Korea still works hard. The country is known for its long working hours. A recent OECD survey in April 2025 puts Korea at No. 5 out of 38 countries surveyed with 1,900 hours per year per person. On top of that, Korea has long championed a strong work ethic with which people are educated and told to "do their best" on the job. The "do-your-best" mentality arguably underpins the economic success story of the resource-scarce country.
Korean workplaces are now seeing seismic changes in this "hard work" culture. It would be another “back-in-my-days” story that becomes easy gossip material for young colleagues over their lunch that day. Obviously, the young generation thinks differently. As people half-jokingly say, three questions when Millennials and Generation Z staff are asked to do something to which they do not fully subscribe are: “You mean this?,” “You mean me?” and “Why should I?” in sequence. So, they need a particular reason to do the work.
The changing workplace culture in the country slowly spreads the term "quiet quitting." It is a phrase coined a couple of years ago in other countries to describe a situation where people do not resign, but do the minimum on the job. It means employees stay on the job passively even if they do not quit outright. According to a survey conducted by local job portal Incruit in March 2024, 51.7 percent of respondents, many of whom were from younger generations, said they were in the mode of quiet quitting.
Presumably, other countries are seeing a similar trend as well. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025, 79 percent of employees globally are either not engaged (62 percent) or actively disengaged (17 percent) from their work or organization, both situations that might fan quiet quitting. In East Asia, the rate stands at 82 percent (65 percent plus 17 percent).
In Korea, debates are ongoing; there is a growing tension between those who expect more contribution on the job versus those who are ready to do just what is required of them. Emails and posts abound with leadership enhancement materials and coaching skills to kill the quiet quitting trend and galvanize the communal spirit at the workplace.
Come to think of it, perhaps the concept of quiet quitting has persisted through human history. Bad bosses are steadily plentiful. Toxic human relationships and unreasonable decisions are rampant in the workplace. No wonder learned helplessness seeps in with frustrated people poised to do the bare minimum. Even under a good boss and in a friendly work environment, many of us frequently struggle between doing our best and doing the minimum, striving to ride out the day and the month to stay afloat at work. People don’t just go full speed constantly.
So, quiet quitting may not be a new phenomenon, but another label for an old social interaction that remains within socially acceptable parameters. The difference seems to be that people are now more open about it, and sometimes make it public.
Quiet quitting, however, apparently has its limit. When it degenerates into avoidance of required work and failure to complete the mandate, that seems to be a different story. Quiet quitting in that case does not do the bare minimum; instead, it holds the entity back. It is like someone throwing in a pinch of sand into a machine every now and then. Many a day will go unnoticed and uneventful, but there will come the moment when a single grain of sand brings the machine to a halt.
There may be cases for both, and each case is different indeed. Sometimes, it can be hard to tell which is which.
A critical point of note for the Korean workplace from the quiet quitting dialogue is the need for a transition from a nuanced culture of unwritten rules to clear job descriptions.
Nuanced communication, unwritten norms and implicit codes of behavior once conducted Korean workplaces like a well-orchestrated symphony. That culture has undergone significant changes, but still lingers on here and there — sometimes yes and no are not entirely clear, and nudges and prods from company superiors are hard to decipher. Short on specifics and ambiguous, the nuance culture does not really present a reliable guideline in today’s offices and cubicles. Doing the best and putting company matters first are the representative snapshots of the traditional work culture.
The younger generations would not buy such subtle nuances. Nor would they like to be jerked around by bosses and seniors. They would expect to see clear rules and distinct boundaries.
So, in the Korean context, the quiet quitting discourse may offer an occasion for healthy debates on drawing a boundary between work and personal life. Work-life balance and work-rest balance are ever more important for individuals, companies and organizations in Korea. The discourse may also usher in an environment of clearer and more detailed job descriptions. As long as an employee completes the task promised, that should be sufficient — it would be too much to expect something more than that. If doing the best is required, or doing whatever is necessary is necessary, a different compensation package or incentive arrangement may be needed.
In sum, motivation triggers for younger generations in today’s workplaces in Seoul: clear job description, fair evaluation and proper compensation, together with after-work freedom to mind their own business. Long working hours and abrasive "give-me-your-best" pressure will drive them further into the cave of quiet quitting.
Lee Jae-min
Lee Jae-min is a professor of law at Seoul National University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.
khnews@heraldcorp.com
