The day after starting the job: “I’m quitting”... Which public agency saw 14 employees quit in droves?

[Financial News] Employees have been quitting in droves at the Korea Association Against Drug Abuse, which provides counseling and rehabilitation services for people with drug addictions. Of the 22 people who started on the same day last July, 64% (14) quit before completing even eight months on the job. One employee reportedly quit the day after starting.

According to Yonhap News on the 12th, the information was confirmed in data on hires and departures that Heo Jong-sik, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, received from the association.
The association hired 22 people on July 7 last year and assigned 17 of them to rehabilitation and counseling departments, including regional addiction rehabilitation centers such as the Hamkkehan Georeum Center and the 1342 Yonggi Han Georeum Center. However, one employee at the center for the 24-hour drug counseling hotline (1342) quit the day after starting, while an employee at the Hamkkehan Georeum Center in South Gyeongsang Province left after just four days. 
Early departures were widespread among new hires. Last year, 49 employees left, including contract workers, and 35 of them (71%) quit before completing a year on the job. This year, too, seven of the 27 employees who had left by August quit within three months of starting.
Departures were especially common in rehabilitation departments, which directly handle counseling and social reintegration for people with drug addictions.  Of the 49 employees who left last year, 29 (59%) had worked in rehabilitation-related departments, including the Hamkkehan Georeum Center and the Addiction Rehabilitation Team. Of the 27 who had left by August this year, 15 (56%) were rehabilitation department employees.
In 2024, six of the seven new permanent employees assigned to rehabilitation departments quit, out of the eight people who started on September 23. Three of them left less than two months after starting, according to the findings.

Drug addiction rehabilitation involves building trusting relationships with people with addictions over an extended period and supporting them through counseling, case management and social reintegration. Frequent changes in staff prevent expertise from developing and also mean that people in rehabilitation have to keep meeting new counselors. Yet employees continue to leave rehabilitation departments in droves.
In 2024, the government designated the Korea Association Against Drug Abuse as a public institution and expanded the number of regional addiction rehabilitation centers (Hamkkehan Georeum Centers) from three to 17. Yet specialized staff have still not been able to take root.
What is more, the association has not even identified why employees are leaving. The departure reason for 42 of last year’s 49 employees (86%) was recorded simply as “personal reasons.”
Heo criticized the situation, saying, “As drug addiction becomes a more serious problem, the government is expanding rehabilitation infrastructure. But a system in which half of the employees who start on the same day leave before completing even a year cannot build a proper rehabilitation system.” He urged, “The association and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety must conduct a thorough investigation into the reasons for departures and, based on the findings, develop effective measures to improve working conditions, including pay, work arrangements and psychological support.”
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter