Still Too Young, Still Too Incomplete
The 66th to 68th floors housed the HR department. Here, the primary focus was personnel planning—restructuring, hiring, and managing the intake of manpower requirements from various departments whenever personnel changes occurred. Employees from other departments rarely had reason to visit. They were too busy with their own work, and the HR department was a place where security was paramount; every monitor was equipped with side-view privacy filters. It was a vault of sensitive information: employee personal details, performance evaluations, value assessments, and the data that determined bonuses.
The fact that the Vice Chairman had called for him now, of all times, suggested that this was no ordinary matter. Wondering why he had been summoned, he entered the Human Resources Operations Office.
“Ah, President! You were here?”
“Oh... Han, what brings you here?”
“The Operations Vice Chairman called for me.”
“Eh? He didn’t mention anything to me. Ah... right. It must be about that. Okay. Go on in.”
“Is there something going on, by any chance?”
In large conglomerates, titles and ranks often differed by department. His company was no exception. For instance, the Department Head of the HR department was the President Seo currently standing before him. However, the Executive Operations Vice Chairman belonging to this department was a Vice Chairman. Furthermore, while the title of ‘Department Head’ usually implied someone with about 20 years of service, the ‘Department Head’ at headquarters was at minimum a Vice President or President. Therefore, they only used titles when necessary for work; if they happened to bump into each other in the hallway, they had to use their official ranks.
He knocked on the inner door a couple of times and arrived at the area where the secretaries sat in front of the office. He bowed his head slightly, then looked up to greet the secretary.
“I was told the Vice Chairman called for me...”
“Yes, Executive Director Han Suhyun. I have your appointment confirmed. You may go in.”
The secretary bowed politely, then knocked and opened the door.
“Vice Chairman, I heard you called for me.”
“Oh! Yes, Executive Director. Come, sit down.”
He opened the door and stepped inside. The Vice Chairman, who had been working, waved his hand for him to sit while keeping his eyes fixed on the monitor. He had expected the conversation to start immediately, but the Vice Chairman seemed to be scrutinizing something on the screen, so he sat quietly without interrupting. He wondered, He’s not the type to make people wait like this, while feeling a deep sense of unease. What could be so important that he’s stalling like this?
“Hey, Executive Director, sorry to bother you, but could you come here and help me with this?”
“...?”
“I’m trying to use VLOOKUP... and I need to extract values from this table. But it keeps spitting out weird numbers.”
He sat at the table, his eyes darting around, unsure where to look, before cautiously approaching the Vice Chairman’s desk. When he looked at the monitor, he saw an Excel sheet where the Vice Chairman was trying to build a single function formula by aggregating various pieces of information.
“I think it would be better to use XLOOKUP for this.”
“And here, if you use SUMIF to process it... like this... the problem will be solved.”
“Ah... it’s nice to be young. As expected.”
The Vice Chairman, who was struggling with the computer and frowning at the monitor, was, despite appearances, a veteran of over 40 years. He had worked even longer than the Chairman. He was someone who had even worked with the Chairman’s father—his own paternal grandfather.
That was why the position of Executive Operations Vice Chairman was held by the person with the most experience. It was a role that required the vision to evaluate the personnel performance of every executive in the company, and it demanded that the highest-ranking person command subordinates in a way that left no room for noise. Thus, the Executive Operations Vice Chairman was often the final position for executives. Occasionally, if the Chairman was absent, on sabbatical, or retired before the next Chairman took office, they would serve as the interim Chairman.
“Right. Just a moment, stay seated for a bit longer. Sorry.”
“Not at all. It’s fine.”
The sound of keyboard clacking grew quieter, signaling that the work was finishing. The Vice Chairman pressed a key on his phone.
“Yes. Please bring two iced coffees.”
“Yes, Vice Chairman.”
Afterward, he told him to move from the table to the sofa. He nodded and sat down. He was visibly nervous, not knowing what would be said. He worried it might be about personnel changes.
“Yes. What is this about...”
“Oh, it’s nothing else.”
The coffee was placed down carefully. He didn’t pay it any mind.
“So... let’s get straight to the point. When are you going to get promoted?”
“...?”
“The Chairman keeps asking me why I haven’t promoted you to Senior Managing Director yet.”
“Ah....”
He pondered for a moment while sipping his coffee.
“If I say, like last time, that Executive Director Han doesn’t want it and prefers to keep his current rank...”
“Then I’ll be the one going up. To the Chairman’s office...”
“Exactly! And I’ll be going up with you.”
“But I...”
He had caused an accident in the past. It had worked out in the end, but that was clearly a failure. Furthermore, he hadn’t created any notable achievements since returning. If he were promoted now, no matter how well he managed his image, the surrounding gaze would not be kind. He felt he couldn’t endure it, and he didn’t want to be the subject of gossip.
“Ah... honestly, I’m sorry, Vice Chairman. I don’t think I’m qualified.”
“You say you aren’t qualified, yet you secured a 3.2 trillion won construction project? There’s no need to be this humble in a place like this...”
“...I have a history of making mistakes, and I’m still too young. You know that. When I was first appointed, there was fierce opposition at the shareholders’ meeting. After experiencing that failure...”
“That was a case that turned into support after you sold it off well later.”
“...After that, I honestly don’t have the confidence. Even if I move up, I’ll just make another mistake, and my past failures will keep holding me back... I think showing an attachment to titles would be a bad move.”
He spoke monotonously and sipped his coffee slowly.
“Executive Director, there’s no need to be bound by the past. The Chairman also failed miserably when he first tried to make mobile phones, then tried again and succeeded. He also spent 10 years in the red trying to do pharmaceuticals, and now it’s a cash cow. You have to look at the future; you can’t judge a person’s life only by looking at the past.”
Even as he said that, he thought of her—his ex-wife. In his most difficult moments, when the urge to die was coursing through his entire body, instead of active support, she had said, ‘I’m very disappointed in you, Han Suhyun.’ ‘You’re too weak. You seem even more fragile than me. That’s why I wanted to divorce you.’ Those words still stung to the bone.
So he said,
“...I am still weak. I am lacking. So I think I need more time before moving up.”
“...”
“Around me, I still haven’t found people who can support me. I won’t be able to achieve anything on my own. I need the people around me to give me strength...”
The Vice Chairman looked at him blankly for a moment, then said,
“...It seems something else happened.”
“...Haha.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
“Well... alright. Sigh... I suppose there’s nothing I can do. I thought there was only one person in my life who would refuse a promotion when offered one...”
“It seems there was someone else besides me.”
“Like father, like son, I suppose. The reason is the same, too.”
“Ah.... Haha. Well....”
The Vice Chairman leaned back against the sofa. He looked out the window for a moment and said,
“It’s truly an impressive feat to secure and carry out a massive project without any special support from the organization.”
“...”
“I don’t know what kind of conclusion that will lead to, but our company, and other companies too, have mostly been like that. Even if we don’t know what result it will bring, we judge that doing it at this moment is the right thing to do and execute it. Organizations that continue to challenge themselves like that survive, and stagnant organizations are destined to perish.”
He just listened to those words in silence.
“It’s rare for a wealthy, successful conglomerate heir to have such a keen interest in business and do something self-directed.”
“...You flatter me.”
“Flattery? No. Have some confidence. I hope you realize that someone who is capable of moving up but chooses to stay in their place is, in itself, stagnation.”
As he heard those words, he gave a self-deprecating smile, thinking they didn’t apply to him.
“I will tell the Chairman that I will observe you a bit more before submitting the promotion proposal. But in my view, you have something inside you right now. Something is tangled up, and it’s knotted tightly, trapping you. I think you need to overcome that. It’s common sense for people to be happy when they get promoted, so the fact that you aren’t means something is wrong somewhere.”
“Yes.”
“Untangle the knotted lines first. Once you’re done, come up to my office. I’d like you to do it as quickly and accurately as possible.”
He nodded. The Vice Chairman gestured that he was free to go. He bowed once more at the door, returned to his seat, and thought.
“....”
It was a day that left him with many thoughts. He thought, for a moment, of the past. The scene at that shareholders’ meeting where he was first appointed.