[The World on the Page] From the Specter of Overwork to a Society of Freedom

Paul Krugman Fights Zombies
The Ever-Resurrecting "Zombie Ideas"
Now Joined by the 69-Hour Workweek Theory
Long Working Hours Called a "National Disease"
in Kim Young-seon's Overwork Society
Even Stealing Time for Innovative Thinking

Sometimes corpses jump out of graves and take over the streets. Zombie hordes roam around with decayed faces, rushing headlong at any living human they see. This is to infect and increase the number of zombies. A zombie society, where life turns into death and hope is exchanged for despair, is a disaster, an apocalypse, and a living hell.

In “Paul Krugman Fights Zombies”, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman refers to ideas that resurface despite being clearly unscientific as zombie ideas. Examples include climate change denial that rejects global warming caused by fossil fuel use, and the wealthy tax cut theory that repeatedly hopes for economic growth despite lacking economic basis. Recently, there was also COVID-19 denial. The “69-hour workweek theory” should be added to this list.

The 69-hour workweek theory guarantees the right to work to death in an era of creative economy led by artificial intelligence, which is anachronistic. Based on a five-day workweek, it means guaranteeing the right to work 13.8 hours a day without additional overtime pay. Considering the average commuting time in the metropolitan area is about 1.5 hours, this means spending 15.3 hours a day on labor. If realized, it corresponds to the early stage of capitalism when the concept of appropriate working hours did not even exist.

The government talks about the freedom to work intensively and rest intensively, but hardly anyone believes it. The reality is that many people cannot even use all their legally mandated vacation days. According to a survey, 80.6% of workers aged 19 and over did not use all their statutory annual leave. This is because many companies operate with very tight staffing. If a company manages its workforce generously, there is little reason to work up to 69 hours in the first place.

In the early 1970s, a tailor suffering from long working hours in Cheonggyecheon sent a letter to former President Park Chung-hee. “To overcome hunger, I work 16 hours a day for a wage of 90 to 100 won.” Later, this worker could no longer endure the inhumane life and protested by setting himself on fire. This was Jeon Tae-il. Working 16 hours a day is that hard to endure. If such labor becomes legal, the world will become hell.

A hundred years earlier, French writer ?mile Zola depicted workers risking their lives fighting against long working hours in Germinal. “No, somehow it must end. Whether through law, gentlemanly understanding, or by burning everything down savagely. This century cannot end without a great revolution that cleanses society from top to bottom and rebuilds it cleanly and justly.” Long working hours caused strikes and revolutions, and startled capitalists accepted social reforms such as the introduction of legal working hours.

Long working hours persisted even in the 1980s. In Dawn of Labor, poet Park Nohae sang with indignation: “After a night like war / On the aching chest of dawn / I pour cold soju. / Ah, / At this rate, I won’t last long / At this rate, I won’t make it. / (Omitted) / Struggling with all my might / This war-like labor.” In 1989, during the Roh Tae-woo administration, in response to workers’ demands, South Korea’s legal working hours were adjusted to 44 hours per week, with a maximum of 64 hours per week. The “69-hour workweek” would turn back the clock of Korean society to the early 1980s during Chun Doo-hwan’s military dictatorship.

Under the 52-hour workweek system, South Korea’s annual working hours in 2021 were already 1,915 hours. This is about 200 hours more per year than the OECD average. Among OECD countries, only Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Chile work more. These countries belong to the relatively underdeveloped Latin American region. In a country with a rapidly declining population, there seems to be a struggle to push young people into a labor-intensive Latin American-style underdevelopment model rather than focusing on creative labor where they can realize themselves and find meaning in life. The resistance of young people who prioritize work-life balance is natural.

According to Kim Young-seon’s Overwork Society, Korean society is addicted to long working hours. Many people treat their company like home and work long hours. There is a self-deprecating consolation of “Being busy is good,” a sense of crisis of “Let’s earn as much as we can while we can,” a common belief of “You won’t get in your boss’s good graces unless you stay late,” and a distorted belief that “If you don’t work overtime when you’re young, you won’t be able to work later, so overtime is a blessing.” Some people do not feel they have worked unless they work to exhaustion and return home utterly worn out. Kim Young-seon calls long working hours a “national disease.”

The phrase “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday” often heard in venture companies is one example. Long working hours are regarded as an expression of passion, proof of ability, a source of pride, and a guarantee of success. There is some inevitability in achieving great accomplishments with a small number of people. This is why business models that turn labor into partnership through stock options are often attempted. Long working hours without sharing huge rewards upon success can only be unfair labor disguised as proof of passion. Legalizing long working hours carries the risk of normalizing unfair labor.

The side effects of long working hours are significant. Above all, they cause chronic illness. Long working hours often cause chronic fatigue, sleep disorders, loss of appetite, indigestion, diabetes, stroke, and myocardial infarction. Especially, night shifts greatly shorten the average human lifespan. Humans evolved to work during the day and sleep at night. Prolonged violation of this rhythm inevitably causes serious bodily harm.

Furthermore, long working hours destroy life as a whole. They deprive people of time to care for themselves, share love with partners, bond with friends and family, participate in childcare and enjoy happiness with children, engage with their community, care for the vulnerable and participate in solidarity, and imagine better lives and seek innovative solutions. For the future, Korean society as a whole must shift from an overwork society to a society of freedom. Kim Young-seon argues that society must transform into “one where free time is abundant and its value and rights are fully exercised.” This is a statement worth heeding.

Jang Eun-su, Publishing Culture Critic