Real Man

One of the reasons why Yoo-hyun decided to come to Ulsan was the dormitory issue.

Sharing a room with three people in a cramped environment was bad enough, but having to live with production workers who had rotating shifts was a bigger problem for the future product team.

They could not get proper sleep because their working hours did not match.

Their stress levels were already high due to the lack of sleep caused by overtime work, and this was a matter that directly affected their lives.

They could not put it off any longer. They needed a short-term solution.

The first idea that came to Yoo-hyun’s mind was to arrange the rooms so that the office workers could stay together.

But to do that, someone from the production team had to move out.

He tried to suggest this to the dormitory supervisor, but he only got a mechanical answer that room changes were impossible.

They should have paid attention to this when they were assigned, but it was too late now.

As he was pondering, he found a hint from the newsletter collection that he had received from Deputy Jin Sunmi.

It was a part that he had casually skipped over because it was about the production team’s innovation proposals.

Beyond the dormitory of Ulsan factory, they protect the peace of the company! The dormitory self-governing committee that leads the way in counseling and communication!

The person who had covered this newsletter was his junior, Jo Eun-ah.

He looked at the content of her interview, and found that the operation of the dormitory self-governing committee was quite fresh.

He confirmed the positive aspects of the committee and asked about the reality of their activities to the production workers he had connections with, such as Jo Yujung, a technician from the module assembly team.

Through this process, he was able to come up with a different way of solving the problem.

It was a clever plan that would benefit both the dormitory self-governing committee and the company, as well as solve the dormitory issue.

Clank.

When Yoo-hyun opened the door of the seminar room in Dormitory A, about 20 people turned their heads at once.

Among them, Kim Chiseong, the team leader whom he had seen in the newsletter, approached him with quick steps.

Jo Eun-ah had already called him in advance, so there was no need for a long explanation.

He finished a brief introduction and immediately told them why he was here.

Kim Chiseong’s eyes widened as he listened.

“What? You want to benchmark our self-governing committee activities?”

“Yes, I do. I read in the newsletter that you have a dream of changing the whole company with this activity. I was very impressed by that.”

“That was a bit exaggerated for the interview.”

Kim Chiseong tried to draw a line, but Yoo-hyun gave him more details.

“Isn’t it true that you listen to the complaints of over 7,000 people one by one, and communicate them with the chairman of the self-governing committee to solve the problems?”

“Well…”

“This democratic model is needed in the company.”

“It may look good on the surface, but it’s not really…”

Kim Chiseong showed his reluctance and looked around.

Everyone had a bewildered expression on their faces at Yoo-hyun’s grandiose words.

Did they volunteer for this because they had a strong sense of service, cutting their personal time every month to collect the complaints of the dormitory residents?

Yoo-hyun knew that was not the case.

The biggest reason was that the chairman of the self-governing committee was the factory manager.

They had to report directly to him, so they had no choice but to do their best.

Regardless of the background of how the factory manager got involved, the effect was definitely good.

The problems decreased as the people became more self-reliant.

It also played a role in preventing problems.

‘It’s a really good model if there’s a reward.’

Wouldn’t it be a similar picture if the employees and the CEO were connected periodically by each team?

He made up his mind and offered the carrot he had prepared.

It was a proposal that was necessary not only for the self-governing committee members, but also for the plan that Yoo-hyun had in mind.

“I also talked to the factory manager and decided to recommend you as an excellent innovation activity case. The PR team is also planning to do an additional interview with you in collaboration with the general affairs team.”

“R-really?”

“Of course. You can check with the PR team if you want.”

“…”

A considerable reward would be given if they became an excellent innovation activity case.

The factory manager, who always boasted about it with spit flying, would be more than happy.

Gulp.

Yoo-hyun saw them swallowing their dry saliva and asked for their understanding with a smile on his face.

“I won’t bother you. Don’t mind me and carry on.”

“Haha. Yes. We should. Well, shall we try then?”

“Please do.”

Kim Chiseong forced a smile and spoke like a robot, and everyone nodded awkwardly.

Yoo-hyun sat in the back seat and Jeong Hyun-woo whispered to him.

“Do you think this will solve the dormitory problem?”

“At least they will think more about it. Let’s see.”

Yoo-hyun smirked and gestured with his chin.

The dormitory self-governing committee members sat nervously in front of him, sharing the complaints they had collected.

Their voices were filled with tension.

“We have a problem with male employees entering the women’s dormitory in H building…”

“Some of the dormitory residents are not vacating their rooms, causing some people to use a three-person room by themselves…”

“There are cases of conflict between the dormitory commuting time and overtime work in B building…”

And that was not all.

They tried to find solutions even for the parts that they would normally just list as problems.

“I think it would be better to notify the team leader and the dormitory supervisor separately for that part, don’t you?”

“Yes, I’ll look into it.”

Why did they suddenly change like this?

It was not because of Yoo-hyun’s proposal.

Rather, it was because they felt recognized by someone for their hard work.

A small compliment can mean a lot to someone.

Yoo-hyun felt like he knew how to run this activity in the future.

Swoosh.

Jung Hyun-woo also seemed to have noticed something, as he wrote down the impressive parts in his notebook.

Seeing this, the others tried to show a better performance.

It was the same when the frequent trouble between the production and office workers came up.

“There are more complaints from the shift workers in D building, because the office staff suddenly increased. There are five cases reported.”

Yoo-hyun’s ears perked up when the topic he had been waiting for came up.

As expected, the people’s reactions were not very favorable.

“They must have moved as a group this time. They always do this.”

“It’s also a bit unfair to ask us to move our seats because of the newcomers.”

Everyone expressed their displeasure, so Yoo-hyun was ready to push a little harder.

He was about to intervene, when Kim Chiseong, the senior staff, spoke up.

“Let’s clean up the people who only put their names on the dormitory list. We can move them to the rooms that are empty or used by one person.”

“Senior, that sounds quite troublesome, are you sure?”

“If we don’t solve this, who will? It will be sorted out if we go and talk to them.”

Kim Chiseong raised his voice in response to the question from another committee member.

His eyes showed his determination to make this a good example of innovation activity.

Yoo-hyun blinked and raised his hand to ask.

“Will it be sorted out right away?”

“I can sort it out by the weekend. I just need some help with moving.”

It was a refreshing answer that made Yoo-hyun’s worries seem pointless.

He spontaneously clapped his hands.

Clap clap clap clap clap!

“That’s amazing.”

Yoo-hyun did not stop there, but gave him a thumbs up.

He had no reason to spare his encouragement for the cool people who solved the dormitory problem and the complaint handling at the same time.

Yoo-hyun’s face was filled with a bright smile.

The only thing left after the dormitory problem was the personnel evaluation.

Yoo-hyun met his helper to review this.

It was Jung In-wook, the team leader.

Thirty minutes before the end of work, Yoo-hyun sat down at a coffee shop and asked him.

“Is it okay for you to leave so early?”

“I’m the team leader, what can I do?”

“Wow, you’re amazing.”

“You said you had something to ask me, that’s obvious. The others will join us soon.”

Yoo-hyun was planning to have a drink with the members he had worked with during his previous dispatch.

There was someone he couldn’t miss, so he asked.

“What about the executive director?”

“The director? Do you think he’ll come? He’s always so aloof.”

“I see.”

Yoo-hyun thought he had to see him separately, when Jung In-wook asked him abruptly.

“But what is it? What do you want to ask?”

“It’s about the personnel evaluation.”

“Personnel evaluation? Oh, right, you’re going to be an evaluator for the first time. You must be stressed out.”

Yoo-hyun had not been in Hansung Display for six months, so he was excluded from the evaluation.

It was the same for Kwon Se-jung, the deputy, and Jang Junsik.

The only one left was Jung Hyun-woo, but he didn’t have to worry because the group leader was openly taking care of him.

Yoo-hyun answered with a hidden embarrassment.

“Yes, I’m curious about some things.”

“Personnel evaluation. It’s a perfect way to get cursed at.”

“Why?”

“Who would want to give a bad evaluation? Everyone wants to give a good one. But you can’t.”

“Right. That’s why you give it according to the performance.”

“That’s the tricky part, dividing the performance is hard. Look. Maeng, the manager, does PCB design, and Kim, the senior, does panel design. They do different tasks, how do you divide them?”

Jung In-wook gave a specific example to Yoo-hyun’s theoretical question.

This revealed the flaw of the relative evaluation system.

Yoo-hyun went deeper, knowing it well.

“Shouldn’t we assign high, medium, and low levels to each task?”

“That would be possible if it was a quantitative task, but ours is not. It’s vague to assign levels. And since the fields are different, the criteria can’t be fair either.”

“I guess so.”

“That’s why the usual behavior matters more than the actual work. Whether they gave an impressive presentation, or did what I asked them right away, these things linger in the evaluation.”

“So you end up choosing the people who suit your taste.”

“Don’t you think you’ll do the same?”

Yoo-hyun answered firmly, recalling the past ten years of evaluation.

He had no disagreement on this, as he was the type to take care of his own people.

“No, I think I will.”

“Right. But the problem is when there are promotion candidates among them. You can’t help but worry. What if they quit if you don’t give them a good score?”

“That’s not fair.”

“I think it’s not bad if I take care of all the promotion candidates fairly.”

Yoo-hyun’s eyes sparkled at Jung In-wook’s words.

“Not bad?”

“Yeah. At least they’ll do the same for me when I get promoted. But the problem is when the team changes. I sacrificed before, but now they say they’ll be fair. That’s crazy.”

Jung In-wook’s words matched exactly with the situation of the future product team.

Thinking this way, he understood why Hyun Kyungyeong, the manager, or the team leaders tried to give the evaluation to the promotion candidates.

Yoo-hyun added another problem he had identified.

“But what if you worked hard but still got pushed back by the promotion candidates and got a C?”

“C is worse. It’s almost like telling them to go home. Honestly, I hate it the most. When I have to give a C to someone who doesn’t deserve it. I feel like a criminal.”

“Then what do you do?”

“I usually give them some reward or promise. I have to prevent them from quitting. But that’s also not easy, because the resources are limited.”

The picture looked completely different from the evaluator’s perspective.

But was it as painful as the one who had to get a C despite their performance?

What could he do to improve this?

Yoo-hyun muttered.

“I guess we need to increase the resources.”

“I don’t know about that. But there is another way.”

“What is it?”

“The evaluation grades are allocated by business unit. So there is some exchange possible between the managers or teams. For example, you can give an S and a C and get an A and a B.”

“That’s a method they didn’t tell us at the HR team.”

Jung In-wook seemed to think Yoo-hyun’s reaction was good, and he told him more.