Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Chapter 44 A Return Gift (4)

-Knock, knock.

"What?"

Department Head Jung Jiwon frowned as he asked what the person wanted through the transparent glass door.

"Um, Division Director. Here..."

The employee who had knocked entered with his shoulders hunched and cautiously held something out to Department Head Jung Jiwon.

Printed on the luxurious gold envelope were the words 『Merent Hotel Weekday Dining Voucher for Three』.

"I was only saying it. You didn't have to bring me something like this."

"I happened to get it, but I've been too busy lately to find time to go."

"All right, I'll put it to good use. You can go."

"Yes."

Although the employee had explained the reason for the gift, Jung Jiwon knew perfectly well that a contract intern could hardly afford to dine at such an expensive hotel restaurant on his salary.

"Wait a minute."

Department Head Jung Jiwon called back the employee who had bowed and was about to leave.

"Yes?"

"Hey, are you trying to make a fool of me? This is a weekday voucher. Are you telling me to take a day off work to use it?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't think it through."

-Thud.

The envelope he threw landed at the employee's feet.

"I was planning to take my family out for a meal this weekend. Honestly, you can't do a single thing properly."

"I'm sorry..."

"Are you just going to stand there saying you're sorry? Either use it yourself or exchange it for a weekend voucher. Good grief, you're hopeless."

"I'll exchange it."

"I'm going this Saturday. Get out."

Department Head Jung Jiwon waved his hand dismissively, put on a sleep mask, and leaned his head back.

But the presence by the door showed no sign of disappearing.

"What are you doing? Aren't you leaving?"

Department Head Jung Jiwon once again ordered the visitor out in an irritated voice. However, the person standing there was no longer the subordinate who had been there moments earlier.

"Department Head Jung Jiwon, we're from the Audit Department. You'll need to come with us."

____________

Jikker, an online community for office workers

Trending Recommended Posts > Companies

Author: lliilli1i1l (Daechun Group)

Title: Something huge just happened at our company. lololol

Content:

There's this one team over at Solutions that's kind of hard to define, you know?

They check little things when projects are starting and stuff, so the sales department heads like them, but for the rest of us, they're just a bit of a nuisance whenever they send requests for cooperation.

But then the Chairman's son suddenly got parachuted into that team, and before long, every villain the parachute hire met while visiting departments for work got demoted. lololololol

The division director on our team had been constantly funneling performance credit to his own people, and this time he even got caught taking kickbacks, so he ended up leaving the company entirely. Sweet! lolololol

And to top it all off, there's an employee on that team who has connections with departments all over the company, and he's the parachute hire's senior mentor. Now the entire company is in an uproar.

Rumor has it that the employee works from home, and the Chairman personally ordered a complete set of office equipment to be sent to him.

It's like an employee who isn't even part of the Audit Department had been waiting for his chance, then used the Chairman's parachute hire to go on a purge. Now everyone with skeletons in their closets is sitting on pins and needles. lololololol

└ wwee2f (Doctor): Does that even make sense? Not even a director, just some regular employee? At least make your lies believable.

└ SalaryGhost (Daechun Distribution): I don't know about the rest, but it's true that furniture and computers were sent on the Chairman's orders. He showed up at the Gangnam branch twice in one month without warning and threw the whole place into chaos. Both times we got dragged out of bed to come to work before dawn.

└ nanaki (New Company): That's genuinely scary. Everyone must've thought he was just an employee doing miscellaneous work.

└ IWantSushi (Korean Air): Interesting. Usually someone like that would be in the secretary's office, wouldn't they?

└ Miing (JQL Media): Wow, you could make an entire drama out of this internal audit! lololol

└ Hodori'sDream (Korea Water Resources Corporation): So that employee's going to get promoted straight to director at lightning speed now? Yikes.

"This is about Manager Kim and Assistant Manager Joo, isn't it?"

"It mentions the Chairman, the parachute hire, and his senior mentor."

"Well, well. Our Manager Kim has become quite the celebrity."

"It's causing an uproar on the intranet too."

"Haha..."

And it wasn't just the intranet. Screenshots had already been taken and spread throughout various online communities.

And the repercussions of those rumors were falling squarely on me.

Nowhere in the post did it mention our team's name or my rank, but the circumstances were described in such detail that anyone working at our company could easily figure out who it referred to.

-Bzz. Bzz.

"Hello, this is Manager Kim Jinseong from the Strategic Planning Team."

(Manager Kim, it's me. Have you been well? I was just wondering if we could have a meal together for the first time in a while. When would you be free? I know a really good Japanese restaurant.)

"I'm sorry. We're right in the middle of a busy period. Would it be all right if I contacted you separately later?"

(Really? Then make sure you call me when you have time. You know I'm always grateful to you, right?)

"Yes, thank you."

(All right, take care!)

That was already the tenth call.

I'd been receiving calls from all kinds of departments since this morning.

Even the conversations were mostly identical, as though they'd coordinated them somewhere, right down to the suggestion of a good Japanese restaurant.

"Another call inviting you out for drinks? Wow, Manager Kim won't have to worry about paying for dinner for a while."

"Do you really think they're calling just to buy him dinner? Their intentions are obvious."

"Just ignore all that and enjoy a free meal. They said it's a Japanese restaurant. You think they'll be drinking ordinary soju? If they order something like sake, it'll easily cost two hundred thousand won per person."

"I'm telling you, the food isn't the problem! Can you imagine how much they'll gossip behind our backs now? At the very least, our team and Manager Kim will definitely be the main topic of gossip in the headquarters break rooms for the rest of the year!"

"I'm fine. I work from home anyway, so I don't come into the office very often."

"I'm telling you, it's not fine!"

"If you think about it, it's not necessarily a bad thing. We won't have to go around begging other departments for help anymore."

"Well, that's true, but..."

Not everything turns out badly.

Whatever the process had been, the fact remained that a member of our team had caused several employees at the same company to be demoted.

At the very least, there was a good chance that when we requested assistance from other departments in the future, we would no longer receive vague responses like, "We're busy, so we'll get to it later."

Of course, that was about the extent of the advantages I could find. The situation was by no means entirely favorable.

"Did I do something I shouldn't have?"

"It was something someone had to do, and Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok was the most suitable person for the job."

"Right. Those people barely deserved to be called human. You did the right thing, Mr. Dohyeok."

The day after Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok returned to the office seething with indignation, we'd spent the entire day discussing the matter.

We had eyes and ears too, so we were well aware of what those people had been doing.

Some had exploited innocent subordinates with sweet talk about how a project was already completed and only needed to be carried out, working them to the bone while pocketing kickbacks. Others had openly demanded entertainment and favors by threatening employees with poor performance evaluations.

You could tell ten things from one, as the saying went. People like that generally left dirty traces throughout their projects, making it easy for Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok to notice.

Naturally, when the Audit Department investigated the people he'd identified, problems were bound to emerge.

The problem was that no organization welcomed whistleblowers. Reporting employees from other teams was practically taboo.

But our circumstances couldn't become an excuse to ask someone not to do the right thing.

Neither the Department Head, Manager Lee, nor I had personalities that would allow us to compromise with injustice.

It was simply that the backlash had fallen a little more heavily on me.

Fortunately, though, I had the power to deal with that backlash.

Even if I didn't want it.

______________

At the same time, Chairman Joo Manho and Director Shin Jicheol were chatting in the executive office as usual.

"The Audit Department certainly knows how to get things done."

"There will be some damage to sales. Departments that secured projects through connections held by their department heads will probably see sluggish revenue for a while."

"Those so-called connections were just parasites who won contracts by relying on the company's name, weren't they? Just watch. Whoever we put in those positions will keep things running perfectly well."

"Are you referring to Assistant Manager Joo Dohyeok and Manager Kim Jinseong?"

"Was it that obvious? It'll take about ten years. Ah, with the Strategic Planning Team supporting them from behind, what could possibly stop those two from handling major projects? You stay where you are and remain active until then too."

"As if I can keep working here simply because I want to. I'll probably have to pack my things the year you retire, Chairman."

"Oh, come now! Are you telling me to keep working for another ten years? Do you want me to work until I'm smelling funeral incense in my old age? When I retire to play golf, you should hurry up and find yourself a new master to manage things for."

There was too much pointed meaning behind those words to call them simple well-wishes.

After all, just like Jinseong, who had risen through the ranks at extraordinary speed under Chairman Joo Manho's protection, Director Shin Jicheol had followed a similar path.

However, unlike Jinseong, he had plenty of ambition and a strong appetite for power, so he'd never hesitated to wield the authority that came with being one of Chairman Joo Manho's closest aides.

It was only natural, in a sense, that he had many enemies who wanted to drive him out of management.

Chairman Joo Manho understood his situation perfectly well. His words were meant to tell Shin that if he wanted to hold on until retirement, he should help the Chairman's son become capable of standing on his own.

"But have those things spreading around the internet been taken care of? No matter how much good comes from people knowing, if our family's private affairs keep circulating for too long, people will start saying we can't keep our own house in order."

"They say it will take around two weeks at the earliest to have everything removed. I'll ask the secretary's office for another progress report."

"Their office is right next door. Why bother calling? Can't we just go over?"

Being impatient by nature, Chairman Joo Manho couldn't rest until he acted on an idea as soon as it occurred to him. He set down the tea he'd been drinking and headed toward the secretary's office.

"Chairman, welcome."

Surprised by the unexpected visit, the secretary's office employees hurriedly stopped what they were doing, stood up, and bowed.

"I remembered the task I assigned you yesterday, so I came to check. Is everything being handled properly?"

"Well, the thing is..."

"Why? Are you having trouble with those overseas companies or whatever they are again?"

"No, sir. The posts were already being deleted before we could take any action. We're still trying to understand the situation ourselves, so we haven't been able to report it yet."

"What?"

"Are you saying someone other than the secretary's office is going around deleting posts related to Daechun Group?"

"And they're doing it incredibly quickly. Almost all the posts were taken down in just one day."

"Who on earth did that? Do you have any idea who it might be?"

"We made inquiries, but the only response we received was that they couldn't disclose the information under their regulations."

"Ha!"

"I'll try asking our contacts in the media."

"Would they be any different? They'll just deny knowing anything."

'Who on earth? And for what reason?'

It wasn't something that would make anyone money. Nor was it something that would cause anyone a loss.

He had merely requested the posts be deleted because it wouldn't look good for the company's internal affairs to remain publicly exposed for too long.

Yet some completely unrelated party had been removing them. And they had accomplished in a single day what even the secretary's office of a conglomerate ranked among the country's top ten business groups estimated would take at least two weeks.

As their reasoning reached that point, both men's expressions hardened.

There were very few organizations capable of such a feat.

And if the person who needed those posts deleted within a day wasn't Daechun Group's heir, there was only one person left.

"Tell Dohyeok's teacher to come to my office immediately."

"Yes, Chairman."