'Office blues' rife among Korean workers

By Choi Sung-jin

Eight out of 10 workers suffer “office blues,” feeling low and gloomy once they go on duty, a job portal said Monday.

In a survey of 1,458 office workers by Job Korea and Albamon from May 26 to June 10, 82.8 percent of respondents said they experienced office blues.

By company type, people working at large businesses showed the highest ratio of office blues with 88 percent, followed by foreign companies (85.7 percent), small and midsize firms (82.2 percent) and state enterprises (82.8 percent).

As the reason, the largest share of respondents (43.2 percent) cited “uncertain outlooks for my future.”

Following it were unclear prospects about the company (35.1 percent), work overload (24.2 percent), relationship with bosses (13.6 percent), ambiguous position within the organization (12.8 percent), job responsibility (11.7 percent), pay raise not based on performance (10.9 percent), worsening health (7.9 percent), relationships with colleagues and underlings (7.7 percent), welfare system lagging behind other firms (7.2 percent), pressure from result evaluation (5.1 percent), unfair performance rating (4.6 percent) and lack of opportunities for promotion (1.9 percent).

The reasons for office melancholia varied depending on corporate types.

The employees of foreign firms attributed it to a relatively heavier workload (34.3 percent) while those working at Korean companies, large or small, cited an uncertain future. Those in state enterprises were relatively more worried than others about their obscure positions within the organization.

To get over depression at work, the largest portion (21.8 percent) said they engage in physical exercise or other pursuits, while 21.6 percent used tobacco and alcohol.

Other solutions were preparing to move to other companies (18.7 percent), having candid dialogue with friends or family members (17.3 percent), speaking their mind with co-workers (10 percent) and making efforts for self-development (6.4 percent).

Men especially resorted to drinking and smoking, as cited by 27.3 percent of respondents, while women preferred to have frank conversations with friends or family (22.7 percent), showing the differences between them in solving the office blues, the survey said.