People Unable to Smile Despite Changes Like 'Corona-Bal' Remote Work

7 out of 10 Top 100 Companies "Still Implementing Remote Work"
Significantly Lower Adoption Rate in Small and Medium Enterprises
Gap May Widen Between Company Sizes and Industries

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lee Seohee] More companies are officially adopting work styles that were temporarily changed due to COVID-19, such as remote work and flexible working hours. Some are piloting full remote work, while others are initiating the introduction of a four-day workweek. Generally, the changed work environment is welcomed as it helps improve productivity and quality of life, but some voices point out that the benefits of the changed work environment may be concentrated in a few companies, potentially widening the gap between companies of different sizes.

The number of companies adopting remote work is steadily increasing. From Kakao to SK Telecom, leading IT companies are proactively riding the wave of change, spreading the trend of work style changes across large corporations. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on the "Status of Remote Work Following the Lifting of Social Distancing" among the top 100 companies by sales on the 8th, 72.7% of them are currently implementing remote work. The number of companies that responded to the survey was 66, based on office workers.

In addition to remote work, there is also a movement to introduce a four-day workweek. Kakao will implement full remote work starting July 4 and will pilot the "biweekly Friday off" system from July 8. The biweekly Friday off system allows all employees to take every other Friday off and serves as a pilot before fully introducing the four-day workweek. SK Telecom also decided to expand its "Happy Friday" system, which allows employees to take the third Friday off each month, to twice a month starting this month.

The pandemic, which lasted for three years, brought changes to the work environment. Remote work and shortened working hours to block the virus became part of daily life, expanding social awareness of work-life balance. In the early days of COVID-19, when remote work was unfamiliar, there were many concerns about decreased corporate productivity due to employee negligence. However, as research showed that remote work and shortened hours actually helped improve employees' morale and concentration, a wave of change began to blow through corporate culture.

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Labor Institute in February on 620 companies with more than 30 employees, there was no significant difference in productivity between working at the office and working remotely. 53.6% of respondents said "there is no difference in productivity," and 18.7% said productivity "actually improved." Worker satisfaction was also high. A survey by the job portal JobKorea of 412 office workers on "Changes in Work Environment in the COVID-19 Era" found that 86.9% responded positively.

Lee Chun-sung, CEO of Cheonwoo Engineering, who has been based in Mullae-dong for over 30 years, is operating a machine.

While the workplace culture changed by COVID-19 is generally welcomed, there are also concerns about other side effects. There is worry that the benefits of changed work environments such as remote work and the four-day workweek may be concentrated among large corporations and office workers. In fact, during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, major domestic IT companies like Kakao and Naver implemented remote work, whereas companies with a high proportion of production, distribution, and sales workers continued on-site work. Although this was unavoidable due to the nature of tasks such as directly manufacturing products on-site, many employees felt a sense of "relative deprivation" due to differing work conditions even within the same company.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that lack substitute personnel and infrastructure, changes in work conditions remain a "distant story." Due to the need to handle many tasks with few employees, they do not have the capacity to operate remote or shortened work hours. According to data from the Korea Labor Institute at the end of last year, the smaller the company size by industry, the lower the rate of implementing remote work. The report showed that the percentage of companies not implementing remote work was 51.1% for companies with 300 or more employees, 67.4% for those with 100-299 employees, and 72.5% for those with 30-99 employees. The smaller the company, the less likely it is to implement remote work.

Mr. Choi (35), who works at a plastic recycling company, said, "Even when tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases were reported daily, we took the subway and went to work." He added, "I am not criticizing the improvement of work conditions mainly for large corporations and office workers. Still, the feeling of relative deprivation is inevitable." He continued, "If this continues, the gap in work environments between companies of different sizes and industries will widen further."