"Come to the Office" vs. "I Will Work from Home" — The 2026 Office Worker War

Although the pandemic has ended, the landscape of working from home has not vanished. As of 2026, 96,000 office workers in South Korea are still telecommuting. In the spring of 2026, South Korean office workers are still standing before the same question: Should I go to the office today, or can I work from home? Even though the pandemic has ended and social distancing has been lifted, the question of "where to work" has become even more sensitive. Amid this conflict where corporations and workers clash with their respective logic, South Korea's remote and hybrid work culture continues to evolve rapidly. According to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, approximately 960,000 workers used remote work nationwide as of 2022, a more than tenfold increase compared to 2019 (approximately 95,000), prior to the spread of COVID-19. While this figure was adjusted slightly alongside the r…