Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols
SS Chapter 102: Using It Against Them (2)
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TL: FoodieMonster007
"They were already famous for not letting employees create private group chats. There's a company rule that if they discover a group chat of three or more people without a manager, everyone in it is forced to resign. It looks like they did a massive clean-up this time."
"Was there some kind of information leak from a similar channel?"
"No, they said internal discipline had gotten lax."
"……"
I had no intention of defending a violation of principle, but the higher-ups did not seem to get that some things at a company could not be resolved with just the official internal messenger.
This was especially true for jobs like sales or celebrity management that required interacting with a wide variety of people. Did they think all our advertisers used the same messenger as us? Were we supposed to ask broadcast writers to all switch to our communication app?
Fuck, this is why bastards who don't know how things actually work shouldn't be in charge.
And why did they want to be included with the related staff? Were they afraid the junior employees would get together and badmouth their team leader?
If you asked guys like that for a reason, they would say, 'We're controlling it because the grunts might share incorrect information and screw up their work.' In reality, a closer look revealed more people itching to micromanage than people worried about a rookie making a mistake.
If they were so worried about a new employee's mistakes, they should have thought about providing proper guidance, conducting frequent mid-point checks, and carefully reviewing things before giving final approval. Not snooping around behind people's backs, checking if they were in some chat room no one knew about.
I had never seen a decent person who was all talk and lip service.
Leaks were rarely orchestrated by a company as a group, though it might happen on an individual level. Besides, there were more ways to maintain security than one might think. Many methods could protect valuable information more effectively than cracking down on group chats.
They probably made that trashy rule because they were scared their employees would gather and talk shit about them.
I knew because Department Head Nam would throw a fit whenever he saw me, Assistant Manager Hwang, and Assistant Manager Song just talking amongst ourselves.
"So where do you think the people who got kicked out would go?"
"To competitors or affiliates… I guess."
"That's why the recruitment market was flooded with applicants from MYTH for a while. Our company also received quite a few inquiries about whether we had any hiring plans."
It's been a long time since UtopiA switched to a referral-only system…
Dong-eun-ssi was also hired that way. However, the office would not be in this much chaos over mere hiring inquiries. That kind of thing would go to the HR department, not become an issue that affected every single department.
"But then MYTH… apparently got pissed off that their employees were going to other companies?"
"Huh?"
"So they announced they'd hold both the person who had worked at MYTH even for a short time and the company that hired them responsible. Breach of contract for the individual, and 'personnel poaching' for the company. Their argument is that the departing employees signed a non-compete clause for the same industry, yet they dared to get re-employed in the same field, and the companies hired them knowing full well about these circumstances."
"What did you say?"
Non-compete clauses for the same industry were only permitted in very specific cases. Unless it was a field where R&D competition was fierce and technology dictated the market, the clause was effectively useless for general companies and positions, no matter how many documents they made you sign upon leaving.
I had only ever seen that clause at Hanpyeong Industry used as a threat, not for its original purpose.
They have to know it's a losing battle if they actually take it to court.
I was sick and tired of their nasty habit of deliberately stirring up trouble for others. When I heard that the non-compete period MYTH imposed on its former employees was five years, I almost fainted.
"Ignoring them is the best course of action, but there's talk that they're assembling a terrifying legal team. So we're reviewing various things as a precaution."
Whether it was a complaint or a call from a former employee, the staff had to respond if an inquiry came to the company. If a large-scale case came in that required a labor attorney, the company would literally be turned upside down.
Since we don't know what MYTH will try to nitpick, they'll build the most meticulous defense possible.
They would need things like records proving the references used in the album planning process were unrelated to MYTH, or scoring sheets confirming they did not give special treatment to applicants from MYTH during the hiring process.
Since that company was so large, it was impossible for UtopiA to have zero employees from MYTH. In fact, even among the staff dedicated to Hellas, some people had drifted through various agencies for several years after leaving MYTH before joining UtopiA at Yuur's persuasion.
However, as long as the other side claimed UtopiA was a villainous poacher of human resources, the burden was on us to prove we had no intention of stealing another company's information.
"It makes sense that everyone's been so busy… You might not be able to use your vacation days until the end of the year, right?"
"I'll get paid for them and become rich. Sounds nice, doesn't it?"
His painful self-deprecation made my heart ache.
There was one more thing that saddened me. At least UtopiA was a corporation and could respond on a company level. On the other hand, the individual former employees had to face the conglomerate's offensive on their own.
They use their power to crush even the high and mighty, rich, and well-connected Parthe. What chance would any individual have?
My steps felt heavy as I returned to the practice room.
I had nothing to be ashamed of. The entire album production process related to spArk was saved in files. I had even preserved the original files without touching the final modification dates. Nothing in there was related to MYTH.
'Ah. Wang. Sil' Season 2 had copied our concept, and I was flabbergasted. Why would I do the same thing?
However, being able to clear my name because I was innocent and feeling sorry for the people involved were two separate things that could coexist. Just as there were employees who caved to Ms. Yuur's pressure and apologized, there would also be people like Mr. Han Gawoon who tried to protect their conscience no matter what.
It was infuriating that all of them would ultimately end up just doing MYTH a favor.
Is there no way to pay them back?
I was already getting tired of the constant noise that arose whenever spArk's activities were involved. I had been lying low all this time because there was no way to go against the number one company leading the market, but if I was certain I could bring MYTH down, I would do anything.
To do that, I needed a solution. A single blow that fit together like a puzzle. To shut the doors of a massive company that everyone believed might stumble but would never fall, I had to approach it with a thorough calculation, not the power of capital or authority.
It can't be sloppy. What's a 100% guaranteed plan that will make MYTH self-destruct while also protecting me… a way to force their surrender?
My steps, which had been descending the stairs through the emergency exit, gradually slowed. Something came to mind.
I immediately searched through the contacts on my phone. It did not take long to find the number I wanted.
The person I needed to contact was clear.
Me [Seonbae-nim, hello! This is Iwol from spArk. I'm sending a text to ask if you are available for a brief call.]
Not long after I sent the message, the 'unread' status changed to 'read'. I stood still in the middle of the staircase and waited.
Soon, a call came through.
—…What is it?
The caller was Mr. Han Gawoon of Parthe.
Parthe's main vocalist, Han Gawoon.
In Parthe, a group famous for its visuals and performances, he was a talent who flawlessly handled everything from his main job as a vocalist to the team's primary weapon, dance.
≫ Speaking as a main vocal stan of n years, if you stan a main vocal? You'll never lose out.
Parts → Guaranteed. Guaranteed parts means → guaranteed screen time in their content. Have you ever seen an idol variety show without a segment for singing a line from a karaoke song or singing in turns? In an era where there are even shows where they just stand and sing because people only want to hear the song and don't need the dance, there's absolutely no way they get shelved for lack of a place to sing. Dance → They usually get good at it. Even main vocals who couldn't dance as rookies, once they gain some experience, many of them become the next best dancer after the main dancer in their team. Vocals are rare in the idol scene, so if someone has a decent face and can sing well, they get brought in with no or a short trainee period, get super-fast training, and debut. That's why many can't dance at first, but kids who have fiercely worked to achieve results and earn the 'main' title in their position are never satisfied with just one thing and act diligently in other areas too. It's not for nothing that the main vocal becomes the hexagon member of the team…
A person who has taken the top spot in one field works hard in others too. If Jeong Seongbin played this role in spArk, then Mr. Han Gawoon was in charge of diligence in Parthe.
However, Jeong Seongbin and Mr. Han Gawoon ended up walking completely opposite paths. While no fandom was ever perfectly clean and bright, Parthe's fandom, Naos, was plagued by daily noise as they failed to manage successive controversies and appease domestic public opinion.
≫ MYTH, you fucking bastard, couldn't you understand when we told you to stop distributing parts so shittily? You caused this mess again??
└ Why are you exploding over getting 4 seconds when your own fave became a rapper because he can't sing, then got caught outsourcing his lyrics, and now can't even perform the raps he paid for?
└ Minil, that bitch who's only center because of his face, should shut up.
└ It's because you're taking it out on the innocent company when your fave is the one at fault for not even having the looks as an idol to help fans control their anger ㅠㅠ
.
.
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≫ I'm so tired of the arrows always flying at Gawoon-ie at the end whenever a line distribution controversy breaks out…
Just go after MYTH instead. Why are you doing this to our Gawoon-ie…
It's so annoying and upsetting, I'm about to cry…
└ Me too… It's not like Gawoon-ie asked the company to give him more lines, but every comeback, charts measuring his lines down to the millisecond pop up, and I'm sick of the trend of bashing Gawoon-ie.
└ He's the only one with a good public image, so he's the one going on all the variety shows, but his hyungs can't even help him, they just rain on his parade, and you're saying Gawoon-ie is greedy??? Seriously, put your hand on your conscience and say that.
└ Yeah, I have a conscience so I put my hand on it, but they say your Gawoon has no conscience so he has nowhere to put his hand ㅠㅠ
└ Han Gawoon's fans are fucking hilarious too. They're always saying the other members have no conscience and are riding on Gawoon's coattails, but they can never stand to see other members on broadcast and are too busy hyping up Gawoon. Forever just fucking feeding on their resentment.
└ Fucking crazies are at it again… I'm so sick of this.
└ The akgae who puts down other members to praise their own bias is the crazy one, why am I the crazy one?? Huh????
└ Excuse me, why am I the crazy one? Gawoon's akgaes are over there crying about how pitiful Gawoon is when he gets full support from the company, and I'm the crazy one, not them?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
And in the swirling vortex, Mr. Han Gawoon was mentioned with particular frequency. The area around him, which should have been the quiet eye of the storm, was always a chaotic mess with no time to rebuild anything.