Real Man

Yoo-hyun’s actions quickly caused a ripple effect.

The ripple went beyond the employees and reached Hyun Keunyoung, the person in charge.

He was shocked when he received the report from Oh Youngpyo, the team leader, and immediately summoned the other team leaders.

“How can we accept this, even if he’s a director who helped us a lot?”

“Yes, we’ve worked hard so far, and this is how he treats us? It’s unacceptable.”

“This could lead to bigger problems. We need to confront him.”

The team leaders were also dissatisfied with Yoo-hyun’s actions.

After confirming their agreement, Hyun Keunyoung called Yoo-hyun.

He was not interested in the details or the results of the meeting.

‘I have to make this clear to him this time.’

He was waiting impatiently.

Creak.

The door opened and Yoo-hyun appeared.

He entered the office of the person in charge and faced the team leaders who were sitting nervously.

For a moment, he remembered what Kwon Se-jung, the deputy, had said earlier.

-The team leaders were avoiding you, but now that something happened, they all gathered.

‘I told you, they would gather.’

He swallowed a smirk and quickly scanned the surroundings.

He could feel the hostility in their expressions.

Why were they all frowning at him?

He understood how they felt, but none of them had the right to yell at him.

Hyun Keunyoung, who was about to burst out, was no exception.

Yoo-hyun cut him off before he opened his mouth.

“What are you all doing here? Do you have time for this?”

“What?”

Yoo-hyun ignored Hyun Keunyoung, who blinked his eyes, and sat on an empty sofa.

Thud.

Then he casually asked Oh Youngpyo, who was sitting across from him.

“Oh, team leader, what did Hwang team leader say?”

“He said that because of what you did earlier…”

“Did he agree to meet the deadline or not?”

Yoo-hyun pressed him, and Oh Youngpyo nodded his head.

“He did. But…”

“But nothing. What do you think would have happened if I didn’t take action then? Hwang team leader clearly said he couldn’t meet the deadline.”

The mention of the deadline made Hyun Keunyoung, who was sensitive to performance, roll his eyes.

The attention that was focused on Yoo-hyun naturally shifted, which was a bonus.

“Oh, team leader, is that true?”

“Yes? Ah, yes. It’s true. But if we had more time, we could have negotiated for sure.”

Negotiated?

Yoo-hyun sneered and asked back.

“Are you sure?”

“Sure or not. It wasn’t easy, but we somehow managed.”

“By giving up everything and taking on the work ourselves?”

“No, that’s not what I meant…”

He didn’t need to hear more.

Bang.

Yoo-hyun slammed the table and spoke loudly.

“When we first divided the tasks, we transferred everything from the board price negotiation to the parts supply to the purchasing team. Why are we taking care of all that work?”

“That’s because you don’t know the situation. We had to do it to speed up the work.”

He didn’t get angry even after being pushed this far, which meant that Oh Youngpyo was not a bad person.

But being a good person doesn’t make a good leader.

He could be a good leader if he used his kind heart for his employees, not for pleasing the bosses of other departments.

Yoo-hyun tried to make him realize that by being harsh.

"Isn’t this the result of trying to do things quickly without thinking? "

“No, we had to meet the deadline…”

“There’s a reason for each team’s role. Why don’t you understand that this vicious cycle keeps repeating because you keep accepting the work?”

“…”

They all seemed to have lost their words, but Yoo-hyun knew this was only temporary.

Regardless of the right and wrong of the argument, the problem was Yoo-hyun’s position.

He was young and inexperienced, and they were not generous enough to listen to him.

There was a simple way to reverse this.

Yoo-hyun opened his mouth toward Hyun Keunyoung, who seemed to be getting annoyed.

“I came here after receiving the instructions from the group leader, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”

“The, the group leader?”

“Yes. He said we need a dedicated development planning team for the future products division.”

“Wha! Is that true?”

Although Hong Ilseop, the executive director, didn’t say it first, he agreed with Yoo-hyun’s proposal.

From his perspective, there was no reason not to support an organization that delivered results.

Yoo-hyun recalled his phone call with Hong Ilseop yesterday and answered.

“If you doubt it, you can check it yourself.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. What do you think? Having a development planning team would make the coordination between departments clearer, right?”

“That’s what I thought at first. But then I realized that it wouldn’t solve the problem.”

Yoo-hyun tried to back off, but Hyun Keunyoung, the person in charge, intervened.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The role of the development planning team is to assign the initial tasks between the organizations. They can’t fix the situation where we have taken on the work of other teams. In fact, they might not even want to take it at all.”

“…”

“Shall we go further? What do you think will happen if the higher-ups find out how we handle the work? Will they pity us? Or will they think we’re incompetent?”

Despite his blunt words, Hyun Keunyoung didn’t get angry.

He thought of Yoo-hyun’s relationship with the group leader, and the future of his division.

He eventually swallowed his pride.

He was impressive in his ability to calculate quickly even in this short moment.

“You’re right. I was too impatient.”

“I’m glad you understand. As I said, we need to fix this problem before the development planning team is created.”

“We have to. I’ll take care of the purchasing team myself.”

Yoo-hyun was rather pleased with Hyun Keunyoung, who was calculative.

He might mess up if he was too greedy, but if he had a cold judgment along with his ambition, he could shine in a crisis.

It meant that he had a good foundation.

Yoo-hyun naturally changed the topic after confirming the room for improvement.

“Yes. That would be great. And the production team too.”

“The production team?”

“I saw that we were doing the equipment setup ourselves. Isn’t that right, team leader Jang?”

Yoo-hyun turned his head sharply to the side, and Jang Jaeho, the team leader, flinched and answered.

“That was unavoidable because of the handover.”

“Since you brought it up, I’ll continue. We also wrote the handover documents, and we wrote the contents that we received ourselves and only got confirmation from the Future Products Research Institute. Is this the right direction?”

“That’s…”

Hyun Keunyoung stepped in as Jang Jaeho struggled.

“I’ll try to persuade the production team. But the Future Products Research Institute is not easy to deal with.”

“Why not? We already discussed the handover plan with them in the beginning.”

“That was before the business direction was fully decided. Now we have the detailed schedule. We can’t even start without the handover.”

“What will you do if they don’t give it to us? We already got the purchase confirmation. The fire is on Hansung Electronics, not us.”

As long as the Future Products Research Institute belonged to Hansung Electronics, they had to find a way.

Yoo-hyun pointed out the facts without hesitation, but Hyun Keunyoung’s attitude didn’t change.

He still looked anxious.

“It’s not the time to argue about who’s in a hurry. The priority is to keep the work going.”

“That’s why we should do our work according to our roles. Not take everything ourselves.”

“The Future Products Research Institute is both a superior department and a client. The group leader will understand this too.”

Hyun Keunyoung didn’t budge on this point.

It was understandable, since the Future Products Research Institute was a powerful organization that even the CTO feared.

If their relationship went sour, it could affect the higher-ups as well.

He understood his concern, but this was not the time to worry about the eyes of others.

His own people were suffering, and what did he care about someone else’s opinion?

Yoo-hyun faced Hyun Keunyoung, who looked slightly agitated.

“Sir, you should be worried about your employees, not the Future Products Research Institute. They can’t handle the work because the higher-ups failed to coordinate. The damage is all going down to them.”

“Going down to them? They must have learned something from this process too.”

“Do they have to do that until late at night, and not see their families on weekends?”

“I’m the same. The team leaders are the ones who suffer the most.”

The person in charge slept on the folding bed in the office, and the team leaders worked almost 80 hours a week.

He was not wrong when he said he was leading by example.

But he had to know that the wrong belief was the most dangerous.

“Is that what you want? Do you think the employees like that?”

“It was inevitable for the sake of performance. How can you expect to do only good things at work?”

“It’s not about good or bad things, it’s about the fact that the work increased because of the poor coordination from above. That’s why this situation happened.”

“That’s true. But the employees also gained something from this process. That’s why they’re all trying a little harder.”

“Do you really think so?”

Hyun Keunyoung asked the team leaders, who were silent.

“Of course. Isn’t that right? Team leaders, speak up.”

“…”

“…”

“Speak up, I said.”

Hyun Keunyoung urged them, but the team leaders only avoided his gaze.

Yoo-hyun confirmed the facts accurately.

“What can they say? They might get in trouble with the team.”

“Disadvantage?”

“It’s the performance evaluation season, and there are many candidates for promotion. You are putting pressure on us, but how can we tell the truth that there is a problem? Everyone is holding back their difficulties and forcing themselves to endure.”

“Me, did I really make the employees suffer so much?”

Hyun Kyung-young, the manager, seemed to have not thought of that. His pupils shook.

“You should know that too, manager.”

“…”

Hyun Kyung-young, the manager, opened his mouth slowly after a moment of silence.

“I admit that there were mistakes. But all this is for the company. It may be hard now, but if we work a little harder…”

He seemed to be quite shocked, as he denied the reality and spouted out illogical arguments.

There was no point in talking any more, as the conversation would only repeat itself like a squirrel running on a wheel.

He needed something to stop him at this point.

-The business unit leaders have something called leader evaluation. The employees evaluate them anonymously, and this is so scary that they can’t do anything rash during the performance evaluation season.

Yoo-hyun recalled the information he had confirmed from Seo Chang-woo, the assistant manager of the HR team, a while ago.

It was a perfect remedy for Hyun Kyung-young, the manager, who understood the employees’ grievances but could not change them easily.

“Manager, think carefully. The performance evaluation of the business unit manager is not done by the group leader alone. It also includes the leader evaluation scores from the employees.”

“Leader evaluation?”

Hyun Kyung-young, the manager, had missed that part when he was trained as a leader.

He was a sudden harm to the organization.

“I’m telling you on behalf of the HR team. It may sound trivial, but the bottom 20 percent are subject to re-evaluation of their qualifications as managers. A survey will be conducted soon.”

“…”

“Are you still going to sleep in your office?”

It was when Yoo-hyun asked him bluntly.

Hyun Kyung-young, the manager, blushed, and the other team leaders nodded their heads as if they agreed.

They must have had a lot on their minds, as they all looked relieved.

Yoo-hyun smiled and looked at Ha Tae-min, the team leader, who nodded his head most vigorously.

“The team leader evaluation is the same. There is a leader evaluation from the team members. Do you know what they look at the most?”

“What is it?”

“The provision of fair opportunities and fair evaluation, which are stated in our management philosophy. Let’s take a look.”

Swoosh.

Yoo-hyun put the four copies of the leader evaluation items he had received from his colleague Seo Chang-woo, the assistant manager, on the table.