The impacts of social context on individual experiences related to working hours: Focusing on the private break of Korean employees

Abstract: Long working-hour problem in Korea has been prevalent for many years. Compare to other countries, it has been one of the countries which have the longest working-hour in the world. As working long hours is directly related to employees‟ work-life balance, job satisfaction, health and more, previous researches as well as political attempts have tried to resolve this chronic problem. Previous approaches focused on finding how intrinsic working culture of Korea contributed to long working hours, in which aspects it has an impact on employees and how Korean Labor Standard Act should be improved. However, how employees who actually face the problem experience in their workplace was often marginalized both in the relevant research and regulation amendment. This is pointed out in this study as a reason why the actual working hours of Korean employees could not be reduced. In opposition to the argument which shifts the responsibility of long working-hour to the individual choices, this study emphasizes the impact of social context on the individual decision making. If how employees experience different situations related to working hours and which contextual factors affect them are not properly observed, it will be hard to present which direction future researches and political changes should pursue. In the light of this argument, this study interviewed 8 Korean employees to see what are the contextual factors which constraint their behaviour at workplaces, especially focusing on their „private break‟ usage. The findings of this study showed that employees have common experiences with contextual factors and they were not only constraining employees‟ private break usage but they were also making interrelations by themselves. This result implies that considering employees‟ experience and the impact of social context will generate more profound understanding of long working-hour problem in Korea. Considering the nature of long working-hour of Korea as a complex problem, detailed description of individual experiences and perception by taking an example of private break will contribute better understanding and approach to the solution.