the world.