Netizens Engage in Heated Debate Over Office Workers' Concerns Shared in Letters
How should one perceive a new employee in their fifth month at a company who takes days off on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by using annual leave that they do not actually have, citing rest as the reason? Netizens fiercely debated this dilemma faced by a worker.
Actor Kim Ah-young playing the character "Malnun-gwang" (a fanatic with clear eyes) in the content "MZ Office" from the Coupang Play variety show "SNL Korea" [Image source=Coupang Play capture]
On the 24th, a post titled "A new employee keeps taking annual leave thinking they have 20 days right after joining" gained attention on an online community.
The author, Mr. A, shared, "In over 10 years of working life, I have never seen anyone take annual leave on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but a new employee took leave on those days this week," recounting the story.
According to Mr. A, the new employee, Mr. B, started taking annual leave once a month immediately after joining in November last year. Mr. B stated the reason for the leave was "rest." It turned out that Mr. B misunderstood the concept of annual and monthly leave, believing that 20 days of annual leave were granted immediately upon joining. Mr. A then explained the Labor Standards Act to him.
Under the Labor Standards Act, if the length of service is less than one year, annual leave is granted on a monthly basis only if the employee has worked full attendance for that month, resulting in one day of annual leave per month. This means one day of leave is earned after one full month of work, with a maximum of 11 days available. From the second year of service, up to 15 days of annual leave are granted annually instead of monthly leave. From the third year onward, one additional day of leave is added every two years.
Despite this explanation, Mr. B continued to take annual leave, and this time took intermittent leave on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday without any special reason.
Although this is basically impossible in principle, Mr. B eventually went on leave. Regarding this, Mr. A said, "We couldn't refuse the leave," and added, "He didn't inform his immediate supervisor, the assistant manager, but spoke directly to the department head," sharing the situation.
He said, "The company system requires submitting annual leave requests, but since he couldn't draft them, the team tacitly allowed him to take Monday, Wednesday, and Friday off," and lamented, "The department head who allowed the new employee to rest must be quite frustrated."
He continued, "He should be using monthly leave properly, but he uses it recklessly like annual leave. He has no concept of annual or monthly leave," and added, "The department head tacitly permitted this as well. Even after explaining the Labor Standards Act, the Monday-Wednesday-Friday triple combo leave is really hard to describe," expressing his frustration.
Netizens also responded strongly to the senior employee's concerns about the new hire. Comments included, "If they don't understand, they should be taught," "The department head who lets him take leave is also a problem," "I wonder how the hiring process went," and "Follow the rules and principles."
Mr. A pointed out, "The new employee's annual salary is 46 million won," and said, "I don't know the specs or academic background according to company regulations, but he was hired according to the rules. He must have passed the multi-person interview well to have joined, so I wonder how he was selected."
He added, "I wonder if being too accommodating or trying to be nice caused this problem. I hope he understands the reality," he concluded.
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