Gun-Ho was sitting in his office at Dyeon Korea, and he called for the interpreter— Mr. Lee.
“Please have a seat and have a cup of tea with me.”
“Of course, sir.”
Secretary Seon-Hye Yee brought tea to the president’s office. Ms. Seon-Hyeo Yee was the sister-in-law of a government official in Asan City. She could speak English. At the beginning of her employment, she was inept at work and sometimes made mistakes. But, she was handling her work very well now.
“How do you like your work so far, Mr. Interpreter Lee?”
“It’s good. I like it.”
“I understand that you have extensive work experience with a large company’s branch office abroad. Which countries had you worked at previously?”
“Usually, I had worked in the U.S. Also, I had been to Malaysia and Europe. Mostly, I had stayed in countries where English is an official language.”
“You retired when you were 53 years old which is such a young age to retire. You probably didn’t intend to end your career that early, right?”
“No I didn’t, but I didn’t really have a choice. If I miss the chance to promote at that time, I would have to quit anyway, and I had to compete with someone who was the company chairman’s good friend’s brother.”
“His friend’s brother? That could affect the promotion decision?”
“Even though the chairman didn’t directly indicate that he wanted to promote that person specifically, the CEO at that time gave me pressure and unreasonable hardship so I could quit voluntarily.”
“How did he do that?”
“He relocated me to the countryside, and he also placed me to a position where I had to work under the supervision of a person who was junior to me. When I made even a small mistake, he treated me like I was an incompetent total loser and made sure that everyone knew it. It was extremely hard to stand all those unfairness. All other executive officers sided with the CEO, and no one tried to speak up for me. Eventually, I quit with a severance package of 10-month worth pay.”
“Hmm, I see. I’m sure you are a competent and capable worker. It’s a shame that you had to quit your last job like that.”
“After quitting the job, I spent some time taking a rest before taking the position with a publishing company. I started as a translator of business management books. The publishing company liked the fact that I had work experience with business. I worked for President Jeong-Sook Shin in translating two books.”
“You haven’t worked for another company in the field?”
“No, I haven’t. Well, I couldn’t find a job in the field because most companies are reluctant to hire someone at my age. I actually applied for two positions, but haven’t heard anything from them, not even a chance for an interview. So, when I had a chance to work for Dyeon Korea, I was so excited, and I do enjoy working here. My wife is happy for me too.”
As he spoke, Interpreter Lee gave Gun-Ho a wary look. He thought that maybe Gun-Ho was asking him all these questions in order to terminate his employment. He had a bit of victim mentality because of his unfair experience with his previous employment.
“Please have some tea.”
“Yes, sir.”
After taking a sip of his tea, Gun-Ho continued to talk.
“Would you accept it if I offer a full-time position with Dyeon Korea?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your current position with Dyeon Korea is a temporary one. Why don’t you work with us as a full-time employee?”
“I would love to, sir. If I could have the opportunity, I am ready to devote my time and energy to the work here.”
“I’m planning to expand our market to India. We are not opening a manufacturing facility there at this time, but we will open a sales office there.”
“So, the sales office wouldn’t be a joint venture, but it would be a subsidiary company.”
“That’s right. Since one of India’s national languages is English, if you could work there, that would be great.”
“I definitely love to take the position. I won’t disappoint you.”
“You have proved your competency and capability on your current job duty as an interpreter, but to be honest with you, I have no idea about your ability in business. You used to work as a manager in a branch office abroad, so we will also put you on a manager position as well, as a start. You will have your opportunity to make your way up to a higher position.”
“Th… thank you, sir.”
“I’ve been hearing the recommendation to hire you as our full-time employee from several people here, including Director Kim, Mr. Adam Castler, and President Jang-Hwan Song. Especially, President Song was very serious about having you as our employee.”
“I am very grateful.”
“And, I was the one who turned down the recommendation so far. I didn’t want to take you as our full-time employee because I believe that once a person quit his job before, there is a high chance that he wouldn’t be loyal to his next employer as much as he was to his first employer. That’s because that person would be skeptical about his job security all the time. He would probably think that this employer would eventually let him go just like the previous employer did to him. If you don’t fall into that typical category, I will guarantee your job security until you reach the proper retirement age.”
“Th… thank you, sir. I don’t know what to say. I will do my best not to disappoint you.”
“In addition to the job security, I will guarantee your promotion opportunity as well as corresponding to your work performance.”
“Thank you. As a matter of fact, many presidents are good at power games within the organization; however, I know that business owner presidents like you, Mr. President Goo, usually put the company first before the ongoing power game. I’m so grateful and encouraged by the owner president’s guarantee on my position here.”
“Okay then. I will proceed with my job offer then.”
Interpreter Lee gave a deep bow to Gun-Ho and left the office.
Gun-Ho called for Director Kim and Mr. Adam Castler. This time, he asked Secretary Seon-Hye Yee to interpret for him.
“As you are well aware, I went on a trip to India, arranged by GH Mobile. I’ve decided to let Dyeon Korea get into the Indian market before GH Mobile. This is the right timing for us. We will start with a sales company there since having a manufacturing facility there would cost a substantial amount of investment funds.”
Director Kim and Mr. Adam Castler nodded their heads.
“As a start, I want to get a storage and an office space in either Delhi or Chennai, India, just like Dingding’s sales company in China. In China, we purchased its storage space, but this time, we want to lease a premises in India for storage. It will cost us less than 100 million won.”
As Gun-Ho continued to talk, Director Kim and Mr. Adam Castler were busy making a note of what he said.
“So, I’m thinking of sending Mr. Interpreter Lee to our future office in India after hiring him as our full-time employee.”
Director Kim and Mr. Adam Castler lifted their heads and looked at Gun-Ho’s face.
