[Reporter’s Eye] The Bureaucratic Society Still Emphasizes ‘Untact’...

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Untact: A neologism formed by adding "un," meaning negative or against, to "contact," which means contact.

Due to COVID-19, the past few months have felt like living in a new world. The past seems to have stopped at "memories." How else could the terms BC (Before Corona) and AC (After Corona) have emerged?

The untact culture had already become mainstream even before the outbreak of COVID-19.

Drive-thru, self-service gas stations, and automatic payment systems are representative examples. Of course, they were introduced and operated for customer convenience and labor cost reduction.

However, as COVID-19 began to spread uncontrollably, "untact" has now established itself as an unstoppable trend of the times.

In the "deep-rooted bureaucratic society" that emphasizes "untact," ironically, it fails to accept this and remains stuck in customs and conventions.

Each local government holds regular assemblies for all employees every month. Weekly work reports are conducted, and various reporting meetings continue even now.

In particular, reporting meetings attended by officials at grade 5 or higher are held about 20 times a month on average. Except for weekends and holidays, they are held almost every day of the month.

One public official said that most reporting meetings are not held out of necessity but to show "I am working." Supervisors think that only visible actions such as education, meetings, and reporting meetings mean work is being done.

According to frontline public officials, many reporting meetings or conferences do not properly address departmental pending issues but only conduct so-called "achievement reports."

It appears that administrative agencies, which should provide a "measure" for the people of the Republic of Korea to live like human beings, are so steeped in bureaucratic inertia that they cannot keep up with the current trend.

Of course, as the non-face-to-face culture expands, Gwangju Metropolitan City is conducting "COVID-19 outbreak status press briefings" using real-time SNS videos, and one autonomous district has reduced the monthly regular assemblies for all employees to once every 2-3 months and conducts them via internal broadcasting.

The "untact" culture was inevitably a trend of the times that would come to us someday. COVID-19 just brought it a little earlier.

Important reporting meetings and conferences are necessary, of course. However, regarding showy administration, local governments should first break administrative customs and prepare for the post-corona era.

To this end, investing in and establishing an untact administrative platform may enable residents to lead a more affluent life.