Parklife

As David Attenborough might observe in cautious, hushed tones; "Somewhere, between the Land of the Rising Sun (Japan) and the Land of the Falling Ballistic Missile (North Korea) the bitterly cold temperatures are gradually nudging higher, the daylight hours are getting longer and all manner of creatures are beginning to wake from their long hibernation".

In South Korea the winter months from November to February are when office workers undergo their winter office hibernation, slipping into a daily after-hours stasis in front of their computers. At 6pm they wolf down a large snack then return to their desk where activity levels rapidly reduce, attention span becomes minimal while communication and productivity fizzle out to absolute zero.  People remain in this waking stupor for up to 4 hours per day, long after all the sane people have already gone home. Its a strange phenomenon which is not apparently obvious at first but it slowly becomes clear after a little investigation.

Walking through the office at say 7pm on a winter's evening, about 30% of people will still be sitting at their desks ostensibly scrutinising a complex spreadsheet or the intricate 3D layout of some piping system on the huge screen in front of them. The initial assumption is that some important deadline is approaching so some extra hours are needed because, as ever, the last 20% of the task requires 80% of the effort. However surveillance over a few consecutive weeks shows it is invariably the same people working late and this has little or nothing to do with any deadlines because the other 70% of their respective teams regularly go home on time.

  

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In reality, the complex work so clearly visible was finished weeks ago and is on display as a simple bluff. Meanwhile on their smaller laptop screens, there are a myriad of smaller windows open showing everything ranging from celebrity news through car accessories to cheap holidays and YouTube. The late 'workers' are idly browsing these to kill time, effectively hibernating in the office until going home at 9pm. When asked why they are staying at their desk for up to 4 additional unpaid hours per day, a few may attempt a polite deflection about 'continuous improvement' but most will quietly admit in confidence the stark truth: "It's still to cold to sit in the park". 

Passing time in the park in the summer with a game of Baduk

Some foreigners may be baffled by this answer, but those with experience of Japan probably already guessed the underlying explanation. People who come home too early are judged to hold diminished status or importance in their team. Wives and other adult family members view regular hours with quiet disapproval; therefore there is a need to maintain appearances and come home respectably late. In the warmer months, the time can be filled by unwinding over a few board games with friends and peers in the park. This is a soothing tonic after the stress and formality of a day at the office. No doubt parklife is also a welcome alternative to the chaos unfolding at home as the kids return from Hagwon (evening school) at 9pm to be bathed and put to bed by the mother or grandparents. All things considered office hibernation during the winter is a neat solution for the main breadwinner, allowing him to impress his family with his valued position at work and to simultaneously keep a safe distance from all those tedious domestic chores.