Instead-Men and Can’t-Botherists

South Korean terms for a new breed of odd-job helpers and their indolent employers.

Writing recently for The Global Post, Jiyeon Lee reported on “one of the hottest trends in the Korean service sector these days: the instead-man service.”

Companies with a pool of instead-men and women offer to do odd jobs that range anywhere from food delivery to killing cockroaches. Customers pay a fee that starts at about $4 and can reach into the hundreds depending on the service.

Yoon Ju-yeol, who manages a successful instead-man company, explained to Lee the boom in demand for instead-man services:

“People are saying these days, ‘I want to take care of the important things in life, and give myself [a] rest when I have free time.’”

Yoon explains that South Koreans are now at a stage where they treasure themselves much more than they did in the past and see paying for their own convenience as a self-investment.

Despite South Korea’s proliferation of delivery men and “subsitute drivers” (who will drive drunk drivers home at any time of the day or night), Lee said:

Yoon thinks these services are not enough to tend to the needs of the so-called “can’t-botherists,” who, of course, are those suffering from “can’t-botherism” (both are popular words in Korea). Hence, the arrival of the instead-man.

Giving an insight in to the range of instead-man services, Lee revealed:

University students have asked instead-men to sit in their classes for them and even elementary school students have called in to have art supplies delivered to their school gates.

Instead-men say that some of the requests can be quite touching as well. Gruff husbands call in to have porridge and medicine sent over to their sick wives, and one woman even asked if an older instead-mancould accompany her elderly father on a fishing trip for two days.