'Assume everything is being recorded': Korea's Gen Z rewrites the rules of office life

Korean Gen Z workers are reshaping office norms by seeking clearer communication, stronger work-life boundaries and less hierarchical relationships. Participants in a Hankook Ilbo roundtable said they record or message about work to keep a record, while views on apologies and company dinners vary. Many prefer limits on after-hours gatherings and personal sharing, though some value workplace friendships and team meals. Their habits reflect differing ideas about what respect at work means.

Roundtable participants said verbal work reports can later be disputed, prompting some employees to use KakaoTalk or other messaging apps to document instructions and updates.

Some participants avoid apologizing unless they believe a mistake was theirs, saying an apology to a customer can sometimes lead to demands for compensation.

One participant said a preferred company dinner would begin around 6 p.m. and end by 8 or 9 p.m., without continuing into additional rounds.

Some workers said they prefer eating alone or keeping coworker relationships focused on work, while others described setting aside a day for team meals.

Participants said some Gen Z workers continue using honorific speech even with close colleagues, partly to maintain a boundary between professional and personal relationships.

Published Oct 31, 2026 12:10 am KST

Korea Times illustration by Shin Dong-joon

"Whenever you talk to an employee in their 20s, it's probably best to assume the entire conversation is being recorded."

It is a warning increasingly shared among Korean managers in their 40s and 50s as they try to make sense of a generation of young employees whose workplace habits can seem baffling — and sometimes unsettling — to their bosses.

Some older managers see low loyalty to the company and a lack of respect for senior colleagues. Gen Z workers, however, see something very different: a desire for clear communication, boundaries between work and private life and relationships based less on hierarchy.

From recording conversations with bosses and avoiding unnecessary apologies to skipping team lunches and continuing to use honorific speech even with close colleagues, young Koreans are quietly rewriting some of the unwritten rules that have long governed the country's offices.

Why record a conversation with your boss?

For some middle managers, discovering that a young employee is recording a conversation without saying anything can be uncomfortable.

Some even wonder whether the employee is collecting evidence to use against them later.

But the young workers who participated in a Hankook Ilbo roundtable said the motivation is often much less confrontational.

"They don't start recording because they're looking for something to make an issue out of," one participant said. "If you don't say anything problematic, there won't be anything to use against you. Gen Z has been accustomed to recording lectures since university."

Another said younger workers tend to prefer certainty and documentation.

"That's also why Gen Z prefers reporting work through messaging apps," the participant said. "There are plenty of cases where, after you report something verbally, a boss says, 'When did you ever tell me that?' So people want to leave evidence."

Another participant said that was one reason for preferring KakaoTalk, Korea's dominant mobile messaging service.

"If it's urgent, though, I'd probably send a message and then call," another said. "I'd do both."

Why ‘I'm sorry’ is disappearing

Another complaint from older managers is that new employees increasingly respond with a simple "yes" when corrected instead of saying, "I'm sorry."

Young workers said there may be more behind that apparent reluctance to apologize.

"Maybe they simply dislike the awkwardness of the situation so much that they can't bring themselves to say they're sorry at that moment," one participant said. "It doesn't mean they think there's no need to apologize."

Another was more cautious about apologizing at work.

"Unless it really was my mistake, I try not to apologize as much as possible," the participant said.

The participant pointed to interactions with customers as an example.

"If you say, 'I'm sorry,' it doesn't always end with, 'That's OK.' Sometimes it becomes, 'Why did you do something you have to apologize for?' and they act as though they've suddenly gained the right to demand compensation," the participant said.

Older generations, the participant added, may not be so different once they rise into management themselves.

Gen Z doesn't necessarily hate company dinners

Few Korean workplace traditions illustrate generational tensions better than the "hoesik," the company dinner that traditionally combines food, alcohol and team bonding after work.

One participant questioned why attendance should be expected at all.

"A lunch gathering is fine, but I think there's a problem when a company dinner continues after regular working hours," the participant said.

Another pointed out that younger workers have never had a monopoly on disliking late-night company gatherings.

"New employees in the 1990s didn't go to late-night company dinners because they loved them either," the participant said.

Some Gen Z workers even see value in such gatherings.

"I don't agree that Gen Z dislikes company dinners," one said. "It's an opportunity to hear people talk after they've let their guard down a little. You can hear things you wouldn't hear in a formal setting. That's information, too."

The bigger issue appears to be how long the gatherings last and whether drinking is compulsory.

One participant said friends generally attend because they worry that refusing could affect their lives at work. But many would prefer dinner to end after one round, with no pressure to drink.

One friend, the participant said, described a particularly frustrating contradiction.

"When she makes a mistake at work, they say, 'Did you come to the company to have fun?' But at a company dinner, they say, 'We're having fun, so why aren't you coming?' She said she doesn't know what she's supposed to do because it's so contradictory."

Another participant said getting together for a good meal once a month or once a quarter was perfectly reasonable.

"But I don't like it continuing into a second and third round," the participant said. "I'd like to go to a restaurant around 6 p.m., eat and finish by 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. at the latest."

Do coworkers really need to be friends?

For many younger Koreans, the answer is no.

"Isn't it enough for everyone to do their own job well?" one participant said. "I think a relationship where you share only work matters at the office and completely switch off after leaving work can be enough."

That attitude extends even to lunch.

One participant said eating alone was simply more comfortable, whether that meant bringing a packed lunch or choosing a restaurant independently.

Another said a friend's workplace had developed a culture in which employees largely worked and ate separately.

"When you eat together, you have to match everyone else's pace, and even if there's a cafe you want to visit, you can't necessarily suggest going there," the participant said. "My friend said the conversations also feel like empty small talk."

Others favored a compromise.

One participant said the team often orders food separately or visits convenience stores when busy, while setting aside a particular day to eat together.

And some Gen Z workers acknowledged that completely separating themselves from colleagues could make office life lonely.

"I think work would be boring and difficult if I didn't share some of my daily life," one participant said. "But no matter how close I am to a colleague, I won't tell them something I don't want becoming gossip."

The participant described a friend who told a coworker something about a romantic partner, only to discover the next day that the entire workplace knew.

"After that, even at private gatherings outside work, my friend became much more careful about sharing personal things," the participant said.

For older employees, however, there is a practical concern: Can people really work well together without developing personal relationships?

New recruits do not arrive knowing a company's systems, one participant pointed out. Much of that knowledge has to be taught by more experienced colleagues.

A younger participant pushed back against the idea that learning the job should require personal closeness.

"Properly training new employees is part of the company's job," the participant said. "Of course they don't know how to do the work — they've never worked at that company before. It's difficult for me to understand why you have to become personally close to someone in order to learn your job."

Even close coworkers keep the honorifics

Perhaps one of the more surprising changes involves language itself.

Korean has an elaborate system of honorific and informal speech that can signal age, hierarchy and intimacy. Traditionally, two people who become close — particularly when one is older — may agree to switch to informal speech.

Some Gen Z workers see little reason to do so.

"Unless they're one of the few people I'm genuinely close to in my private life, I don't really switch to informal speech even with people my own age," one participant said. "I don't like people speaking informally to me just because I'm younger, either. That's especially true in professional relationships."

Another said even close friendships formed through work may remain linguistically formal.

"I'm genuinely close to people I met when I was an intern, and we still use honorific speech," the participant said. "It doesn't feel uncomfortable. I might call someone 'unni' or 'oppa,' but I still end my sentences with the polite '-yo' form."

"Unni" and "oppa" are terms women use to address older women and older men, respectively, and can signal familiarity without necessarily eliminating polite speech.

One participant suggested there may even be an advantage to maintaining that linguistic distance.

"When you start speaking casually, the way you treat each other becomes more casual, too," the participant said. "Maybe senior employees know that, which is why they're actually careful to use honorific speech at work."

Becoming too comfortable, the participant said, can blur the boundary between professional and personal relationships — and eventually lead to personal feelings or favors entering the workplace.

For older managers, Gen Z's behavior can look distant, distrustful or even disrespectful. For the young workers themselves, however, many of the same habits serve a different purpose: making expectations explicit and keeping professional relationships professional.

The disagreement may ultimately be less about whether Gen Z respects the workplace than about what "respect" at work is supposed to look like.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, was translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.

韩国Z世代员工正在重塑办公室规范，他们追求更清晰的沟通、更明确的工作与生活界限以及更少的等级关系。在《韩国日报》的一次圆桌会议上，参与者表示他们会录音或发送信息来记录工作内容，而对于道歉和公司聚餐的看法则各不相同。许多人倾向于限制下班后的聚会和私人分享，但也有一些人重视职场友谊和团队聚餐。他们的这些习惯反映了他们对职场尊重的不同理解。

圆桌会议参与者表示，口头工作报告事后可能会受到质疑，这促使一些员工使用 KakaoTalk 或其他即时通讯应用程序来记录指示和更新。

有些参与者除非认为自己犯了错误，否则不会道歉；向顾客道歉有时会导致顾客要求赔偿。

一位参与者表示，理想的公司晚餐会在晚上 6 点左右开始，8 点或 9 点结束，不会再进行其他轮次。

一些员工表示他们更喜欢独自用餐，或者将同事关系集中在工作上，而另一些员工则表示会抽出一天时间进行团队用餐。

参与者表示，一些 Z 世代员工即使在与关系密切的同事相处时也会继续使用敬语，部分原因是想在职业关系和私人关系之间保持界限。

发布于2026年10月31日凌晨12:10（韩国标准时间）

《韩国时报》插图，作者：申东俊

“当你和二十多岁的员工交谈时，最好假设整个谈话过程都被录音了。”

韩国四五十岁的经理们越来越意识到这一点，他们试图理解年轻一代员工的工作习惯，这些习惯在老板看来可能令人费解，有时甚至令人不安。

一些资深管理者认为员工对公司忠诚度低，对资深同事缺乏尊重。然而，Z世代员工的看法却截然不同：他们渴望清晰的沟通、明确的工作与生活界限，以及更少基于等级制度的人际关系。

从录制与老板的对话、避免不必要的道歉，到不参加团队午餐、即使与关系密切的同事也继续使用敬语，韩国年轻人正在悄然改写一些长期以来支配着该国办公室的不成文规则。

为什么要录下和老板的对话？

对于一些中层管理者来说，发现年轻员工在不说话的情况下录音可能会让他们感到不舒服。

甚至有人怀疑这名员工是否在收集证据，以便日后用来对付他们。

但参加《韩国日报》圆桌会议的年轻工人表示，他们的动机往往不那么具有对抗性。

一位参与者表示：“他们录音并不是因为想找茬。如果你不说任何有问题的话，就不会有人拿你做文章。Z世代从大学时代就开始习惯录音了。”

另一位员工表示，年轻的员工往往更喜欢确定性和有据可查的信息。

“这也是为什么Z世代更喜欢通过即时通讯软件汇报工作的原因，”这位参与者说。“很多时候，你口头汇报之后，老板会问，‘你什么时候跟我说过这话？’所以人们想留下证据。”

另一位参与者表示，这也是他更喜欢韩国主流移动通讯服务 KakaoTalk 的原因之一。

“不过，如果情况紧急，我可能会先发条信息再打电话，”另一个人说。“我会两种方式都用。”

为什么“对不起”正在消失？

老员工们还抱怨说，新员工在被纠正时，越来越倾向于简单地回答“是”，而不是说“对不起”。

年轻的员工们表示，这种表面上不愿道歉的背后可能还有更深层次的原因。

一位参与者说：“也许他们只是太讨厌这种尴尬的局面，所以当时说不出对不起来。但这并不意味着他们认为没有必要道歉。”

另一个人则在工作中更谨慎地对待道歉这件事。

“除非真的是我的错，否则我尽量不道歉，”这位参与者说。

该参与者以与客户的互动为例进行了说明。

“如果你说‘对不起’，对方并不总是会说‘没关系’。有时他们会问‘你为什么做了需要道歉的事？’，好像他们突然获得了要求赔偿的权利，”这位参与者说道。

这位参与者补充说，老一辈人一旦晋升到管理层，可能就不会有那么大的不同了。

Z世代并非一定讨厌公司聚餐

很少有韩国职场传统能比“会食”（hoesik）更好地体现代际矛盾。会食是公司下班后举办的聚餐活动，传统上将食物、酒水和团队建设结合起来。

一位参与者质疑为什么一定要有人出席。

“午餐聚会没问题，但我认为公司晚宴如果持续到正常工作时间之后就有点问题了，”这位参与者说。

另一位人士指出，不喜欢公司深夜聚会的并非只有年轻员工。

“90 年代的新员工去参加公司深夜聚餐并不是因为他们喜欢这种聚餐方式，”这位参与者说。

一些Z世代员工甚至认为这样的聚会很有价值。

“我不认为Z世代不喜欢公司聚餐，”一位受访者说。“这是一个让人们放下戒备、畅所欲言的机会。你可以听到一些在正式场合听不到的事情。这也是一种信息。”

更大的问题似乎是聚会持续的时间有多长，以及饮酒是否是强制性的。

一位参与者表示，朋友们通常会出席，因为他们担心拒绝饮酒会影响工作。但许多人更希望晚餐只喝一轮酒就结束，没有饮酒的压力。

一位参与者说，他的一位朋友描述了一个特别令人沮丧的矛盾之处。

“当她在工作中犯错时，他们会说，‘你来公司是为了玩乐吗？’但在公司聚餐时，他们又会说，‘我们玩得很开心，那你为什么不来？’她说她不知道自己应该怎么做，因为这太矛盾了。”

另一位参与者表示，每月或每季度聚餐一次完全合理。

“但我不太喜欢比赛进行到第二轮、第三轮，”参赛者说。“我希望晚上6点左右去餐厅吃饭，最晚8点或9点结束。”

同事之间真的需要成为朋友吗？

对于许多年轻的韩国人来说，答案是否定的。

一位参与者说：“难道每个人做好自己的工作还不够吗？我认为，在办公室里只谈工作，下班后就完全放下工作，这样的关系就足够了。”

这种态度甚至延伸到了午餐时间。

一位参与者表示，独自用餐会更舒服，无论是自带午餐还是自己选择餐厅。

另一位朋友说，他朋友的工作场所形成了一种文化，在这种文化中，员工大多分开工作和吃饭。

“一起吃饭的时候，你得配合每个人的节奏，就算你想去哪家咖啡馆，也不能主动提议去，”这位参与者说。“我的朋友说，大家的谈话也感觉像是空洞的闲聊。”

其他人则倾向于妥协。

一位参与者表示，该团队在忙碌时经常单独点餐或去便利店购买食物，但会抽出一天一起吃饭。

一些 Z 世代员工也承认，完全与同事隔离会让办公室生活变得孤独。

一位参与者说：“我觉得如果不分享一些日常生活，工作会很无聊也很困难。但是，无论我和同事关系多么亲密，我都不会告诉他们一些我不想成为八卦的事情。”

这位参与者描述了一位朋友向同事透露了有关伴侣的一些事情，结果第二天发现整个工作场所都知道了。

“在那之后，即使在工作以外的私人聚会上，我的朋友也变得更加谨慎地分享个人私事，”这位参与者说。

但对于年纪较大的员工来说，存在一个实际问题：如果不建立私人关系，人们真的能很好地一起工作吗？

一位与会者指出，新员工入职时并不了解公司的系统。很多知识需要由经验丰富的同事来传授。

一位年轻的参与者反驳了学习工作需要个人密切关系的观点。

“妥善培训新员工是公司职责的一部分，”这位参与者说。“他们当然不知道该怎么做——他们以前从未在这家公司工作过。我很难理解为什么你必须和某人建立私人关系才能学会工作。”

即使是关系亲密的同事也会保留敬语。

或许最令人惊讶的变化之一就与语言本身有关。

韩语拥有一套复杂的敬语和非正式用语体系，可以用来表示年龄、等级和亲密程度。传统上，关系亲近的两个人——尤其是一方年长时——可能会约定改用非正式用语。

一些Z世代员工认为没有理由这样做。

一位参与者表示：“除非是我私生活中真正亲近的少数人，否则即使是和同龄人，我也不会轻易使用非正式的语言。我也不喜欢别人仅仅因为我年轻就用非正式的语言和我说话。在职业关系中尤其如此。”

另一位人士表示，即使是通过工作建立的亲密友谊，在语言上也可能保持正式。

“我和实习时认识的人关系真的很好，我们现在仍然使用敬语，”这位参与者说。“这并不会让我感到不自在。我可能会叫别人‘姐姐’或‘哥哥’，但我仍然会在句末加上敬语‘哟’。”

“Unni”和“oppa”分别是女性用来称呼年长女性和年长男性的称呼，可以在不取代礼貌用语的情况下表示亲昵。

一位参与者认为，保持这种语言距离甚至可能是一种优势。

“当你开始用非正式的语言交谈时，你们彼此对待的方式也会变得更加随意，”这位参与者说。“也许资深员工明白这一点，所以他们才会在工作中格外注意使用敬语。”

这位参与者表示，过于安逸会模糊职业关系和私人关系之间的界限，最终导致个人感情或人情进入工作场所。

对于年长的管理者来说，Z世代的行为可能显得疏远、不信任甚至不尊重。然而，对于这些年轻员工而言，许多相同的习惯却有着不同的目的：明确期望，并维护专业的职业关系。

这场分歧最终可能与其说是 Z 世代是否尊重工作场所，不如说是工作中的“尊重”应该是什么样子。

本文来自《韩国日报》（《韩国时报》的姊妹报），由人工智能生成系统翻译，并由《韩国时报》编辑。