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Park Jin-cheol - not his real name - was startled when he realized that he was mumbling to himself while driving. In the consulting industry for seven years, he confided, "I want to say these things to someone, but my customers and colleagues are so busy with their work that I cannot unburden my thoughts on them."

Park continued, "Whether by presentation or by report, I feel that my accomplishments are always made transparent, and my life is always being chronicled in digits."

He said that he had scheduled an appointment with the mental health counseling service of his office by e-mail. "We are afraid of other colleagues finding out about such things, so we tend to schedule appointments by e-mail. Honestly, I worried that I would suffer a disadvantage if human resources found out." He recalled the case of a colleague, who had committed suicide a year earlier under the strain of work. This reminded him that treatment is often a necessary step.

Kim Sung-min (alias) feels a periodic sense of "danger" every time he completes a project. An employee of an IT firm since graduation, he confessed, "I’m fine when I’m engaged in my work, but when I wrap things up, I feel a surge of emptiness and unbounded misery. When I reflect upon things, a feeling of skepticism swells within me and my daily life seems meaningless." Kim, too, plans to seek out the company’s counselor.

There are increasing cases of companies stepping forward to offer services for "maladies of the mind" that develop while working. They either directly provide a psychological counseling center such that employees can receive treatment during work hours, or they outsource such services to independent professional counseling firms.

Samsung Electric, which established its first counseling center in 2001, has expanded its operation to include 9 clinics with 15 counselors, handling some 700 cases a year. LG CNS also opened an in-house counseling center known as "Shelter for the Heart." In one month, the center sees as many as 140 consultations through e-mail, instant message, or direct visit.

A two-year employee of LG CNS, Jang Ji-min (alias) came to the clinic one month ago for a personality and aptitude test. "I was doubtful that the work I was doing matched my aptitude. Due to the nature of my job, I have to meet many people as well as think critically and logically, but perhaps due to my impulsive and emotional personality, I lack motivation and interest." He discovered the origins of and method for resolving his unhappiness by means of consultation.

According Ju Il-jeong, a psychological counselor at the LG CNS center, "The employees wanted a place where they could unburden themselves of issues difficult to tell others about. Those employees working outside the office use instant messaging to request advice."

There are also independent professional agencies forming to meet the demands for the management of employees’ mental health. These are free of the limitations inherent in intra-firm centers, which include the difficulties of treating employees suffering from very serious conditions as well as preserving the anonymity of patrons.

Dain C&M, a company established last year, carries out the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for other companies. It conducts mental health consultations for the employees of contracted corporate clients including Hana Bank, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Google Korea, Macquarie Bank, and the Korea Water Resources Corporation. Daine C&M employee Gang Min-jae said that "although it depends upon the range of consultation and amount of usage, some 30,000 to 35,000 won (US$30-36) is paid annually to us for each employee covered. Dain C&M psychological counselor Yang Gyeong-yeon said, "The stress that our patients feel due to disagreements with their supervisor or dealing with a troublesome customer all stems from the psychological disposition formed since childhood, and so we use cognitive therapy to relieve internal stress."

Professor U Jong-min of the Inje University Seoul Paik Hospital’s neuropsychiatric division said, "Airplane crashes and explosions at chemical plants can occur to due the loss of concentration arising from stress, and companies can collapse due to the emotional instability of their CEO. Companies can no longer simply classify stress as a ’personal problem’ and move on by replacing the affected employee." In other words, he argues that stress must be regarded as yet another factor to be accounted for in a company’s crisis management system.

The most recent survey conducted in South Korea regarding depression in the workplace was done from April to October 2005 by a team headed by Professor Jo Jeong-jin, a family practice physician at Hanrim Medical School’s Seongsim Hospital. The results of this study showed that one in 10 employees is likely to have depression. When examined industry by industry, depression was most pronounced in those professions related to customer service: employees involved in gaming, cultural, and recreational occupations showed the highest rate of depression (31 percent), while hospitality and restaurant employees and social welfare service workers showed the 2nd and 3rd highest depression rates of 28.8 and 24.1 percent, respectively.

Regarding such results, Catholic University Medical School Professor Chae Jeong-ho stated, "[This survey] measured depression at the level when it is clinically diagnosed as a disease, and as a result uncovered that the numbers of those suffering depression are higher [than previously measured]."

In 2001, the Korean Society of Occupational Stress gauged the proportion of workers suffering from stress in Korea at 95 percent, far surpassing the same statistic measured in America (40 percent) and Japan (61 percent). The number of workplace accidents recognized as arising due to such psychological ailments as depression and adjustment disorder rose from 27 incidents in 2000 to 104 in 2005. Furthermore, the number of incidents in which overwork and stress were recognized as inducing ailments in the brain, heart, and blood, such as seizures and heart disease, rose from 1,950 cases in 2000 to 2,285 in 2005.

Such statistics demonstrate the demand felt by companies to take care of their employees’ mental health issues. A team led by Professor Choi Su-chan of Yonsei University conducted a survey last June of 715 workers, of whom 87 percent replied that the introduction of a psychological counseling center was necessary.

"As it is not easy for common people to search out psychiatric clinics," said Prof. U Jong-min, "there must be a means by which danger signs can be detected through counseling services."

By Lee-yu Ju-hyeon, Translated by Daniel Rakove

[englishhani@hani.co.kr]