Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
7 out of 10 young public servants consider quitting: survey
gettyimagesbank
By Lee Hae-rin
Seven out of 10 public servants in Korea with under five years of experience have considered quitting, according to a survey released Wednesday.
According to the survey results the Ministry of the Interior and Safety shared with Rep. Wi Seong-gon of the main opposition the Democratic Party of Korea, 32,905 out of 48,248 respondents, or 68.2 percent of state and local officials, said they have considered quitting public office.
The primary reason cited for this sentiment was "low monetary compensation," mentioned by 35.5 percent of respondents. Other significant factors included "unfair treatment, such as malicious complaints" at 18.9 percent and "excessive workloads" at 13.9 percent.
This contrasts with a previous social trend in Korea, where young people favored public service positions for their perceived stability.
Nearly half, or 48.6 percent said they were "unsatisfied" due to the burden of work as a public official, mostly citing "unsystematic reassignment of duties."
Regarding the work culture experienced by public officials, 45.6 percent said they were "unsatisfied," significantly outpacing the 14.4 percent who reported feeling "satisfied."
As for work-life balance, 37.2 percent said they were "unsatisfied."
Among the reasons for not being satisfied, 38.7 percent of them chose "mobilizing public servants for various work-irrelevant events as ‘emergency work sessions.’"
Also, 39.5 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the organizational culture of the civil service, far exceeding the 18.8 percent that said they were satisfied.
The main reasons for dissatisfaction were "an atmosphere that values bureaucratic formalities and people don't defend one another" at 30.4 percent and "an atmosphere that forces individual sacrifice for the organization" at 28.6 percent.
One out of three respondents cited “improving various systems related to organizational culture” as the most necessary to improve the organizational culture of public offices, followed by "department head's action to improve the organizational culture" at 19.2 percent and "members' voluntary efforts" at 16.5 percent.
Based on the results of the survey, the ministry plans to come up with a plan to improve the organizational culture of public servants.