South Korean firms face rise in parental interference at workplaces

SEOUL: Parental involvement in the working lives of adult children is becoming a growing issue for employers in South Korea, with human resources departments increasingly dealing with family members over matters such as salaries, office disputes and workplace rules.

According to online workplace communities cited in a Dawn report, what has long been seen as a defining transition into adulthood — entering the workforce — is, for some young employees, being complicated by parents who remain closely involved in their careers.

One post uploaded to Remember, a business card management app, described a case in which the mother of a newly hired employee visited a company office to press for a higher salary for her child. The writer, who identified himself as a male software developer in his 30s, said the company had to explain that the pay scale had already been fixed and would increase over time.

"We barely managed to talk her down after explaining that the salary range was already set and would go up over time. It felt like parents signing a rental contract for their underage kid. Does it really make sense for a parent to interfere in salary negotiations?" he revealed.

The same writer said such incidents were no longer rare. He added that at a friend’s workplace, the father of a young employee came to the office demanding to confront someone he believed was mistreating his child. "At my friend’s company, a young employee’s father actually came to the office shouting, ‘Bring out the person bullying my child'."

Examples shared by workers

The post prompted numerous responses from other users who recounted similar experiences. One person working in materials and inventory management said he had seen an applicant attend a job interview with his father present. According to the user, the father explained that he was concerned because it was his child’s first attempt at finding employment. "The father said he was worried because it was his child’s first time looking for a job," the post read.

Another commenter said a mother contacted a marketing department where her child was interning to ask whether the intern could leave before the end of an eight-hour shift because of plans with friends. "I work in a marketing department, and our interns are required to work eight-hour shifts, but one intern’s mother called asking if we could let her child leave early because she had plans with friends," they revealed.

Survey findings

This pattern reflects an extension of helicopter parenting, a term used in South Korea for parents seen as excessively involved in their children’s lives. While such behaviour was once associated mainly with schools and classrooms, it is now appearing in offices and corporate settings.

A 2024 survey by JoongAng Ilbo of 40 human resources managers at South Korea’s 100 largest companies by market capitalisation found that 14 respondents, or 35 per cent, said they had been contacted by an employee’s family member. The issues raised included department transfers, salaries, dress codes and vacation requests.

The report also cited a survey conducted in March by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The survey covered 1,600 parents aged 45 to 69 who had children between 19 and 34 years old. It found that 2 out of 3 respondents believed that a child’s successes and failures ultimately reflected parental responsibility.

That perception appears to be one of the factors behind the continued extension of parental oversight into adulthood and, increasingly, into the workplace.