Gun-Ho went to work in GH Mobile in Jiksan Town. The area along the second factory’s walls was still congested with a lot of parked cars.
Gun-Ho stopped by the production team 1 and team 2 before heading to his office on the second floor. Raw materials and goods-in-process were piled up making a small mountain. They were probably for the mass-produced brackets for H Group. Some of them were stamped with a certificate of inspection. They were probably waiting to be shipped after having received the inspection. In the production area, President Song and the general affairs direction were standing watching the process.
“You are all here,” Gun-Ho said to them.
“Since Director Park is not present in the production area because of his trip to Chennai, India, we just wanted to check if everything is going well here. Watching all types of products manufactured in the same area is giving me a headache.”
“They look complex and disorganized, but they are actually all in order. And they have to, especially because shipping has to be completed in time in order to keep up with the planned lead time (the amount of time spent during the process from the point where raw materials are brought in and the point where a product is completed).”
The forklift truck was moving busily making a lot of noises, and the wing-body truck was standing ready to be loaded with the finished products.
Gun-Ho asked the general affairs director to come close to him to talk.
“Do we have any update on reserving parking space with the church?”
“We received their response. They said it would be difficult for them to lease the space to us. They said that they are not a for-profit organization, and renting their property to the third party in order to make money doesn’t go with their organization’s purpose.”
“Hmm.”
“Since a church is an unincorporated association, maybe leasing their property to use as our parking space is not feasible. So, we are contacting a storage building next to the church.”
“A storage building?”
“The building used to be a factory that manufactured golf carts, and they no longer use the building. They have a front yard about 300 pyung large. If we can use that space, we can park at least 50 vehicles. I was actually talking about it with President Song earlier when you came and joined us here.”
“Did they agree to lease the space to us?”
“I talked with the owner of the property, and he was okay with leasing it as long as he could get enough rent.”
“How much is he asking?”
“We haven’t reached the agreement on the price yet.”
“What is the property owner doing for a living?”
“He is running a huge hardware store. I heard that this is his hometown, and he inherited large real property from his father, which used to be farmlands.”
“Even if he asks for a high price, we should lease the space.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gun-Ho walked up to the second floor heading to his office.
When he was having his tea that Secretary Hee-Jeong Park had brought to him, President Song entered the office.
Gun-Ho asked him, “Is Director Park coming back to work the day after tomorrow?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I know that H Group mentioned three different types of brackets. Are we supplying them with only one type of their brackets now?”
“Yes, sir. Our research center is currently developing the sample products for the other two types of their brackets.”
“The new 50 production workers who we are hiring now will start working when we begin manufacturing the second and third types of brackets then?
“That’s correct, sir.”
“Hmm.”
“We’ve completed the final hiring screening process by having an interview with each job candidate individually. And we’ve already selected 50 new workers. We are, however, still in the process of determining their first day of work.”
“Do we have a plan about how to handle the parking problem? Once the new 50 workers join us, the problem will be aggravated.”
“I believe that the general affairs director already made a report to you about leasing the parking space from the storage building next to the church. The property owner is more than willing to lease the property to us as long as we offer him a good rental price.”
“Hmm.”
“Also, we will promote a carpooling system among the workers who are using their personal vehicles in commuting.”
“Carpooling system?”
“Yes, sir. If an employee shares his or her car with two or more of our employees in coming to work and going back home after work, we will pay part of their gas expenses.”
“Hmm, the idea is very good, but I wonder if our employees would think saving their gas expenses are worth sharing their cars with other workers.”
“I’m sure they would. Especially, we have many lady workers who are married, and they are usually sensitive about saving money. If we pay for their gas even partially, I’m sure that they will participate in the carpooling program. We conducted a survey about the carpooling program already, and many employees responded positively.”
“That’s good. Well, let’s try the carpooling program, and if that doesn’t solve our parking problem, we will have to find another solution.”
“Yes, sir.”
After President Song left Gun-Ho’s office, Gun-Ho turned on the TV. There was a TV in the president’s office in GH Mobile.
“Minister Jin-Woo Lee is a strong candidate in the upcoming by-election, but he is chased fiercely by another candidate who was a former news anchor? Hmm. Minister Jin-Woo Lee’s political party— Gongmyeong— is getting enormous support from large companies, especially financially, but they seem to be not strong enough.”
At the moment, Gun-Ho thought of Min-Ho Kang who was working for a civic organization. He made a call to him.
“Min-Ho Kang? It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo.”
“Huh? Mr. President Goo? I haven’t expected to receive a call from you. What a pleasant surprise.”
“I wanted to thank you for arranging the gathering for our high school reunion last time.”
“Don’t mention it. I had a great time.”
“How’s your civic organization— Better Society Community— doing these days? What does your organization do to make our society better?”
“We used to receive a lot of donations and contributions; at that time, we often hosted an event as well. We were very active back then. But, these days, even paying our two administrators in the organization on time isn’t easy. Meaning that we don’t have enough financial capacity to be active.”
“You said that you are the full-time vice president of that organization, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. Our president is a part-time position, and we have three vice presidents, but I’m the only full-time vice president. I believe you know of our president. He used to be the center of several major political movements. His name is Gi-Baek Ham.”
“Yeah, I think I know of Mr. Gi-Baek Ham. I’ve been to one of his lectures before. Isn’t he the one who is always wearing a traditional Korean overcoat?”
“That’s right. As his name implies, he is full of spirit of vigor and patriotism.”
“Is he not participating in the upcoming by-election?”
“A political party has to support him in order to be in the by-election. Without a political party’s support, you can’t do anything in this country even though you are a more than capable and able person.”
“What do you think of the one of the candidates for the upcoming by-election— Mr. Jin-Woo Lee?”
“Personally, I’m not a big fan of him at all. He is the son-in-law of a conglomerate family. In addition, he has always been with the party in power. I don’t like him.”
“I guess you like the candidate of his opponent then, the one who was once a news anchor.”
“I hate that guy even more. He hasn’t shown anything so far what he could do for the people. All he had done was talk in the news. I’m certain that he doesn’t know a thing about the hardship that our people are experiencing.”
“Hmm, is that right?”
“The thing is that I think he is earning a lot of support from mid-aged married women since he is somewhat good-looking. If we look at the exit polls later, the votes that those two candidates receive will be very close.”
