Seven in Ten Office Workers Receive Work-Related Messages After Hours or on Weekends

[Financial News] Seven out of ten office workers said that over the past year they had received work-related messages from their company during so-called "after-work hours" such as evenings after leaving the office, weekends, public holidays, or vacations.
On the 22nd, civic group Gabjil 119 released the results of a survey on "after-hours work contact" conducted by polling agency Global Research. The survey was carried out from October 1 to 14 last year, targeting 1,000 workers aged 19 or older nationwide, based on the employment distribution in the Economically Active Population Survey. According to the findings, 66% of respondents said they had been contacted about work outside regular working hours.
Among those who received such messages, the most common frequency was one to three times a month at 21.2%. This was followed by once or twice a week (20.6%), one to ten times a year (18.6%), and three or more times a week (5.6%). Notably, 30.8% of all respondents reported receiving work-related messages after 10 p.m.
Among respondents who had been contacted after hours, 45.9% said "the reason for the contact was not an urgent issue for company operations." In connection with this, 30.5% said they carried out the instructions outside the workplace after hours. Another 60.6% said they followed the instructions after coming to work the next day, while only 8.9% said they did not respond to the contact.
Attorney Jung Soyeon of Gabjil 119 stated, "We are seeing more and more cases of workers complaining of fatigue caused by constant connectivity that ignores working hours." She added, "These days, most messaging apps show whether a message has been read or whether someone is online, so from the worker's perspective, there is a strong sense that they must pick up when contacted and reply immediately." She emphasized, "Because this is also a problem created by changes in the technological environment, workers need to be promptly protected through legislation."
welcome@fnnews.com Jang Yu-ha Reporter