Drinking and work are two things that go together in moderation; no employee wants to be the really wasted idiot at the company party who drunkenly calls their boss a dick. For most organizations, having two, maybe three of drinks at a work gathering is considered appropriate (unless of course your work is really encouraging).
But in Korea, apparently lots of drinking with co-workers is valued in organizational culture. Employees will celebrate “hoesik,” Korean for, “staff dinner” (aka “get hammered”), something that’s considered a “hierarchical bonding experience.”
However, not everyone in Korea is as excited as all those drunk employees. After a statistic was released by the World Health Organization showing an “excessive drinking culture” in Korea and South Asia altogether, Samsung is doing everything they can to make sure this is curbed within the company. To which they introduced the “1-1-9 rule.” Now when celebrating hoesik, workers will be limited to one sitting, one type of alcohol and a cut-off point of 9 p.m (hence the 1-1-9).
Samsung also banned beolju, which is forcing drinks upon others, and sabalju, the mixing together of a bunch of alcohols to make a potent punch.
It has been known in Korea for job candidates to even put their consumption capabilities and will “detail their drinking abilit[ies]” on their resumes (I’d imagine it’d sound something like, “skills include: shots, Makers Mark on the rocks, Irish Car Bombs, etc.)
(via The Verge via the Wall Street Journal; Busan for 91 Days)
