[Exclusive] Blue House workload hits record high...62 hours of monthly overtime per staff member

3.7 times more overtime than national civil servants, 8.4 times more than ordinary workers
"24-hour work attitude": President Lee's philosophy also plays a role

Since the launch of the Lee Jaemyung administration, employees at the Blue House have been working more than 62 hours of overtime per month. This is about 3.7 times that of other national civil servants and 8.4 times that of ordinary workers. There were even months when overtime work approached 70 hours. This is seen as the result of President Lee's governing philosophy, which emphasizes a "24-hour work attitude," combined with a backlog of domestic and international pending issues.

According to data the Blue House provided to The Asia Business Daily on the 20th in response to an information disclosure request, Blue House employees worked an average of 62.1 hours of overtime per month from June last year, when the Lee Jaemyung administration was launched, through last month. This exceeds the threshold of "57 hours per month" at which overtime pay is provided. Even in October last year, when they worked the least, they still recorded 58 hours of overtime.

On the 12th, President Lee Jaemyung headed to a restaurant near the Blue House with his aides for a meal. Yonhap News

The month with the most intense workload was July last year, with overtime reaching 69 hours. This is the highest level among all previous administrations. It is known that, in a situation where staffing had not been fully filled, overtime for negotiation officials surged as the date approached for the tariff increases that the Trump administration had notified. On top of that, preparations for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit went into full swing, and a landslide occurred in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, further extending working hours.

Blue House employees' overtime is about 8.4 times that of ordinary workers. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the average monthly overtime for all workers in 2024 was 7.4 hours. The gap is also striking compared with civil servants in other ministries. A survey by the Ministry of Personnel Management showed that national civil servants worked an average of only 16.7 hours of overtime per month in 2024. Even the overtime for agencies with many disaster and emergency duties, such as the National Police Agency (29.8 hours), the National Fire Agency (25.4 hours), and the Korea Coast Guard (23.9 hours), is less than half that of the Blue House.

"Blue House staff come in at 6 a.m., and meetings and briefings continue nonstop"

Blue House employees unanimously say that their actual overtime is far more than what the statistics show. Under current rules, only officials at Grade 5 or below are recognized for overtime. When the unrecorded overtime of senior officials is taken into account, the hours increase further. In addition, overtime can be logged only after two hours have passed since the end of regular working hours. For a civil servant who worked four hours of overtime in a day, this effectively means they actually worked six extra hours. On weekends, only four hours of overtime per day can be entered in the system, so any additional work is not reflected in the statistics.

A civil servant seconded to the Blue House from another government ministry said, "If you arrive at the Blue House by 6 a.m., meetings and briefings continue without a break until you go home," adding, "Because the body simply cannot endure it, it is unrealistic to work there for more than a year." Another Blue House staff member also said, "There are secretariat offices where working on Sundays is considered a regular workday and staff take turns on Saturday duty."

The level of overtime at the Blue House under the current administration is high even compared with previous governments. According to data disclosed to the National Assembly and the media, overtime at the Blue House in January 2008, at the end of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, was around 57 hours. In May of the same year, when the mad cow disease crisis broke out after former President Lee Myung-bak took office, overtime did not exceed 58 hours. In 2018, during the Moon Jae-in administration, then-Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jongseok was questioned in the National Assembly about the Blue House overtime issue, and at that time the average overtime per person was 48.8 hours per month.

President Lee Jaemyung is speaking at the senior presidential secretaries' meeting held at the Blue House on the 12th. Yonhap News

"The fate of the nation is in our hands": President Lee stresses a spirit of devotion

According to Blue House staff, such high-intensity work is not unrelated to President Lee Jaemyung's working style. They say that when President Lee comes up with an idea or spots a problem, he sends related messages regardless of the time. He is also known to prefer that the instructions he gives be carried out as quickly as possible, and to want immediate, actionable solutions even for difficult issues. On this, a Blue House official explained, "Once they receive a message from the president, aides naturally have to respond immediately, even if they have already gone home."

This is also closely linked to President Lee's governing philosophy. At the Senior Secretaries' Meeting on the 12th, President Lee said, "If you open your eyes, you are at work, and if you close your eyes, you are off work, so there is no such thing as holidays or vacations," and added, "Please keep in mind that the fate of the nation is in our hands." At the first New Year kick-off ceremony at the Blue House this January, President Lee also emphasized a spirit of devotion to the people, saying, "For public officials, all 24 hours of the day are working hours."