8 in 10 workers get after hours orders via messaging apps

Eight out of 10 South Korean workers have been given work-related instructions by their bosses via mobile messaging apps after office hours, a survey showed Wednesday.

According to the survey on 1,668 workers by recruitment site Job Korea, 82 percent of them said that they had been contacted by their superiors about work-related issues via messaging apps such as KakaoTalk or Line, after working hours.

Fifty-eight percent of thpse polled were negative about such work-related communication outside of normal working hours, while 26.4 percent of them were in favor of it.

Slightly more than 60 percent of respondents said that wider communication via messaging apps at work is leading to receiving work instructions after hours, while 49.4 percent pointed to how they had to constantly check chat rooms. Some 36.2 percent cited potential miscommunication.

More than half of the surveyed (53.1 percent) said that their workloads increased when they started to use mobile messengers, while 92.7 percent thought that such a tendency will continue.

Amid these trends, Rep. Shin Kyung-min of the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea presented a bill on “KaKaoTalk Ban” in June. The revision to the Labor Standards Act is aimed at forbidding the use of KakaoTalk for work-related matters outside of work and protecting workers’ privacy.

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)