"Feeling Stifled at the Thought of Going to Work"... Part-Time Workers Also Struggle with the Unending 'Corona Villains'

Verbal Abuse and Assault Over No Mask... Part-Time Workers' Ordeal
Struggles with Customers Every Time Quarantine Rules Change
Concerns Over Infection Due to Contact with Numerous People

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] “Thinking about having to endure this for a while makes my chest feel tight.”

Kim Jong-hee (26, pseudonym), who works at a restaurant in Seomyeon, Busan, sighs whenever she thinks about going to work these days. Since the social distancing level in the Busan area was raised to Level 4 on the 10th, conflicts with customers have become frequent. Kim said, “Every time the distancing level changes, it’s a torment to repeatedly explain the new quarantine rules like a parrot,” adding, “Many customers throw tantrums citing previous rules before the upgrade, and some even curse severely when told they cannot enter.”

As COVID-19 prolongs, part-time workers who have to deal with customers complaining about quarantine rules are facing difficulties. It is common to have arguments with customers over the changed rules every time the distancing level shifts.

Jo Kyung-jin (24, pseudonym), who works at an animal experience cafe in the Gyeonggi area, is also exhausted after enduring the same situation for two years. He often faces verbal abuse when customers demand to be excluded from the entry limit by insisting on vaccine incentives that do not apply at Level 4 or when he requests documents to verify immediate family members.

Although mask-wearing has long become a habit, some customers wear masks improperly, such as ‘under-the-chin mask’ or ‘nose-exposed mask,’ and some even take off their masks inside the store after finishing their food. It is entirely the part-time workers’ responsibility to stop this behavior. Sometimes, these disputes escalate to physical assaults. Last month, an incident where a drunk customer assaulted a convenience store owner who requested mask-wearing was reported on an online community, sparking public outrage. In May, a woman in her 50s was booked by the police after throwing ice cream at an employee who asked her to wear a mask at a large supermarket in Gwangju.

Because they deal with hundreds or thousands of unspecified people daily, concerns about infection are also significant. According to a survey conducted by Alba Heaven, a job portal for part-time workers, targeting 814 part-time workers about commuting to and from work, 48.0% of them reported ‘commuting stress.’ The biggest stress factor was concern about physical exhaustion at 53.4%, followed by fear of COVID-19 infection at 19.1% as a major cause.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.