@samuelszuchan: In some Korean organizations, skipping after-work drinks is treated as a worse offense than missing a day of work. It's called hoesik. A 2020 survey of 659 Korean workers found only 45 percent said they were free to choose whether to attend. Thirteen percent said attendance was flatly mandatory. The rest went because they were afraid of how it would look if they didn't. The drinking follows military-grade protocol. The most senior person takes the first sip. Everyone waits. You pour with both hands. You turn away from your superior when you drink. You accept whatever is poured for you. Then you cycle through multiple bars in a single night: dinner with beer, second round with soju, third round at a whiskey bar, fourth round at karaoke. Eighty percent of employees in one study reported binge drinking at least once in the prior year. Twenty-three percent did it weekly. Almost 60 percent reported drinking during the daytime, and 55 percent said they were obligated to do so because of work. Sixty-five percent went back to the office afterward. In 2018, a new employee at a workshop couldn't drink well. His boss was present. He was pressured through multiple rounds. He lost consciousness and passed away. A court ruled it an occupational accident, reasoning that a new employee at a workshop attended by his superior had almost certainly been coerced. Seoul's traffic patterns track the whole cycle. Monday nights are light because workers leave their cars at the office to go drinking. Friday has the worst rush hour because everyone is finally driving home to their families. This isn't team bonding; it's an obedience test with deep roots in the Korean military culture every fighting-age male internalizes. And the system doesn't need you to enjoy it. It only requires that when someone above you tells you to drink, you drink.

Sam Szuchan

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Wednesday 29 April 2026 14:46:02 GMT