This South Korean start-up is only hiring people over 55

Jun 20, 2017

This article is published in collaboration with Business Insider.

Park Jong-hwan, 80, who is selected as a participant for a reunion, rests at a hotel used as a waiting place in Sokcho, South Korea, October 19, 2015. The reunion of 90 South Koreans and 96 North Koreans, the 20th of its kind, will be held at a resort in the North, mostly in a large ballroom under the watchful eye of officials. The reunions are politically important for the South, where 66,000 people are on a waiting list to see long-lost relatives, a number that is shrinking fast, while the North also seeks to maximise their domestic propaganda value. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji - RTS51QE

"The time that they have, and their interest in this work, are why they come to work." Image: REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Tony Yoo

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A startup in South Korea is making headlines for only hiring staff that are aged 55 years and over.

Channel NewsAsia reports the founder of content monitoring company EverYoung established the rule to prove the futility of age discrimination – a phenomenon that’s reportedly prevalent in modern Korean corporate culture.

Employees at EverYoung monitor blog content on Korean web portal Naver and detect sensitive information on Naver Maps, as well as perform other IT tasks, including running coding classes for school students.

Image: World Health Organisation

The Seoul startup, which has 420 seniors from a variety of career backgrounds working for it, mandates a 10-minute break for every 50 minutes of work, and staff are rostered on four-hour shifts.

Manager Kim Seong-Kyu told ChannelNews Asia that older employees have an attention to detail not as common in the younger workforce, with distracting mobile phones stored away during work time.

“They are full of passion. The time that they have, and their interest in this work, are primarily why they come to work,” he said.

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