"Just Because I Have a Mouth... I Can Hit Women Too" — The Pain of Workplace Verbal Abuse Resurfaces Amid Lee Hye-hoon's Power Harassment Scandal

[The Financial News] "What do you have in your head? What's your IQ?"
These are some of the harsh remarks that employee A, who works at a small company with fewer than five employees, heard from their boss. After enduring ongoing verbal abuse and considering resignation, A reported their experience to Gabjil 119 in July last year.
According to Gabjil 119, a civic group, a survey conducted from October 1 to 14 last year among 1,000 office workers found that, of the 330 respondents who experienced workplace harassment, 17.8% suffered insults or defamation. Physical or verbal abuse was reported by 15.4%.
Recently, allegations have surfaced that Lee Hye-hoon, nominee for Minister of Planning and Budget, engaged in power harassment and verbal abuse toward an intern during her time as a lawmaker. The survey results highlight that similar incidents are common in ordinary workplaces as well.
Gabjil 119 analyzed cases of verbal abuse reported last year and categorized them into five types: threats such as "Should I kill you? I can hit women too"; comparison and criticism like "Even a cow’s head is smarter than you"; insults to ability such as "Can your brain even understand that?"; body shaming like "Just because you have a mouth, do you say whatever you want?"; and attacks on character such as "Can’t you even speak Korean?"
Gabjil 119 stated, "The greatest and most common pain experienced by workers in the workplace is, above all, verbal abuse and harsh remarks from superiors. We must eradicate 'Lee Hye-hoon-style verbal violence' that destroys human dignity, and arrogant bosses and those who attack employees’ character should disappear from the workplace."
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter