Real Man

It was not just a list of evaluation items, but a detailed document that showed how the scores were allocated.

Yoo-hyun, who had handed it over to the future product leaders, asked them.

“What do you think the scores will be if you make them do unnecessary work and force them to work overtime, and then use that as an excuse to give them different ratings in the performance evaluation?”

“…”

Ha Tae-min, the team leader, looked the most embarrassed, but no one here was free from this issue.

That’s why everyone looked serious.

Yoo-hyun, who got up from his seat, looked down at the people who still couldn’t let go of the document.

“Fortunately, we still have time. Think carefully. Is it right to make them work overtime for something that’s not even important, or is it better to take care of the employees who have worked hard so far?”

“…”

“I hope you make a wise choice.”

Yoo-hyun left the room quietly, leaving behind the silent people.

It was not because Hyun Geun-young, the person in charge, or the team leaders were bad that they ran the organization poorly.

The lack of leadership experience was the biggest problem, and the second problem was that they received the spotlight too quickly.

They made the wrong choices because they were impatient to do well.

To improve this in the short term, Yoo-hyun chose a method that stimulated their desires.

He showed them that it would be more helpful to treat their employees well than to rush their work for their own benefit.

What choice would Hyun Geun-young make?

Yoo-hyun felt like he knew the answer without seeing it.

The choice was clear, even if it was for greed rather than goodwill.

A day passed, and nothing seemed to change.

Even though they had reduced the purchasing team’s work, there was still a lot of unnecessary work in the future product department.

One of those was the equipment setup that had to be done by the weekend.

Kwon Ik-tae, the senior engineer, who entered the semiconductor module process room on the fourth floor, sighed.

“Ah, they gave me false hope…”

He had to tell his daughter that he couldn’t go this weekend, but he couldn’t even open his mouth because he was afraid she would be disappointed and cry.

His wife nagged him about what he was going to do.

He felt frustrated, but as a senior engineer who had to be promoted, he had no choice.

He had to finish the equipment setup by the weekend, now that the mission had dropped.

Tap tap.

Kwon Ik-tae, who had made up his mind, pressed his phone and contacted the process team leader.

‘I’ll get scolded for calling him when he’s busy.’

He didn’t even expect any collaboration or support.

He just wanted to get a manual that he could do by himself.

But what?

The longer the call lasted, the bigger Kwon Ik-tae’s eyes got.

He was so surprised that he asked in a loud voice.

“What? The team leader will come and do it himself?”

-Yeah, we’ll go. We’ll finish it by tonight, so you don’t have to go until the weekend.

“But you said you didn’t have time…”

-It suddenly came up. Your person in charge and our team leader finished talking.

“Our person in charge?”

The person who said he had to do everything himself, what was going on?

Kwon Ik-tae blinked for a long time.

At the same time, Jang Jae-ho, the team leader who had put down his phone, closed his eyes tightly.

“I messed up.”

It was literally true.

He had asked Kim Hak-il, the team leader of the future product research center, who was scary, to change the handover method.

He had spoken as politely as possible and sent the data, but there was no way the other party would accept it easily.

As expected, he heard a harsh rejection and a threat to postpone the schedule.

But Jang Jae-ho endured it.

-What are you going to do if you don’t confirm it? We’ve already received the purchase confirmation. It’s not us, but Hansung Electronics that’s on fire.

It was because of what Yoo-hyun had said.

He didn’t just endure it, but appealed that he needed the active help of the future product research center to get the proper handover.

He didn’t grovel until the last phone call, unlike before.

He wondered where he got such courage from, and it was still strange to think about it.

But he soon returned to reality.

Jang Jae-ho, who was looking at his turned-off phone, muttered in a scared expression.

“What if he really doesn’t do it?”

As soon as he had a dizzying thought, a message came in.

-Let’s talk about this next week. I’ll go myself.

It was the first message that Kim Hak-il, the team leader, had sent first.

“Yes!”

Jang Jae-ho, who checked the content, clenched his fist.

He had avoided the worst situation with the future product research center, but the schedule had been pushed back.

Was it because a flaw had occurred in his perfect schedule management?

Hyun Geun-young, the person in charge, who had picked up his phone to report, looked very dark.

He apologized to Hong Il-seop, the executive director of the group, along with the facts.

“Executive director, there was a problem in the process of coordinating with the future product research center…”

He expected to be scolded, but it wasn’t.

Director Hong Il-seop laughed heartily.

“Haha! Don’t apologize for that. It’s about time we sorted things out with the Future Product Research Institute. They still think we’re fools.”

“It’s my fault for not handling the situation well.”

“It’s okay. You have plenty of time, so don’t push yourself too hard. Cheer up your staff. Oh, and why don’t you take a group vacation while you’re at it?”

“A group vacation?”

Director Hong Il-seop’s gentle voice reached the surprised Hyun Kyung-young, the person in charge.

“Didn’t you get a day off when you received the group reward last time?”

“That was…”

They didn’t even have the chance to rest on weekends, let alone a vacation.

Seeing Hyun Kyung-young hesitate, Director Hong Il-seop clicked his tongue.

“Tsk tsk! That’s why I said we need a manager to support the development planning team.”

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind. Don’t waste your vacation, just use it right away. That way, your staff’s morale will increase, and so will your reputation. Don’t you want to be an executive?”

“Th-thank you for your concern.”

“Sure. Do your best.”

The phone call ended with Director Hong Il-seop’s refreshing voice.

Hyun Kyung-young couldn’t calm his pounding heart for a long time.

The news of the phone call between Director Hong Il-seop and Hyun Kyung-young also reached Yoo-hyun.

It wasn’t someone who came and told him, but Director Hong Il-seop himself who sent a message.

Kwon Se-jung, the deputy who peeked his head from the side, asked.

“What did the group leader say?”

“He’s bragging about doing his group leader role for once.”

“What’s there to brag about? He’s just using the old reward he gave before.”

“At least he’s doing something. He didn’t care at all before.”

The future product team had done so well that it didn’t matter that they were a new organization.

There was no problem on paper, and he said it was good every time he received a report, so he turned a blind eye.

But that was just an excuse.

Yoo-hyun had advised Director Hong Il-seop yesterday when he talked about the handover issue with the Future Product Research Institute and the future plan, to pay attention to the staff in charge.

It was the perfect time for such advice to work.

Director Hong Il-seop needed to take care of the group’s subordinate organizations more, even if it was to expand the group to a business unit.

He only made a show of it now, but wouldn’t he pay more attention in the future?

Jung Hyun-woo, who had the same thought as Yoo-hyun, pointed out this part.

“It seems like the group leader is thinking about the planning team in charge. I heard that he ordered an investigation to Park, the manager of the strategic product planning team.”

“The performance of the team in charge was so great. It’s only right to support them quickly.”

“Yes. If the development planning team joins, there will be less chance of work getting messed up like before. I think the situation will improve since Mr. Hyun seems to have changed his mind a lot.”

“Really? Do you see any signs of him changing his mind?”

“Yes. He said not to work overtime on weekends this week.”

It was then.

Beep.

Yoo-hyun’s phone rang and a message from Hyun Kyung-young came in.

-I’m thinking of giving the staff a group vacation on Friday. To celebrate that, I’m planning to have a dinner with the team on Thursday. Do you want to join?

A dinner the day before the vacation?

Yoo-hyun showed his phone screen to his colleagues and chuckled.

“It seems like he needs some more time to change his mind.”

“Sigh.”

Sighs burst out from here and there.

Of course, they decided not to have a dinner with the team.

Hyun Kyung-young tried to talk to his staff separately, but Yoo-hyun refused that too.

It was better to go home early than to waste time on something unnecessary.

When Yoo-hyun expressed this opinion, Hyun Kyung-young was embarrassed.

“I’m fine with forcing the staff to leave early. There’s some work left, but we can postpone it. But we can’t avoid having a dinner forever, can we?”

“Why do you want to have a dinner?”

“For bonding, of course. And we have a lot of team reward money left.”

Hyun Kyung-young was not the kind of person who wanted to pocket the team reward money.

He deserved credit for trying to give it back to his staff fairly.

The problem was that he chose dinner as the way.

Yoo-hyun nodded and made another suggestion.

“Then why don’t you just do something that suits your purpose?”

“Is there another way?”

“Yes. I have something in mind. It’s…”

Yoo-hyun told him what he had discussed with his colleagues beforehand.

Hyun Kyung-young tilted his head as he listened.

“Do you think the staff will like that?”

“Yes. They will like it 100 times more than a dinner.”

Yoo-hyun’s voice was full of confidence as he answered.

Once Hyun Kyung-young agreed, there was no need to hesitate.

The alternative to dinner was delivered to the general affairs manager by Jung Hyun-woo.

Yoo-hyun asked Jung Hyun-woo, who had returned after finishing his task.

“What did the general affairs manager say?”

“He was very surprised. He said he was too noisy, and asked me to keep it a secret.”

“Good. A surprise event is better. Anything else?”

Yoo-hyun had prepared a few more items for the staff besides the alternative to dinner.

Jung Hyun-woo, who understood right away, nodded.

“I also took care of that through the general affairs manager. It should arrive before the vacation.”

“Well done. Did Se-jung go ahead?”

“Yes. He said he would meet his senior from school and find out about the trends in other departments. Jun-sik said he would meet his colleague and check if there was anything else to improve.”

“They’re all diligent.”

Yoo-hyun’s colleagues looked around to see if there was anything they missed.

This process would reduce the trial and error of the work they would change together in the future.

Jung Hyun-woo, who nodded, brightened his eyes.

“We can’t lose either. It’s time to solve the dormitory problem.”

“That’s right. Oh, did you contact Eun-ah?”

“Of course. I did it right away. She must have called the dormitory committee by now.”

“I didn’t know Eun-ah would be helpful here.”

“Neither did I.”

The two smiled as they thought of Cho Eun-ah, their junior from school and a member of the PR team.

At that moment, people gathered one by one in the seminar room on the second floor of the Ulsan dormitory building A.

They were the members of the dormitory committee, representing a total of eight dormitories, from A to H, and about 7,000 people.

It might look grand on the outside, but none of them wanted to take the position.

They were all production workers, engineers, and supervisors, and the oldest man among them sighed as he hung up the phone.

“Sigh. It’s been over a year since we took the company magazine photo.”

“What did the PR team say?”

The man told his junior what he had heard.

“Two office workers will come to observe our regular meeting today.”

“What? Why?”

“Do I know? They just said they wanted to see.”

“Maybe they’re trying to pick a fight about discriminating against office workers in the dormitory?”

Even if it wasn’t discrimination, it was true that they didn’t care about the office workers, who were a minority and newcomers.

The man waved his hand at his junior’s question.

“They work in Yeouido, and they’re TF managers. Do you think they would do that?”

“Managers? Then they’re high-ranking people. Maybe they’re coming because of the interview you did in the last magazine?”

“What interview did I… Oh! No way. That can’t be.”

Kim Chi-sung, the supervisor who was recalling his memory, widened his eyes.