In #MeToo era, South Korean millennials toast the demise of boozy after-work dinners

In Seoul, the Korean barbecue restaurants and pubs near Konkuk University used to see more people in corporate attire than students, with many coming in for hwaesik, a post-work social gathering with colleagues that h as been a staple of South Korea’s work culture since the 1960s.

Diners are likely to tuck into the popular samgyeopsal, or grilled pork belly, with glasses of alcohol. As the evening progresses and the drinks flow, they may switch seats to chat with others, and then move on to a noraebang – karaoke joint – for more raucous cheer. South Korean dramas and movies have often featured office workers having drunken parties with their neckties around their head.

But in the past year, the establishments once sustained by nightly hwaesik gatherings are feeling the pinch as these types of boozy work dinners are on the decline. Last year, 1,500 noraebangs in the country closed for good.

Min Heung-ki, a noraebang owner who has been operating in Konkuk University’s food alley for more than 30 years, said: “If there were at least 10 teams per night just two years ago, there are only about three teams per night nowadays. It’s not just noraebangs that are closing down, many restaurants are shutting down as the number of customers have gone down tremendously.”

South Korea’s famous hwaesik culture is undergoing a shift, accelerated by demographic and social trends. Younger workers in their 20s and 30s are less inclined towards attending the kind of company get-togethers that senior workers are used to.

In 2018, employment website Saramin’s survey of 695 workers indicated that 61 per cent of workers in their 20s and 30s believed that hwaesiks were not a necessary component of work life, while only 32 per cent of employees in their 40s and 50s had the same opinion.