A successful office worker is a heavy drinker

My husband and I had officially separated due to my passion of study. I wanted to study abroad and when I had a chance to study in the US, I took it without hesitation leaving my husband alone. He understood how much I wanted it, accepted the situation and agreed to help me financially. Since I lived in the US, he visited me regularly and complained about the state’s strict alcohol law.

                            

My husband- I’ll call him H- has been working for over 30 years at the same company and feels very proud of the fact. Although work ethic seems to be changing among young people in Korea, middle-aged generation think it’s best to work in a same company until they retire. They don’t like people who keep changing jobs saying they don’t have loyalty to a company.

Anyway, H entered the company he wanted and worked very hard. In Korea, “working hard” means the person should put all his/her time and effort to a company. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in/out of office, weekend, or holidays. The office hour starts at 9 am but closing time is when your boss gets off work. When the boss wants you to attend a sudden company dinner, you cannot refuse it even though you have a previous appointment. You cannot refuse drinking at the company dinner either. It doesn’t matter you’re intolerant to alcohol. Korean people seem to be very generous to drunken people. You can find a place to drink anytime, anywhere and most bars are open until dawn.

                             

Drinking party starts with a toast by a boss. The interesting thing is that one should say something fun and rhyme when toasting so people spend time creating funny phrases to impress co-workers. By the way, there is a very old Korean rule when you do toast. Korean society takes the seniority important so when you're younger or lower at social -hierarchy, you should hold your glass lower than your boss. 

                             

The popular drink is “so-mack” which is a mixed drink of “soju” and beer. Party generally lasts until midnight or even later and they go second to third round. We have a special tip to mix these two alcohol. You put a chopstick or a spoon to your glass and hit it to make a twist. 

                             

Since everybody gets so drunk after third round, they call “chauffeur service”. Korean style “chauffeur service” is that you call someone to drive your car and take you home. The service is common because drunk driving is strongly prohibited by law so you’ll get punished when you violate it. When you’re hungover the next morning, you have special soups such as bean sprout soup or dried pollack soup to ease the stomach. 

                            

H worked very hard. He went to work at 8am and came back home at midnight. When he had a company dinner, he came home drunk at 3am the next day and this happened 3 days a week. He kept this working style for 30 years until now. These days, he got drunk 5 days a week but I can’t complain because he is “working hard”.