The Overly Competent Junior Employee

“The team leader wasn’t always like this.”

Meanwhile, Dokyung and Han Dahyun were sitting on a bench in front of the company, talking with their seniors.

Seeing Dokyung and Han Dahyun’s bewildered expressions after the incident at the restaurant earlier, the two seniors seemed to feel they needed to say something.

“He used to be a really impressive person.”

“No, he’s still impressive.”

“That’s right. Even now, he doesn’t interfere much with our work and trusts us. He only gives necessary advice.”

Dokyung and Han Dahyun nodded at the seniors’ words. When the two of them first arrived, Team Leader Seo Jeonghwan had tested them as if measuring their capabilities, and when they met his expectations, he chose to observe them over time rather than interfere with their work.

And when their work hit a roadblock, he would intervene to offer advice and provide direction.

Hearing from Han Dahyun that newcomers in other teams were either doing their team leaders’ work or exhausted from their team leaders’ nagging, the two thought they were lucky with their team leader.

“But today’s behavior was a bit shocking, wasn’t it?”

Dokyung could understand Seo Jeonghwan, thinking that not responding at all was the best course of action in that situation. But Han Dahyun seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yes… Honestly, I think Dokyung-ssi just presented the assigned task. I can’t understand the Team 2 leader coming and sneering like that…”

Han Dahyun lowered her head, trailing off.

Her expression suggested she couldn’t bring herself to comment on Seo Jeonghwan’s behavior.

“I know what you’re feeling, Dahyun-ssi. Our team leader is a good person, but you can’t understand his behavior today, right? And you don’t want to speak ill of him carelessly.”

“…Yes.”

“Hmm… where should we start?”

The seniors pondered for a moment before one of them spoke up.

“There was an incident two years ago. Originally, our team leader was a team member under the current Center Director Ha Min-jae. The Team 2 leader was the same.”

Dokyung and Han Dahyun started focusing intently on the seniors’ words.

“Me and this assistant manager here were newbies who had just transferred to the Leaders Center. Just like you two.”

The senior continued, as if recalling that time.

“About three years ago, the headquarters’ policy began to change. They said not to comply with unreasonable requests from clients. The current policy of our center came down from headquarters at that time.”

The senior was recounting what Ha Min-jae had told them on their first day.

“Of course, the one who first proposed this idea was Ha Min-jae, who was the Team 1 leader at the time. Ha Min-jae welcomed this directive, and since Team 1 was already operating that way, it didn’t make much difference to them.”

“……”

“But there was one client who was particularly demanding when it came to drinking entertainment. Until then, we had sometimes complied while being cautious, and sometimes avoided it, but when the headquarters’ guidelines changed like this, the center firmly refused.”

Dokyung furrowed his brow, feeling like he had heard this story somewhere before.

“By any chance, was the PB in charge of that client…”

“That’s right. As Dokyung-ssi guessed, our team leader was managing that client. Originally, he would accommodate the client’s requests to a certain extent and manage the relationship without causing offense, but as soon as that guideline came down, he started refusing. Our team leader didn’t like that kind of thing either.”

“……”

“But that client got angry. He said, ‘How can you treat me like this when I’m entrusting you with so much money?’ He kept making demands, and then said he couldn’t entrust his money to us anymore because it was disgusting, and withdrew his funds.”

“I heard it was about 7 billion won…”

Dokyung had heard about this from Choi Woojin on the day Ryu Tae-hwa became the Seongnam branch manager.

“What? How do you know that?”

“I heard rumors.”

“That became a rumor? We tried to keep it quiet and cover it up internally…”

“Wait a minute, Dokyung-ssi came from the Seongnam branch, right?”

When the other senior asked, Dokyung nodded.

“Then you might know. Ryu Tae-hwa is the branch manager there.”

“Ah, I see. Anyway, that’s not the important part. The 7 billion won was the money that client had entrusted, but if you include the funds from people who came in on that client’s recommendation, nearly 20 billion won was withdrawn.”

Dokyung was surprised by the amount, which was more than what he had heard from Choi Woojin.

“So someone had to take responsibility. The report went directly to the board of directors at headquarters.”

Dokyung and Han Dahyun understood why that had to be the case.

Even for the Leaders Center, which manages high-net-worth individuals, if 20 billion won in assets were withdrawn at once, they thought the headquarters would surely have something to say about it.

“The first person to take responsibility from headquarters was Ryu Tae-hwa, who we mentioned earlier.”

The incident at that time seemed to have been more serious than Dokyung had thought.

“At the Leaders Center, the center director at the time took responsibility. They didn’t hold our team leader accountable.”

“Then, the team leader…”

At Han Dahyun’s question, the seniors nodded.

“He had a hard time seeing others take responsibility because of him. It must have been difficult for him to hear the center employees whispering behind his back too.”

People sometimes pass judgment on others far too easily.

Even if that person’s actions are right, they can label them as harmful to the organization and gradually try to push them out.

Team Leader Seo Jeonghwan had simply followed the company’s policy faithfully, but when the results weren’t good, he was judged as someone who harmed the organization.

“The reason we’re telling you this… it’s not to say that the team leader’s behavior today was right, but just to help you understand him a little better…”

“I’m fine with it.”

Dokyung nodded and looked at the seniors and Han Dahyun.

“I didn’t feel it was worth responding to in the first place. The team leader must have known that if he had engaged with the Team 2 leader then, the situation would have gotten worse.”

As Dokyung said this, the seniors nodded.

“It’s good that you think that way. What about you, Dahyun-ssi?”

“Now that I know what happened to the team leader, and since Dokyung-ssi, who was directly involved, says it’s okay, I don’t think I should say anything more.”

“I see. You both must have been surprised, but thank you for understanding. Anyway, take a break before coming back in. We’ll head up first.”

The seniors stood up and entered the building where the center was located, and Han Dahyun looked at Dokyung sitting next to her.

“Everyone is really too much.”

Han Dahyun’s single sentence contained many meanings, and Dokyung nodded.

“Sometimes… you see people who are ruthlessly harsh to others.”

Dokyung brushed off his hands, stood up, and looked at Han Dahyun.

“While not knowing what might happen to themselves even a step ahead.”

“What do you mean…”

“Well… I think we’ll know if we wait and see a bit longer?”

Dokyung smiled as he looked at Han Dahyun.

“Shall we go in and work? Doing our job well is the best way we can help the team leader.”

Dokyung said this as he started walking, and Han Dahyun, who had been lost in thought for a moment, nodded and stood up to follow him.

⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱

“How’s E-On Works doing?”

Two weeks later, the Team 2 leader asked his team members.

“Still calm, sir.”

The team members answered dryly to their leader, who was asking the same question again today.

“Are you sure? Nothing like the stock price jumping or any bulk buying happening?”

“No, sir. Nothing like that.”

At his team member’s answer, the Team 2 leader, feeling somewhat uneasy, searched for E-On Works on the professional trading system.

‘Why did that guy look so confident when he made that demand?’

That expression, as if he was certain that in a month, he would be bowing his head to apologize to a newbie.

‘What’s this? It really is quiet.’

But as his team members had said, E-On Works’ trading volume was calm. The stock that Team 2 had presented was still doing well, and E-On Works was showing returns that seemed to rise along with other defense industry stocks.

After reading the reports on E-On Works published by securities firms, the Team 2 leader let out a short sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair.

“Of course. Even a worm will turn… Is that it?”

The Team 2 leader let out a derisive laugh and was focusing on his own work, no longer paying attention to Seo Jeonghwan and Team 3’s affairs.

“Uh, Team Leader.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“There’s an exclusive article about E-On Works.”

The Team 2 leader, who had been answering halfheartedly while looking at documents, furrowed his brow and raised his head at the mention of E-On Works.

“What did you say?”

“An exclusive article just came out saying that a Middle Eastern country is moving to introduce surface-to-air missiles and surveillance radar.”

“What’s the scale?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking what the scale is!”

As the Team 2 leader shouted, the team member who had been speaking casually hurriedly began to review the article again.

“The, the article mentions a scale of 1.8 trillion won, but it’s not certain…”

Before the team member could finish speaking, the Team 2 leader quickly looked at the trading system, and the market was already pushing up E-On Works’ stock price.

⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱

“The clients are seeing an average return of about 14%.”

Two weeks later, Dokyung was reporting to Seo Jeonghwan, who nodded as he read the report handed to him.

“The market isn’t good, but at least E-On Works is giving our clients some breathing room.”

Dokyung nodded at Seo Jeonghwan’s words. The market was still in a poor state, to the point where it was painful to talk about, but thankfully, due to E-On Works’ export contract that Dokyung had presented, the clients were not suffering losses.

“Yes, I think it’s fortunate.”

“Even if we don’t win in the internal presentation, our clients are profiting, so we should be satisfied with that, shouldn’t we?”

However, E-On Works’ rise had not matched the increase of K-Tech, which Team 2 had presented.

With only a few days left until the day of evaluation based on results, Team Leader Seo Jeonghwan seemed to be saying this.

“I didn’t care about it from the beginning.”

“Is that so? I guess I was the only one who cared.”

At Seo Jeonghwan’s words, the team members listening to their conversation looked at him in surprise.

“You cared about that result, Team Leader?”

When Assistant Manager Kim Hyung-jun asked incredulously, Seo Jeonghwan chuckled.

“I always cared. Of course, even if we lose there, there’s no direct harm, but I too have the desire for our team to excel in everything.”

“Then you should have told us…”

“The others weren’t interested either. But this time, seeing the presentation that Yoon Dokyung-ssi prepared by working hard for several days… I started to have expectations.”

Everyone looked surprised at Seo Jeonghwan’s words.

He was someone who had never once voiced his inner thoughts.

“That being said, don’t worry too much. That’s just my hope. I know you’re all doing well in everything. And I just wanted to say good job to Yoon Dokyung-ssi as well.”

As Seo Jeonghwan said this while looking at him, Dokyung bowed his head in thanks. It seemed that Seo Jeonghwan was trying to comfort him in advance, perhaps worried that he might be disappointed.

“Anyway, we should pay a lot of attention to E-On Works. Many clients have positions in it. Keep following up so we can realize profits at the right time.”

“Yes, understood.”

Having finished his report, Dokyung bowed once more and returned to his seat.

Buzz-

As if it had been waiting, as soon as he sat down, his phone started vibrating. Checking the screen, Dokyung smiled and stood up.

“Team Leader.”

Hearing the voice calling him, Seo Jeonghwan, who had been working, looked up at Dokyung.

“It seems it’s not over yet.”