hankyoreh

From the left are pictured workers at major South Korean companies who are now permitted to dress casually at the office: Kang Min-gu

Employees from LG Electronics and LG Chem headquarters had finished lunch and were busily walking across the first-floor lobby of Yeouido’s LG Twin Towers at 1 pm on Aug. 13. A man in his 30s was wearing slim-fit pants showing his ankles paired with a horizontally-striped, white cotton shirt. He wore “no-show socks” that weren’t visible outside of his sneakers. Another man wore beige cotton pants and a khaki-colored polo t-shirt. He also had on black slip-ons. A woman in her 30s wore a flower-patterned t-shirt with blue jeans and white sandals. Their clothes had the reporter wondering whether this was a college campus, not a place of work. Most common wore beige cotton pants with white sneakers.

With Hyundai Motor Group belatedly joining the pack in March, the major affiliates of the “Big Four” business groups in Korea - Samsung, Hyundai Motor Group, SK and LG - have all implemented casual dress code policies that allow greater freedom for employees to wear what they want to work. The policies have clearly had an effect. There are gradual signs that changes are taking place within the corporate culture of these companies as well.

LG launched its own casual dress code policy exactly one year ago and it continues to be very popular among employees. LG Electronics allowed employees to wear “business casual” – business suits without the tie – and then last September permitted them to wear “completely casual” to work, a look exemplified by “white shirts and blue jeans.” A senior staff member at LG Electronics, Han Min-soo, 31, told the Hankyoreh, “I was nervous at first whether I’d be allowed to wear something so casual, but my bosses all immediately started wearing jeans so it was easy enough to get used to it.” She also added, “I feel lighter coming to work because I can wear running shoes rather than more formal, work shoes, and it feels like the atmosphere in the office has become more relaxed.” A Mr. Heo, 36, who works at an LG affiliate, told the Hankyoreh, “After seeing everyone wear formal suits for so long, there’s a new atmosphere of freedom now that people are wearing their own unique styles. I think people are talking more freely at meetings than before.”

One of the areas all young employees strongly agree on is that there has been a subtle change in the approachability of their bosses. “Our managers are wearing blue jeans and sneakers so there’s less tension around them than before,” said another employee. “There’s a more friendly atmosphere surrounding them.”

Employees in their 40s to 50s, used to wearing suits over the past 10 years, still looked a bit awkward in their new clothes compared to employees in their 20s and 30s. Many of the men in their 40s, 50s, and 60s the reporter saw at LG headquarters were still wearing suit pants with short-sleeved white shirts, but had varied it up a bit with colored sneakers. “I didn’t have any casual clothes at home so I had to buy a lot,” one LG senior manager quipped. The shift away from formal dress shoes means there is no longer that familiar scene of workers walking around in brown or black slippers at the office. That being said, it was hard to find anyone wearing shorts at LG headquarters.

LG implemented its casual dress code policy gradually, but Hyundai Motor Group made the change almost immediately. In the past, most employees wore “dark suits and a tie” to work, but that look has now shifted 180 degrees: the majority now don casual wear. Hyundai was the last of the “Big Four” companies to change its dress code policy, but it’s clear the new policy has had an impact. A Hankyoreh reporter found that 20% to 30% of the men leaving work at the company’s headquarters in Seoul’s Yangjae District were wearing shorts. For example, a woman in her 30s was leaving work with white shorts and a clutch bag, while another man wore beige shorts and an eco-bag on his shoulder.

One Hyundai Motor Group deputy manager told the Hankyoreh, “I was curious to see if there were any brave souls who’d take the leap and wear shorts the first summer after the new policy went into effect. Once one or two people began wearing shorts, the numbers skyrocketed.” He also added, “Once deciding on something, our company goes 100%.” He also informed the reporter that a formal dress shoes store in the Hyundai Motor Group’s building recently saw a fall in the number of customers participating in its monthly membership program.

Park Ji-hyun, 34, a manager who has worked at Hyundai Motor Group for six years, wore shorts at work for the first time that day. “I was nervous because most of the employees who had started wearing shorts were younger, but once I wore them to work, I felt lighter and it even seems like I work more efficiently.” Employees who have lots of meetings outside of Hyundai headquarters, however, still wear business suits. Employees are asked to adjust their clothing to the TPO (Time·Place·Occasion).

Hyundai Motor Group plans to reduce the number of titles used at the company from six to four in September, and is even looking to either have all employees add an honorific (“nim”) to the ends of their titles or may simplify the titles to just two categories: “junior” and “senior.” Some point to the impact of the relatively younger “third generation” of leaders at both LG and Hyundai Motor Group – including LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun - over the past year for these changes.