9 office phrases you hear in every workplace K-drama
Workplace K-dramas run on a vocabulary of their own: titles instead of names, a set phrase for leaving the office, and a word for the team dinner where every subplot gets started. Once you know the nine below you can follow who outranks whom in a scene without the subtitles.
Most of these are in the formal -ㅂ니다 register or polite 요 speech, because that is how a Korean office talks. Casual speech between colleagues only appears once the drama has established that two characters are friends.
-
사장님
sajangnim
Boss, the head of the company
Literally: Company head + honorific 님
In the drama it is the chaebol heir behind the big desk. In life it is also what you call the owner of any restaurant or shop, which is why you hear 사장님 shouted across barbecue places all evening.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
대리님, 과장님, 부장님
daerinim, gwajangnim, bujangnim
Assistant manager, manager, department head
Nobody in a Korean office is called by their bare name. The ladder runs 사원, 주임, 대리, 과장, 차장, 부장, each with 님 attached, and characters address each other by rung. Hear who calls whom what and you know the whole hierarchy in a scene.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
수고하셨습니다.
sugohasyeosseumnida.
Good work today.
Literally: You took trouble.
Said when work wraps up, to someone senior or to the room. Between equals it is 수고했어요. 수고하세요 (keep up the effort) is for people still working when you leave, like the security guard, and is best not said upward to your boss.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
먼저 들어가 보겠습니다.
meonjeo deureoga bogesseumnida.
I'll head out first.
Literally: I'll try going in first.
The sentence that lets you leave before the boss does. 들어가다 (go in) means going home here. Junior characters say it with a bow and a visible knot in the stomach.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
오늘 저녁에 회식합니다.
oneul jeonyeoge hoesikamnida.
We're having a team dinner tonight.
회식 is the company dinner with drinking that every office drama uses as a plot device: confessions, fights, the senior who will not let you go home. The -ㅂ니다 ending is the formal register a manager uses for announcements.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
야근해야 돼요.
yageunhaeya dwaeyo.
I have to work late.
Literally: (I) must do night work.
야근 is overtime, and in dramas it is the standard reason a date gets cancelled. The matching morning word is 출근 (going to work) and the sweet one is 퇴근 (leaving work).
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
결재 부탁드립니다.
gyeoljae butakdeurimnida.
Please sign off on this.
결재 is managerial approval, the document carried to the boss's desk. It sounds exactly like 결제 (payment), and Koreans mix up the spelling too. 부탁드립니다 is the humble 'I ask it of you'.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
죄송합니다. 제 실수입니다.
joesonghamnida. je silsuimnida.
I'm sorry. It was my mistake.
The formal apology to a superior; 미안해요 would be far too casual here. In dramas it comes with a ninety-degree bow and usually in front of the whole team.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
퇴근 안 하세요?
toegeun an haseyo?
Aren't you going home?
What the love interest says to the main character working alone at nine in the evening. 퇴근 is leaving the office for the day, and 칼퇴 (kaltoe, knife-leaving) is the dream of leaving on the dot.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase →
Watch for the register shifts. A manager switching from 요 to -ㅂ니다 means the conversation just became official; a junior being spoken to in 반말 by the boss is normal, while a junior answering in 반말 is a scandal. The writers use speech levels to tell you about power the way other shows use costumes.