Kakao /Photo = Yonhap News
“I didn’t know that my dream job would be hell. Every time I see my boss and coworkers who bothered me at work and joined him, my heart pounded and it was hard to breathe.”
Mr. A, a Kakao employee in his 30s who requested anonymity, confessed in an interview with the Korea Economic Daily on the 21st. In 2019, he conducted an upward evaluation of a boss, and he said that the contents were delivered to the boss. Since then, he complained that he has been harassed by his boss.
He said, “I am receiving psychiatric treatment by excluding the boss from meetings and having’bullied’ by not calling at tea time or by gossiping with colleagues,” he said. “Extreme thoughts kept coming up, and I did self-harm several times. He explained that he was diagnosed with hypersomnia and has been receiving counseling and drug treatment for nearly a year.
“Personnel evaluation is murder”
Kakao, an information technology (IT) company, is called a’dream workplace’ among young people due to its high salary and horizontal corporate culture. However, recently, the personnel evaluation method has been released online and is in a hurry. Some employees are dissatisfied with the fact that the contents of the evaluation of the situation for the supervisor by the employee are transmitted to the supervisor as it is.
On the 17th, an employee who is believed to be a Kakao employee posted an article titled “Wills” in the office worker community blind. The original text of this article, which states that he suffered from workplace bullying, has been deleted.
On the 17th, the author, who is believed to be a Kakao employee, wrote a’will’ to complain about bullying in the workplace on the blinds of the anonymous employee community. /Blind capture
In the article, “Cell Leader B, who persistently harassed me, Team C leader C who called up the contents of the up-assessment to Cell Leader B and informed him that I wrote it. I can’t forgive you, cell leader B and team C, who made a hellish company life, even in hell”, “My It included content such as “I hope that the company’s bullying problem will disappear after death.” Cell is the smallest organizational unit in Kakao under the team.
On the 18th, a netizen who is believed to be a Kakao employee posted a post titled’Kakao’s personnel evaluation is murder.’ The author is “He said, “If you go out of the eyes of the organization leader, hell starts from that moment,” he said.
Kakao said, “As a result of grasping the situation, no employees made extreme choices, and that has not happened since,” he explained. “The upward evaluation system was introduced because employees wanted it.”
‘I don’t want to work together’… Don’t tell me why
At the end of the year, Kakao also conducts’evaluation of me by colleagues who worked on the project together. ‘Which colleagues will evaluate me’ can be specified, and if not specified, the head of the organization will decide. This evaluation also influences the decision on salary and incentives.
Peer evaluation asks △Do you want to work with this person again (choose 1 of not wanting to work together, don’t care, or wanting to work together) △Is this person sufficient (1-5 points)? This evaluation questionnaire was introduced in 2016 and began to be disclosed to the target audience in 2019.
The employee is notified that ‘75% of the colleagues who worked with you said they did not want to work with you again’. One Kakao employee said, “I don’t know why I don’t want to work because I don’t do an investigation,” he said.
Some employees raise issues with the company’s view of the so-called’will’ case. Mr. B, a Kakao employee in his twenties who is in the technical profession, said, “The company does not improve the personnel evaluation method by simply identifying the problem of’bullying in the workplace’, but only checking the life and death” every day. Mr. B pointed out that “there may be a questionnaire, but the biggest problem is not to collect reasons related to why he doesn’t want to work with this person.” He added, “It is difficult for the heads of organizations to determine whether this is an emotional conflict between individuals or a business conflict.
Professor Myung-ho Myung-ho of the Department of Psychology at Dankook University said, “Because you spend a lot of time at work and rely on the economical part, suffering a disadvantage due to an unfair evaluation method may have a greater aftereffect than general bullying.” Said.
Reporter Daeun Choi/Namyoung Kim [email protected]