泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
An employee is not the owner of the company
A recent column by Monn Yoo-Seok, an associate judge at the Seoul Eastern District Court, has become a hot issue on the Internet. The judge's story titled 'Letter to all general managers in the country' is about workers' job stress from their boss. In short, "Don't make it a working dinner.", "Don't speak gibberish.", "Don't blame for the mistake on an alcoholic drink after hitting on a female employee while drinking." etc. One of the most impressive lines was "Don't say that 'Back in my day... (or) When I was your age...' kind of thing" among satisfying pieces of advice which made them feel so good. He means that the know-it-all should beef up his resume to join a corporation in this day and age.
I'd like to talk about how to run an organization of the video game developer which is one of South Korea's companies. Lately, I had dinner with the CEO, whom I'm close with, of the video game production. The employer told me that, to present a clear vision, he has required employees to be actively involved in their work and develop them further by focusing on their mission and he used to emphasize that corporate development will give them good opportunities. I earnestly asked him not to say it like that expressing my disappointment at his attitude. Most business leaders want their employees to put their hearts and soul into the work like they are the owner of the company. As I told him, representatives should not force employees to have unconditional ownership mentality because they are not the owner of the company but only workers. While the boss delivers a long-winded speech, the employee has nothing to do but think that he makes him annoying because he needs to work overtime to catch up on lost time. It can be helpful for a few workers who have more engaged with their work. Staff with employee ownership probably would voluntarily work very hard to become successful or start their own business later anyway. Why do normal employees, who perform well in their work to be paid regularly, worry about the company like the boss and spontaneously work late? It's brainwashing under the pretext of sharing his vision of developing the company, which reminds me the principal's speech lacked sincerity in my school days.
Sometimes, executives don't think that their junior employees also evaluate them. Most workers don't respect the boss who is too preachy and the leader with such management style isn't very highly regarded due to ineffectiveness. Nobody can force employees to have an ownership mentality because it isn't mandatory. You are not going to get high grades unless you stop being giving them the lectures. I guess somebody thinks that I can say like this because I haven't run a business. However, It's a lesson from a bitter experience since my video-game company went bankrupt. If someone is forcing his staff to have an ownership mentality, please remember that it might bring your company to an end.
※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
(http://www.khgames.co.kr)
Translation by Kim Ki-hui
