Our other man at the NY Times, Norimitsu Onishi, writes about the civilizing influence of Korean women in the workplace, in Korea. Has the civilizing influence that women have upon men, in any society, ever changed?
Women Tame the Beast
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Yeah, good point on civilizing, although in Korea the women continue to ‘drive men to drink’ to at least as much extent as they might now be moderating the business-drinking…
Another fairly good article from the NYT on the steep social changes going on here — they are indeed paying attention, good to see.
This has been, and definetely is an issue. A big reason I won’t return to work in the corporate culture there. A friend, who is a salesman in his mid-40’s, has liver problems. Yet, if he stops drinking he loses customers, and ultimately his job. This is all he knows. If he doesn’t, well . . Not good news for his wife and teenage sons.
Onishi seems to have done a good job of describing the corporate drinking culture succinctly and accurately. The hoesik seems to set a pattern for social and student drinking behaviour as well. It’s interesting to learn how this may be changing, slowly but surely.
Everybody likes to play the victim card. I hate whiskey and stop drinking soju after a couple of glasses. Nor do i sing in karaokes or go to mountain hiking trips. Not to mention all the other stuff i don’t do like work late everyday or play starcraft. And the biggest them of all, i don’t eat seafood.In short, i don’t do most of the things that Koreans do to bond at workplace because i dont like them. Yet,not once have i felt like my job or career was on the line.
Yes,i know,I am a dream to work with.
PS: I am not talking about the women who was sued but the other ones esp the lawyer who drank a lot only to compete against men.
There is a flip side to this. Korean college women seem to be drinking more. This will work its way up into the corporate culture soon enough.
That would certainly beat having company after-work needlepoint gatherings.
I see more young women smoking too Andy, an activity that will only increase the cancer rate as well.
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