Chapter 29: Resignation
Chapter 29: Resignation
They say every office worker keeps a letter of resignation over their heart. In the end, I finally submitted mine.
‘I feel so liberated.’
I don’t have to commute anymore.
I don’t have to sit in an office and do paperwork.
I don’t have to suck up to my superiors or the doctors I meet for work, or sometimes run their errands.
I don’t have to force myself to get along with the gossiping nurses.
I’m not even that sociable, so you can imagine how nervous I was every time I had to walk into a new hospital.
I don’t have to wait endlessly while doctors see their patients or visit them for days in a row.
Just submitting my resignation made me feel like a free man.
‘How could I feel this relieved?’
I came down from the rooftop and gathered my team members in the break room.
“I submitted my resignation.”
Lee Jong-yeop, Kim Sun-jo, and Park Chang-gil from the sales team.
They were the colleagues I’d worked outdoors with, whether it was snowing or raining.
Lee Jong-yeop was a guy who especially looked up to me.
“So you did.”
“Huh?”
“I had a feeling ever since you used up all your vacation days at the beginning of the year.”
Being the lively and extroverted person he was, Lee Jong-yeop took it well.
He might be disappointed, but leaving the company didn’t mean our connection would be completely severed.
Then there was the quiet and calm Kim Sun-jo.
He'd come up from the countryside, didn't know Seoul well, and was on the introverted side.
He was a guy I’d looked after carefully since he was a new employee.
“Assistant Manager Kim. I'm so jealous.”
“Huh?”
“Quitting your job after making a fortune from crypto... Isn't that every office worker's dream?”
The innocent country boy had become so citified.
I wanted to nag him to work diligently instead of dreaming of a windfall.
But I was in the position of having quit after getting a windfall myself.
“Let's finish up our work for today and talk over some beef tonight.”
“Yes! Assistant Manager.”
* * *
Na Sang-guk was bored with his corporate life.
His frustration had been building ever since he failed to get into the companies he’d aimed for and ended up as a pharmaceutical salesman.
‘Are there really no companies that will take me?’
He felt his luck in job hunting was poor compared to his friends who had joined large corporations or public enterprises.
‘If only I'd managed my grades a little better.’
It was a regret, true, but when he’d just started, the colleague he worked with was such a pushover that he could restore his lost self-esteem.
“Kim Shin, you know how to drive, right?”
“I don't. I was planning to get my license after I get paid this month.”
“You don't even know how to drive? I guess people who can't afford driving school really do exist.”
“...”
Kim Shin, two years his junior, couldn't defy him.
Every time he put the other man down, his lost self-esteem was replenished.
“You've got it good, Kim Shin.”
“Pardon?”
“You don't have anyone nagging you. You can just live however you want.”
It was a subtle dig at him for living alone without parents. If Kim Shin got angry, he planned to make him look strange by claiming he was just talking about living by himself.
Kim Shin endured it and didn't argue.
‘He can't cause trouble at the job he worked so hard to get, right? What a total pushover.’
There were countless opportunities for subtle harassment.
“Ever played golf? Ah, sorry, I shouldn't have asked. Of course you haven't.”
“Do you know how to swim? A lot of people learn when they're young. I guess you couldn't afford that either, huh?”
“When the nurses see you, they'll think all Arcor employees buy their clothes at the outlet mall. Buy a better suit. For a salesman, clothes are your face, you know?”
Kim Shin was surprisingly popular among the female employees at the company.
It was to the point where some female employees would ask Na Sang-guk, who worked with him, for an introduction.
“Kim Shin? That guy's crazy about any woman he sees...”
“Really?”
“He hits on all the nurses, you know.”
He blocked the female employees from approaching Kim Shin. He was thrilled whenever Kim Shin failed to do something right during a sales call.
Unfortunately, from their second year, he was assigned to the Gangbuk team and didn't get to see him often.
‘A crypto jackpot? *That* guy?’
He was so furious when he heard the news that Kim Shin had made it big.
It was the same when he was talking about investing in Ripple in the group chat, and Kim Shin had the audacity to tell him to be careful.
‘You're beneath me. What the hell are you babbling about?’
In the end, after Ripple crashed, he ended up taking all the blame from his colleagues.
From then on, he just hoped for Kim Shin's downfall.
“Please don't tell anyone. I made close to 10 billion won, but now I only have 300 million left.”
“300 million?”
“Yes. I dabbled in this and that. I lost a lot.”
He became happy while talking with Kim Shin.
All his discomfort from before vanished completely.
‘Right. So you're ruined. I knew it. A pine caterpillar should stick to pine needles.’
Naturally, he spread that rumor throughout the entire company. But.
“Assistant Manager Kim. I heard he really did hit the jackpot with crypto.”
“What?”
“They say he has tens of billions of won. That's why he resigned.”
“Really?”
The rumor he'd spread was revealed to be a lie.
“Then why did he lie to me that he'd lost everything and only had 300 million left!”
On the rooftop, with several other employees around, he tried to shift the blame for spreading the rumor onto Kim Shin.
Team Leader Seo clicked his tongue and said.
“Assistant Manager Kim is a humble guy.”
“Pardon?”
“He's a sincere person, so he probably wanted to quietly finish his time at the company and leave. But he must have revealed the truth because he was treating us to a meal and he's the type who hates lying.”
Team Leader Seo was wearing a Rolex on his left wrist.
He'd always had a good impression of Kim Shin, but of course, that wasn't the whole story.
He was taking his side unconditionally because Kim Shin had gifted him a Rolex, something hard to buy on a salary.
“But I heard Assistant Manager Kim told you to keep it to yourself. Did you really go around spreading it all over the company?”
“...”
* * *
“Are we really going here?”
“For real? Assistant Manager Kim, aren't you overdoing it?”
We went to an expensive beef restaurant in Gangnam, near the office.
150,000 won for a 130g serving.
The special cuts were a brutal price, exceeding 200,000 won.
“Yes. I made a reservation. Let's go in.”
The sales team had 12 people, the technical team 11, and the support team 12.
Usually, not this many people would gather, even for a company dinner.
Since there were so many of us, we split up into five rooms, each with two tables.
“For starters, let's get five servings of sirloin, tenderloin, and special cuts for each table. Is that alright, Team Leader An?”
“Yeah, order whatever you want. But isn't this too expensive?”
“This is the least we can order.”
It was a high-service restaurant where the staff came and grilled the meat for you and handled all the settings.
‘The spoons, the chopsticks. Even the salt and charcoal are expensive.’
As they say, the one who pays is the boss.
My superior, Team Leader An, said.
“I'll enjoy the meal. Assistant Manager Kim.”
“Yes. Please eat a lot.”
“We'll eat well, Assistant Manager Kim!”
Chopsticks moved towards the beef, which was quickly cooked to perfection, dripping with juice.
When I put a piece in my mouth, it felt savory and tender.
‘This is the life.’
Back in school, I thought even eating pork hind leg was such a luxury.
The beef in Gangnam had a special taste.
It wasn't that I'd never had beef in Gangnam before.
I'd eaten it a few times on the corporate card, either dining with doctors or tagging along to an ophthalmology clinic's dinner.
It was always just a part of sales, and since the level of entertainment depended on the doctor's status or the hospital's revenue, we rarely came to such a high-end place.
“Wow. Thanks to Assistant Manager Kim, I'm getting to eat some really expensive meat.”
“It melts in your mouth. Melts.”
My colleagues, having been in sales for a long time, knew how to maintain proper decorum.
They were eating the beef slowly, matching the pace of others and only taking small bites.
“Excuse me, eight more servings of special cuts here, please. And please send eight more servings to each table.”
“Yes, sir.”
When I placed the order, Kim Sang-gi, sitting next to me, was startled.
“Hey, are you crazy? Do you know how much that's going to cost?”
“The meat's delicious, so eat a lot. There's nothing worse than the flow being interrupted while you're eating.”
With over a trillion won in assets, how could I skimp on the price of beef?
The atmosphere brightened considerably with the generous order of meat.
“We'll eat well, Assistant Manager Kim.”
“Thanks to Assistant Manager Kim, we're feasting on good meat today.”
“We're going to miss you a lot when you leave, Assistant Manager Kim.”
It was a pleasant dinner.
I went around to the other rooms, having a glass of beer in each.
Lee Min-young from the secretarial office said.
“Assistant Manager. Please keep your promise to buy me a meal!”
Last time, she'd said to forget about the meal.
Honestly, I could understand.
A divorced man at the company with no money... it would be awkward to have a meal with him, just the two of us.
I smiled and said.
“Yes. I'll buy you one.”
Someday before I die, I suppose.
And as I made my rounds through the rooms, I couldn't see Jo Soo-ah.
I thought if she wasn't with the sales team, she'd be with the other female employees.
I couldn't ask the other women where she was for fear of causing a misunderstanding.
‘Maybe this is for the best.’
I know that Jo Soo-ah likes me.
She might have been too sad to attend after hearing the news of my resignation.
It seemed better for Jo Soo-ah to just forget about me as I left the company, rather than me having to explain about Ellie.
* * *
Within the sales team, Lee Jong-yeop was newly promoted to Assistant Manager.
Becoming an assistant manager meant a salary increase of about 300,000 won and the added responsibility of managing subordinate staff.
“Let's start with Gangnam.”
“Yes, sir. Let's go right away.”
I went around to the hospitals I was in charge of with Lee Jong-yeop.
We visited the hospitals in Gangdong and Gangnam according to the schedule, and also visited quite a few in the Gyeonggi area.
“From now on, Assistant Manager Lee Jong-yeop will be in charge.”
“And you, Assistant Manager Kim?”
“I'm resigning.”
“Oh no. That's a shame. Where are you transferring to?”
“I plan to take a break for a while.”
I went to the hospitals I managed, introduced Lee Jong-yeop, and told them to contact him if they needed anything.
I handed over the work records and data for the hospitals.
We make periodic visits to places that have our company's machines, but for smaller hospitals with less business or those that don't perform many surgeries, we only visited once every month or two.
Each time I visited a hospital, my responsibilities decreased a little, leaving me with a bittersweet feeling.
I used to provide various samples and pamphlets and talk with doctors just to close a single deal.
‘I'm being freed from work.’
Quitting the company made my heart feel lighter than I'd expected.
The handover period is usually 14 days, but it varies slightly by industry and company.
In our company's case, the standard handover period was one month.
For an assistant manager-level employee with a lot of experience and responsibilities, the company set a longer handover period of two to three months.
The meaning was clear: don't leave early, finish all your work before you go.
If you couldn't meet the handover period, you shouldn't have planned to leave in the first place.
Even though the pharmaceutical sales industry is large, it's an old boys' club where everyone knows each other through a degree or two of separation. If you ran off without properly completing your handover period, you'd be put on a deserter's list.
Your severance pay would be delayed as long as possible, and bad rumors would spread to other pharmaceutical companies.
To ensure a smooth handover, it was standard practice to coordinate your start date with your new company in advance.
‘Looking at it this way, it seems like a pretty malicious company.’
Doesn't every company have its pros and cons?
The workload was on the lighter side, and I didn't have many complaints while working here.
But since I wasn't transferring to another company, they couldn't stop me from leaving after submitting my resignation.