14% of Office Workers "Pressure to Cut Wages Due to COVID-19"

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Among 100 office workers, 14 felt pressure such as wage cuts and cancellation of performance bonuses after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Those who reported experiencing more severe impacts such as restructuring accounted for 8%.

According to Remember on the 31st, a survey was conducted on 1,000 participants of the 'Remember Community,' revealing these results.

When asked about changes in the workplace, 52% cited 'changes in work styles such as telecommuting and flexible working hours.'

Following that, responses included ▲financial pressure such as wage cuts and reduction or non-payment of performance bonuses (14%) ▲internal conflicts due to dissatisfaction among employees (9%) ▲restructuring and organizational reorganization (8%). Only 28% of workers said there was no change compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak.

By job type, service workers were found to be facing the greatest difficulties. The proportion of people who answered that 'restructuring and organizational reorganization' were occurring was highest in service jobs (25%), followed by marketing and public relations (14.5%), and management (11.6%). The proportion of those who said wages or performance bonuses were reduced or unpaid was highest in culture and arts (50%), service jobs (41.7%), and marketing and public relations (22.4%).

Regarding difficulties caused by COVID-19 in work, the main issues cited were ▲decreased sales performance due to difficulties in external activities (54%) ▲confusion caused by having to revise existing plans (53%) ▲increased inefficiency due to communication difficulties (26%).

This also showed different patterns by job type. Sales, construction, and finance workers cited ‘decreased sales performance’ as the biggest difficulty, while marketing, public relations, IT, internet, distribution, and trade workers cited ‘confusion caused by having to revise existing plans’ as the biggest difficulty.

61.3% of respondents answered that ‘work styles have changed due to COVID-19.’ Among them, 19% said they were working entirely from home, 22.2% said they were on flexible or shortened work schedules, and 17.2% said only some employees such as pregnant women or those with symptoms were working from home.

However, production and sales workers had a higher rate of maintaining their existing work styles. 57.9% of production workers said there was no change in work style, and 48% of sales workers also said there was no change. On the other hand, 72.8% of workers in the IT and internet industries, where digital infrastructure is well established, said their work styles changed after COVID-19.

Choi Jae-ho, CEO of Drama & Company, which operates the Remember Community, said, "Many people are experiencing difficulties in business due to COVID-19," adding, "At times like this, it is necessary to actively share information with each other and find our own solutions to overcome this situation."