Korea's young employees pass on promotions with 'conscious unbossing'

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Korea's young employees pass on promotions with 'conscious unbossing'

Published: 06 Nov. 2024, 08:39

An office worker walks by Gangnam Station in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on July 23. [YONHAP]

Once, promotion to an executive position was considered so coveted that it was often likened to getting a star in the military. But these days, Korean office workers — both young and old — aren't too keen on climbing the corporate ladder, not when it means instability and less time outside of work.

For Generation Z workers, it has to do with "conscious unbossing," a term coined for young professionals who don't want to take on middle-management positions. Workers in their 40s and 50s, who value job security, say they don't want to be noticed, lest they get caught out when times get tough.

"They call us 'wet leaves': we plaster ourselves to the bottom of shoes and try not to stick out when the company looks for workers to promote or people to leave," said an office worker in their 40s, who claims to want to just get by at work.

Getting by until retirement

An office worker aged 54 at a major construction firm sits in the corporate hierarchy at a level akin to that of a department head. The employee has quite a lot of colleagues similar in age who have become executives, but doesn't really mind.

"If you don't become an executive, your monthly wages are guaranteed until the age of 60," the employee said.

"There are added responsibilities when you become an executive, which is a lot of pressure to take on, and it's tiring have to look good in front of your boss at this age."

Officer workers walk by Gangnam Station in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on July 23. [YONHAP]

Professionals now regard people who hold the same title — whether it be at manager or division head levels — differently than in the past.

Those people were previously scorned for being "losers" who failed to get an executive role, with workers in the past even leaving companies out of embarrassment when a junior colleague got the title and became their boss.

Now, workers are voluntarily giving up, or even refusing, to take on executive roles. There's a phrase — "executives are temporary" — that's representative of a widespread sentiment: Instead of living in fear of having to renew contracts every year, it is better to stay under the radar at a lower level until retirement.

As executives at large companies are getting younger, the chances of becoming an executive are usually made clear around the time workers in their 40s hit the level of team manager.

A 45-year-old team manager at a large company in the energy sector, whose role is at a similar level to a senior manager, said their dream was to "just get by" in their job.

"If you're a team manager in your 40s, you're up as a candidate to become an executive, but around 60 percent of team managers nowadays want to become executives while 40 percent want to work until the standard retirement age," the worker said.

"When thinking about my child, who is just an elementary student, going to college, finding a job and marrying, I have to earn money even after I hit 60, so my goal is to work as long as I can," the employee added.

An office worker walks by Gangnam Station in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on July 23. [YONHAP]

Sources in the business community also say workers have looked at their immediate predecessors and realized that becoming an executive isn't all it's cracked up to be. They see executives, even those who are good at their job, get fired faster than expected after poor performances, and that privileges enjoyed by executives in the past have been reduced.

"Employees have changed the way they think about executives after seeing that it is difficult for people in that position to make an elegant exit," said Kwon Sang-jip, a professor of corporate management at Hansung University.

"A minimum tenure of three years has to be guaranteed for executives to work with conviction; this also motivates other employees who look to executives for guidance."

Conscious unbossing

Human resources are feeling the shift in attitude as well. According to an HR manager at a major company, "people in their 40s and 50s seem to be avoiding promotions in favor of job security, while those in their 20s and 30s avoid them for a good work-life balance."

"Since the company's growth has slowed down, there has been a backlog in promotions and it takes a long time to get to a top position, so people tend to give up, thinking it's better to 'take it easy' at the company."

Why Gen Z and millennials don't want executive roles [JOONGANG ILBO]

Above all, companies worry about young employees' avoidance of certain positions.

"Working at an overseas branch is considered a fast-track route for promotions at a global company, but people in their 40s and 50s sometimes refuse to take overseas roles because of their children or to take care of their parents," said an HR manager at a domestic IT company.

"The generation in their 20s and 30s avoid taking team leader jobs to focus on their self-development."

Over half of 1,114 millennial and Generation Z office workers surveyed by online recruitment platform JobKorea last year said they had no ambitions of taking an executive role. The most cited reason was that they thought the position came with high pressure with its responsibilities. The difficulty of being promoted to an executive role came in second place, and in third, the impossibility of having a good work-life balance.

Generation Z's "conscious unbossing," a term coined to describe their tendency to refuse middle management roles, has been observed overseas as well. British recruitment and consulting firm Robert Walters said 52 percent of British Generation Z workers surveyed didn't want a middle management role, according to The Times.

Conscious unbossing is not unlike quiet quitting, which refers to workers doing the minimum requirement of their job — both are ways of workers exercising autonomy within their boundaries to go against a traditionally rigid corporate culture.

Seoul residents and office workers stay in the shade at Cheonggyecheon on May 22. [NEWS1]

Companies need to come up with incentives

Firms have become concerned about their workers avoiding promotions. The spread of the nonchalant attitude toward promotion could lead to a general drop in vitality and productivity in the workforce.

As an HR manager at a battery company says, "promotions and rewards exist for a company's growth and continuity. If either of those fail, there could be problems in managing the workforce. If promotion avoidance leads to complacency, it could negatively affect workers' results."

Conflicts and grievances also grow as competent employees get work piled up on them without added benefits.

"People who are good at their job get more to do," an HR manager at a retail company said, adding that, despite this, "the rewards given for good results are not that much, which could lead to talented workers who are good at their jobs leaving."

A different HR manager in the electronics industry said that companies should "hand out immediate rewards [to employees] who take on responsibilities and accomplish difficult tasks instead of vaguely [claiming to] 'invest in their future.'"

"If the company constantly reminds their employees that they will definitely receive rewards for taking on responsibility and achieving results in their job, this will naturally motivate them to try for promotions or take on senior roles."

Some say that, since the number of promotions is limited, there is a need to incentivize senior employees with measures that aren't promotions — in other words, to provide career routes and options that aren't leadership positions for workers who excel in their field. A notable example of this is Samsung Electronics' expert system implemented from 2019. The system recognizes and incentivizes professionals who continue to work in areas that require technical expertise and on-site experience.

Korea's human resource management should, fundamentally, transition from the current system that traditionally centers around seniority to one that is focused on employees' results and contributions, according to experts. The emphasis on results is also why a pay structure that sets wages according to the job's difficulty, importance or responsibility is pitched.

"The problem is that the added rewards that come with changes in the job aren't attractive enough compared to the risks that come with it," said Kyung Hee University economics Prof. Eom Sang-min. "The pay structure has to change so that the people who are promoted or do more difficult jobs are rewarded more handsomely."

One of the changes the finance sector has introduced is the self-promotion system. The system allows workers to decide when they want to be promoted instead of being automatically elevated depending on the years they put in, and to recommend themselves for promotion according to their own timelines.

BY CHOI SUN-EUL, HWANG SU-YEON [[email protected]]