Real Man

It seemed that everyone knew except for Yoo-hyun.

Why did he suddenly quit after being promoted to a deputy?

“Are you jealous because I became a manager?”

When Yoo-hyun guessed the reason, Yun Jae-il, the deputy, blinked his eyes.

“Oh? You didn’t know?”

“Just spit it out.”

“Um…”

Yun Jae-il glanced at Seo Chang-woo, the deputy, and explained.

“Well, he always considered you as his rival. He didn’t get a special promotion, but you climbed higher, so he couldn’t stand it.”

“Brother, don’t mind him. He was always greedy.”

Jin Sun-mi tried to lighten the mood, but it was hard to ignore.

Yoo-hyun remembered the words he had poured out to his old colleague who was full of resentment.

-Study? Delay? Line? Don’t think about that stuff, just build your skills so that the company can’t do without you. Then even if they tell you to leave, the company will hold on to you.

Back then, Yoo-hyun had emphasized the effort to Gong Hyun-joon, the deputy who complained about the company.

He pushed him to do better no matter what to impress others.

He thought it was right, but now it felt different.

Would the opportunity come if he built his skills?

Knowing that it might not be the case, Yoo-hyun couldn’t give any answer.

Seo Chang-woo, the deputy who gave up, finished him off.

“I looked at his attendance, and he worked too much overtime. He probably thought he didn’t fit in the corporate life.”

“It’s a shame. He really worked hard.”

Yoo-hyun perked up his ears at the words of Byun Jae-seung, the deputy.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t know about his work, but I know what kind of education he received. He took everything from language to sales and marketing courses.”

“Was that program open to the outside?”

“It was superficial, but it existed. Actually, our company doesn’t provide that kind of work education. Hyun-joon was disappointed too.”

Byun Jae-seung’s words revealed the part that Yoo-hyun had questioned.

The company had an education team, but they didn’t provide the education that was needed in the field.

Yoo-hyun took the opportunity to bring up the topic naturally.

The target changed, but there was no problem in delivering the content.

“If there was a proper education program, could we have prevented Hyun-joon’s resignation?”

“Hey, how can you stop him with education?”

Yun Jae-il waved his hand, and Byun Jae-seung gave a different opinion.

“No. I think it was possible. If you listen to the VOC, there are many cases where people suffer from work because of the lack of mentor-mentee education. Hyun-joon also had a hard time because of the wrong mentor. You all know that.”

“Even if that was the case, it wouldn’t have worked. I saw that Hyun-joon was a bit ostracized in the team because of his attitude.”

Yoo-hyun asked why to Seo Chang-woo, the deputy who disagreed.

“Why?”

“He complained a few times because there was something unfair. Did that work? The team leader didn’t like it.”

“But they still promoted him.”

“He should have gotten a special promotion because his performance was good. He didn’t get it because he was marked.”

“Who would want to live in fear of the team leader?”

Yun Jae-il muttered, and Yoo-hyun’s question was melted in it.

There was no case where someone came down from the team leader position.

Besides, the team leader had the powerful personnel authority to decide the rewards and promotions of the team members.

If you were marked by the team leader, your work life was screwed.

Wasn’t Gong Hyun-joon the same case?

Yoo-hyun, who was thinking deeply, asked a question in a different direction.

“Jae-il, isn’t it your team’s job to listen to the complaints?”

“Our team? Well, yes, but we’re not doing it.”

“Why?”

“There’s an ethics committee in the company. There’s also a fact-finding team.”

There was no way for an individual to contact the group ethics committee.

The fact-finding team was in Yeouido Center, but the situation was the same.

Their role was not to listen to the grievances, but to solve the problems.

“Can the employees complain there?”

“It’s a bit difficult. But there’s no choice.”

As Yun Jae-il said resignedly, Jin Sun-mi, the deputy, tilted her head.

“Brother, didn’t your team do the grievance collection thing before? I think you also took a photo for the newsletter.”

“Oh, that? We did it for a while and then it fizzled out.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to keep doing it because it was my idea, but they told me to stop it because it was a duplication of work.”

“Duplication of work… That’s ridiculous.”

Yoo-hyun saw the obvious passing of responsibility between the organizations.

Yun Jae-il defended his team against Yoo-hyun’s sneer.

“Even if there was a department that listened to Hyun-joon’s complaints, he would have quit.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Basically, he felt inferior to you and left. He knew you were a manager and he was a deputy, how could he bear it?”

“Why can’t he bear it? It’s someone else’s business.”

Jin Sun-mi asked incredulously, and Yun Jae-il beat around the bush.

“Men’s pride, something like that.”

“That’s weird.”

Yoo-hyun also thought it was weird like Jin Sun-mi.

But this was a common problem in the company.

He could tell by looking at Kim Ho-sung, the deputy who didn’t show any dissatisfaction.

That’s how much the current title system had problems.

Yoo-hyun quickly reviewed the problem and said what he had in mind.

“Isn’t it because you have to call me a manager when you call me?”

“That’s true.”

“Then what if we get rid of the titles?”

“Huh? Then call by name?”

“No. Unify the ranks.”

Yoo-hyun explained more precisely to Yun Jae-il, who was surprised.

Then Seo Chang-woo, who was listening, gave a counter opinion.

“I’ve also thought about rank unification, but I only got scolded for saying it.”

“Why? They do that in foreign countries.”

“Yoo-hyun, think about it. We already judge by rank when we contact other companies. How can we know the other’s career by email without that?”

“Judging by rank is more problematic.”

Some companies gave the deputy title as soon as they joined to avoid being ignored.

It was common to raise the rank for that reason.

It was not only small and medium-sized companies, but also some medium and large companies that used this trick.

It was a pointless thing to do at the national level.

“In theory, yes. But all the other companies are using it. How do we unify the ranks? Do you think communication will work if everyone is a manager?”

“Maybe we can change it to something else.”

“Good. I thought of that too. But do you know where I got stuck?”

“Where?”

“The biggest problem is that the rank issue is linked to the whole group. We can’t just change the subsidiary.”

There was no way a mere HR staff could reach the group.

From Seo Chang-woo’s perspective, it was worth giving up.

Yoo-hyun asked him a question instead.

“So you mean it’s possible if we change the whole group?”

“Yes. But the company won’t do that.”

“Why do you think so?”

“From the higher-ups’ point of view, it’s convenient to have ranks. Do you think they would change it for the sake of the employees?”

“We have to change it because it causes work loss. The side effects are too big to ignore.”

As Yoo-hyun’s voice tone rose, Seo Chang-woo stretched out his palms forward.

“Whoa. Calm down. This is not something to do at a colleague meeting.”

“Yes. I got a little excited.”

“Yoo-hyun, don’t worry about Hyun-joon. He already quit.”

“It’s not because of Hyun-joon. I just want to prevent another situation like him.”

“…”

If they looked back at the conversation, they were all bystanders.

They knew there was enough room to change, even though there were constraints.

Yun Jae-il, who was in charge of the general affairs team and failed to take care of the employees, asked.

“Isn’t this too serious for a colleague meeting?”

“It’s something we can talk about because it’s a colleague meeting. We have HR, general affairs, education, and PR departments here.”

“Even if you say that, there’s nothing we can do by ourselves.”

Seo Chang-woo’s words were not wrong in most cases.

But what if Yoo-hyun was included?

Yoo-hyun cut off his words and asked right away.

“What if we can try to change it?”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt. But like I said before…”

While Seo Chang-woo was trying to mention the limitations, Yoo-hyun looked at his colleagues.

Judging from the conversation so far, they all longed for change in their hearts.

They just couldn’t do it because of various constraints.

This fact changed Yoo-hyun’s plan, who came to confirm the problems with his colleagues’ eyes.

Yoo-hyun asked Seo Chang-woo bluntly.

“So you mean we can do it if we remove the constraints?”

“It’s theoretically possible. I have some reviewed contents too. But it’s going to be hard.”

“Then that’s fine. Just trust me.”

Yoo-hyun answered coolly and smiled brightly.

His colleagues blinked their eyes, not fully understanding his intention.

They had no idea that they were going to be the front line of the company reform.

The colleague meeting ended with a warm atmosphere that day.

As always, it was awkward at the beginning, but they became inseparable friends when they parted.

Yun Jae-il, who put his arm around Yoo-hyun’s shoulder, shouted loudly.

“Yoo-hyun, what is a good colleague? Just tell me. I’ll listen to everything.”

“Really? I’ll remember that.”

“What do you think of me? I’ll jump up and run to you even if I’m asleep when you call me.”

Yun Jae-il was not the only one.

The other colleagues also promised their collegiality.

“Brother, I’ll do whatever you ask me right away!”

“Yeah. I’m glad that Yoo-hyun is helping you.”

“Yoo-hyun, look forward to it. I’ll send you an education plan full of my know-how.”

They thought they would forget it after drinking, but they all seemed to remember.

Yoo-hyun chuckled and gave them a thumbs up.

“Colleagues are the best.”

He was able to confirm that their collegiality was not just words soon.

Kwon Se-jung asked Yoo-hyun, who was looking at the data on the monitor.

“What’s this newsletter?”

“It’s a collection of all the internal innovation activities we did. Look at this. Do you remember?”

Yoo-hyun pointed to the newsletter content that appeared on the screen three years ago, and Kwon Se-jung nodded.

“Yeah, the sound box. It was hanging in the hallway for a while. But it fizzled out.”

“There are more than one or two things that fizzled out here.”

“But we did a lot of activities for the employees.”

There were some good activities in the newsletter summary sent by Jin Sun-mi.

A sound box that listens to the employees’ grievances.

A job rotation system that supports inter-departmental transfers.

A horizontal organizational movement based on Silicon Valley cases.

A personnel innovation plan for fair evaluation, etc.

Someone had already suggested the parts that touched Yoo-hyun’s concerns.

That’s why Yoo-hyun felt more sorry.

“So what. They just used it for publicity and threw it away.”

“Do you think they did that just to write an article? There must have been no support from the top.”

“That’s true. But I think the employees’ interest was also lacking. Just look at us. We never used the sound box.”

Three years ago, the sound box proposed by the general affairs team was similar to the wish box in the army.

It was intended to listen to the grievances and solve them, but the problem was that the protection of the informant and the complaint handling method were not clear.

They should have helped to improve the problem if they recognized it, but they didn’t care because they were busy.

It was the result of dismissing it as none of their business.