Friday, December 31, 1999

uncertain future

[Originally published on 11/10/20, 9:55 p.m.]

When I came back from my walk, one of the things my boss told me was that he might be on his way out due to yet more bullshit office politics.  Our CEO is trying to appear aloof from it all, but I suspect the man is the quiet impetus behind the campaign to force my boss into early retirement.  My boss—who says that, for years, he worked at this company with no contract at all—accepted being put on a contract over a year ago, and from my point of view, things have turned to shit since then.  While I'm back to working with my boss after a long stint in a different R&D department (where I was no more than a proofreader and scut-worker, doing nothing but minor, brainless tasks that any monkey can do), I should have realized that this wouldn't be a stable situation.  Hearing the news of possible bosslessness after my return from the walk was depressing, but not surprising.  Of course, my boss is at least partially the author of his own difficulties:  he can be loud, boorish, and stubborn, and despite having Koreanized after three decades in country, he's still locked in mortal combat with certain aspects of Korean corporate culture because, at heart, he still thinks like an American, and he isn't afraid to express his point of view.  Forcefully.

We'd heard last week that the CEO wanted to talk with my boss today (Tuesday).  The CEO called my boss earlier today to move the meeting to Wednesday, then he called again to move the meeting all the way to Friday the 20th at 9 p.m., which is the day I've scheduled for an in-office pre-Thanksgiving celebration.  I get the feeling that the CEO is dicking my boss around, purposely treating this meeting as a low priority.  It's unprofessional behavior, borderline childish, yet unsurprising from a Korean CEO.  My boss still seems under the delusion that he and the CEO are somehow simpatico; I lost that delusion the first time around, when our R&D team got displaced to a different wing of our company, and our boss got sidelined for a year, stuck in a quiet, empty office with nothing to do, nothing to work on.  It's as if the company bigwigs don't know what to do with a high-ranking foreigner in their midst, and this is, in fact, one of my boss's major complaints:  Korean executives don't like the idea of a high-ranking foreigner, so they'll do what they can to keep him down.  In this case, the HR department told my boss that, if he renews his contract, he can stay on for half his current salary, which is a deep and deliberate insult.  They obviously want him out of here.  The boss, meanwhile, thinks the CEO believes that the boss won't call his bluff and leave, but my boss says he's prepared to leave if half a salary is all he'll get.

The best-case scenario, from my point of view, is that the boss gets to stick around, at full salary, for another year, allowing us to work our way through most or all of the eight-book series of textbooks we're currently hammering out.  From my selfish standpoint, that'll allow me to work through the end of my current contract, which expires on my birthday, August 31, next year.  I can save a bundle of money up to that point, then decide what I'm doing next.*  In all likelihood, I won't be renewing with this company, which has dicked me around as well.  If I do renew, it won't be for more than another year or two:  I don't see myself growing old and dying while working in this dysfunctional shithole.  No fucking way.  The worst-case scenario is that all negotiations between my boss and the CEO fall through, and the boss leaves at the end of his contract, i.e., this coming December 4.  When he leaves, there'll be nothing to hold our R&D team together, and we'll either be shunted back to the R&D department I'd worked in in 2019 or be scattered to the four winds.  We'll see what happens, I guess.  It sucks not to feel as if the ground beneath my feet is solid, but welcome to expat life in Korea.  Stability is hard to attain even in the best of times.  Unless you're Korean.



*Leaving this job would mean receiving my twoejik-geum, i.e., my severance pay, which equates to one month's salary per year worked on contract, according to Korean labor law.  For me, that means three months' pay as one lump sum although, in reality, taxes and fees will be taken out, so I won't receive anything near the full amount.  My final payout will probably be closer to two months' pay, all told.  If that.  Always brace for Murphy's Law, and keep your expectations low.  Korean corporations have a million ways to fuck you, so cynical mistrust is the name of the game, like it or not.  Sunny optimism is for suckers.



13 comments:

John Mac said...

Sad news, your lack of talking about work led me to believe those issues had been resolved. Work is work, but having a stable and stress-free environment makes folks much more productive. Hell, you don't even seem to have any asshole co-workers this time round.

I feel bad for your boss that his leadership style is not respected even though it is successful. Your CEO could learn a thing or two from him.

Good luck to all of you!

BTW: What is your plan B? Find another university position or go back home? Oh, and another thought occurs to me--have you worked/paid taxes in the USA long enough to qualify for Social Security? I had a friend who spent years in Korea teaching go back home in his 50s to earn eligibility for SS.

Kevin Kim said...

Plan B is probably university teaching, although the timing next year might be awkward, given when my contract ends. I might have to apply for a position that begins mid-year, i.e., in March. Going back home is always a possibility, although I don't know what I'd do once I was back. I'd love to take classes in cooking and architecture and business so I could work entrepreneurially, but that'd be expensive, and there's also the matter of how I'd take care of living expenses in the meantime.

I have no clue as to whether I qualify for Social Security. Will have to research that question. Maybe Biden will give us all UBI-style handouts, eh?

John from Daejeon said...

The Social Security website can tell you if you qualify or need more credits.

Kevin Kim said...

Thanks, Daejeon John. It makes sense that there'd be a SocSec website. I'm now trying to remember how many years I worked while living in the States. Got my first "real" job in 1991, the year I graduated college. Worked a year as a substitute teacher...

1991-92: Substitute teacher
1992-94: French & English teacher, Bishop O'Connell HS
1994-96: English instructor, Seoul
1996-98: Temp worker, various (USA)
1999-02: grad school (scholarship)
2002-04: Private tutor, Seoul
2004-05: English instructor, Seoul
2005-08: University English instructor, Seoul
2008-10: Walk project, Mom's sickness
2010-11: ETS TOEFL rater, USA
2011-13: C2 Education, USA (tutor)
2013-14: English professor, Daegu Catholic U
2014-15: English professor, Dongguk University, Seoul
2015-now: Golden Goose, Seoul

Looking at the above, I don't think I've worked very many years in the States—maybe eight years total, and I was jumping around from job to job. I'll have to see whether I qualify for Social Security at all. Stay tuned.

Kevin Kim said...

I had to jump through a lot of hoops just to sign up to the site, but I saw this:

"You have the 40 work credits you need to receive benefits!"

I also saw that I do NOT currently qualify for disability benefits. At age 67, I can start receiving social security at a monthly rate of $692!! Woo-hoo! Guess I'll have to see what I can do to improve that. Or look for alternative income streams.

John from Daejeon said...

In Texas, a lot of elderly people are downsizing into travel trailers/RVs in an effort to avoid property taxes and save on utilities. Owning an unrestricted piece of property even allows for not having to pay rent, chickens/farm animals, septic tanks, water wells, solar, etc. Start researching/preparing now, just in case you live to 110. If you stay in South Korea, make sure your Visa/residency is better than concrete. Some countries are like the tides constantly pulling your feet out from under you.

Kevin Kim said...

Are RVs considered vehicles? Back when I owned my Honda Fit, I had to pay property tax on it twice a year. Such tax seems to be an inescapable reality, and it means you never truly own anything. On a philosophical level, I'm okay with that idea, but on a practical level, I'd like to pay my taxes in a single lump sum and have done with it. A fantasy, I know.

Kevin Kim said...

"Hey, Siri: states with no property tax!"

John from Daejeon said...

In Texas, an RV/travel trailer is considered a vehicle with relatively cheap, once a year license plate fees and no need for vehicular insurance if they are parked full time. You only pay a sales tax when you buy/register it. While houses and land can set you back thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes each year depending on what they are appraised at. The taxes pay for schools, hospitals, roads, police, etc. Florida and Texas are RV friendly. Of course, living in Hurricane zones in a travel trailer/RV isn't very smart, but it can save you a lot of many as older RVs and travel trailers don't cost much. Even rent at many RV parks aren't too expensive and even include water and wi-fi at many of them for those that don't own their own land.

Kevin Kim said...

Vive le Texas!

John Mac said...

Any update on this situation? I wondered if the delay in the post-TG luncheon was boss-related.

Kevin Kim said...

As I suspected would happen, the boss's meeting with the CEO got postponed again. No definite reschedule date given. My boss's fate is not a high priority for the CEO, apparently. The CEO is probably going to push the meeting right up until the end of my boss's contract on December 4. My boss reminded the CEO that his contract ends on the 4th; the CEO supposedly replied, "Oh, really?" See what I mean by "not a high priority"?

At an earlier moment in my conversation with the boss, I asked whether the CEO was aware of HR's insulting proposal to allow the boss to continue working at half salary. The boss said the CEO probably knew because "very little gets past him." And yet the CEO doesn't know when my boss's contract ends. Something doesn't add up. I think the push to drive my boss out of the company is coming from the CEO himself, and the man is playing dumb so as not to appear to be the bad guy.

Kevin Kim said...

To be clear, the postponement of the gathering with my friends has nothing to do with what's going on at work. One of my friends got cold feet because we've had a recent spike in SARS-CoV-2 infections, and he's worried not so much about getting infected himself as he is about carrying the virus back to his wife, and maybe to his colleagues at work. I told him I find all that very unlikely, but as he says, he's adopted a "better safe than sorry" stance. So we've delayed the gathering by a month, although I'm not optimistic that the virus situation will have changed by then. I'm probably not going to postpone the gathering any further than December, so if this friend is still too cautious and doesn't want to show up, the rest of us will proceed without him. I respect his concerns, but my own perspective is that having a gathering is a risk that's easily worth taking. We can't make a habit of living in fear.