Baek Muyeon told Heo Seungju to look forward to it. Heo Seungju thought: To say “look forward to it” with his own mouth—he must be pretty confident. Well then, let’s see just how well he does.
The rumor of what to look forward to spread like wildfire starting Tuesday after the weekend passed. Seungju was one of the last people to hear the rumor. Because he was too busy that day to check the accumulated messages.
While the Director briefly left his seat, Seungju opened the surging Quitters Club group chat window and began reading carefully. Soon he let go of the straw he’d been holding and gaped. Jackpot.
[Park Dawon: We’re doing salary negotiations]
[Park Dawon: this time with multi-rater evaluations]
[Park Dawon: that thing where you evaluate your boss]
It started with Dawon’s message. She was in such a hurry there was a typo in the middle. Reviewing the conversation content, Seungju could learn the whole story of this bombshell news.
It all started with words General Manager Mu added at the end of the afternoon Sales Team full meeting. The point was that salary negotiation season was coming soon, and this time they’d decided to introduce a new evaluation system including multi-rater evaluations. Since it was a system already being implemented at headquarters, General Manager Mu had specially requested HR to introduce it, along with the President.
Vision Factory’s salary negotiation wasn’t a negotiation. It was a notification. And at this company, you couldn’t really negotiate salary anyway. Work goals and annual plans were meaningless in name only, and performance indicators weren’t properly shared.
Simply put, each team’s evaluation rose or fell according to the sales scale of projects they’d conducted, and evaluation within teams followed entirely the team leader’s judgment. Then HR would almost ignore such content and just confirm salary increases according to years of service. So actual evaluation itself had no meaning beyond being nominal.
The reason the company operated this way was all because this was a company run as the President’s hobby. Moreover, even though the company was run however the President pleased, even the Director of Planning Division—the head of the company’s most core department who could present even a fingernail’s worth of opinion to improve or develop the system—had no interest whatsoever in a rational evaluation system.
The Director, naturally, only used all evaluations as carrots and sticks to give to his department members. As the representative of Planning Division who could influence other departments’ operations, having all personnel authority, he didn’t know the first thing about HR. Whether he really didn’t know or was pretending not to know was unclear, but based on his outdated work methods and authoritarianism, Seungju was confident the Director had never even heard the term “key performance indicators.”
No goals meant no motivation, work got stolen or overturned constantly so there was no passion, and even if you worked hard, there were no standards for the rewards given. Plans came down from above, so even making a proper portfolio depended entirely on luck. So most employees quit once they reached the seniority to pull practical work. Seungju always thought this was probably the most serious problem scattered throughout Vision Factory.
But General Manager Mu was going to touch precisely that evaluation system. General Manager Mu said the evaluation would be conducted by an external organization, and therefore asked for understanding that the salary negotiation period might differ from previous years.
After reading all the accumulated messages, Seungju even learned the TMI that General Manager Mu smiled very prettily and cutely added please evaluate him well too.
Biting the straw he’d dropped again and sipping coffee, Seungju thought: Where does he smile so generously trying to charm innocent people again?
He hadn’t done something like cementing the day they started dating as a huge D-day counter on his phone screen like dating at twenty, but anyway Seungju knew well that today was the 5th day since deciding to date Muyeon. And in that short time, Seungju realized Muyeon bore the fate of a handsome man.
Last Friday when Seungju came home, he received a call from Muyeon. It was a courtesy call asking if he got home safely. Hearing his soft voice felt good, and though he didn’t want to dirty the good mood with company talk, somehow the conversation flowed to cursing the Director and stagnated there.
Still lacking awareness that they were dating, he felt awkward doing another superior’s backstabbing to a superior, but Seungju couldn’t stop. Because cursing the Director was never enough no matter how much you did it.
But during the long call, call waiting came several times. Hearing “just a moment” for the third time, Seungju finally asked:
‘Why are you getting so many calls?’
– Just, kids I know.
‘Why are kids you know calling?’
– I changed my KakaoTalk status message.
‘They call you for changing that?’
– I changed it to “in a relationship,” so yeah.
I see, really. How utterly cute. To Seungju who laughed incredulously, Muyeon said he’d find a solution soon. After that, calls probably came from other people at least two more times. Eventually they wrapped up the call. And what Muyeon added at the end of the call was precisely those words “look forward to it.”
Rattling the ice left in the plastic cup, Seungju ruminated once more on the chat window contents. It really was worth looking forward to. Multi-rater evaluation.
Soon a bright smile spread across Seungju’s face. This wasn’t bombshell news but fireworks news. A fireworks display of happiness exploded crazily above Seungju’s head. He smiled as if happy for the first time in a very long while.
Look forward to it, Director, you bastard.
In a good mood, Seungju also checked Muyeon’s message that had flown in with good timing just before. The content was simple. Let’s meet today. I’ll wait in the parking lot.
Okay. Singing “okay okay” in his heart, Seungju replied right away. When I meet Muyeon today, I should praise him.
***
The Director left work after dawdling at his seat for fifteen minutes as usual. Seungju imagined the Director disappearing outside the office, taking the elevator down, starting his car, and exiting the parking lot, calculated the timing when there’d be no chance of running into the Director in the parking lot even by accident, and left the office.
When Seungju, who’d come running hurriedly, opened Muyeon’s car door and climbed in, Muyeon smiled.
“The Director left a while ago.”
“I saw that and came out. I didn’t want to run into him in the parking lot.”
I see. Muyeon nodded with a smile. Backing out the car, he suggested going somewhere far from the company as Seungju had requested last time.
“How about Yangjae area?”
“Good. Is there a nice place?”
“Yes. Let’s go eat meat.”
“I’m all for it.”
A man with a small appetite knows a lot of places. Probably thanks to his noonas. Seungju leaned his head on the seat and said:
“The thing to look forward to—is it the salary negotiation thing?”
“Yes. How is it?”
“It’s good. It’s not just good for me, I think the whole company will like it.”
“If it’s something the company needs, we should do it even more. But I thought it would be best for you, Seungju.”
“Why? Because I work alone?”
“Correct.”
“I have no subordinates or colleagues. Of course the only person who can evaluate me is the Director, but since I can also evaluate the Director, it’s really great. Well now, anonymity won’t be guaranteed.”
Seungju answered excitedly with a smile. Muyeon smiled along and answered:
“I’m glad you liked it. You really look in a good mood, Seungju.”
“I don’t know how long it’s been since I felt this good. It seems like almost half a year. How long has it really been since I smiled happily like this?”
When Seungju made a fuss, Muyeon chuckled. However, there was a barb in his words.
“It’s sad that dating me isn’t the happiest thing.”
Seungju felt awkward. He glanced at Muyeon and answered:
“That too—no, that’s the better thing, right. But really, it’s so satisfying…”
“Haha… I see.”
Seungju smiled along with him and closed his mouth. Today was the first day they were going on a date after deciding to go out, but they’d called faithfully on the weekend, on Monday, and this morning too.
As conversations increased, he learned something. Surprisingly, there were no other intentions in his way of speaking that he’d thought was strange. For instance, when Muyeon asked “why?”, that wasn’t picking a fight but really being curious about the reason. It was just asking because what was obvious to Seungju—Muyeon didn’t know why it was obvious.
When he realized Muyeon wasn’t a strange person, relief came from one corner of his heart. Though the problem that the difference in their perspectives was bigger than Seungju thought became a bit clearer.
But Seungju was now gradually finding ways to accommodate Muyeon’s style little by little. Even just now, there probably wasn’t an intention to snub Seungju. So Seungju found the right words for Muyeon’s answer of “I see.”
“It might be as you said, Muyeon.”
Muyeon didn’t answer, but Seungju read the meaning to continue.
“While working at the company, I learned for the first time that you can think about people you dislike more obsessively than people you like. I also learned for the first time that I’m someone who can think about disliking someone for this long. It was also the first time seeing myself talking about what I dislike all day and night instead of talking about what I like.”
“I see. That’s really sad.”
“So my reaction to people I dislike might inevitably be big.”
“It’s okay.”
At the generous answer that came from Muyeon, Seungju looked at him.
