Fate of Public Officials 'Laughing' and 'Crying' as Geunpyeong Season Arrives?

Seoul City and 25 District Officials Enter Work Evaluation Season; Calls for Careful Consideration to Prevent Unfair Cases in Evaluations by Superiors

The season for evaluating the work performance of public officials in Seoul and its 25 autonomous districts has arrived.

This system reflects promotions through biannual performance evaluations conducted in the first and second halves of the year.

Accordingly, whether one receives a good or poor evaluation determines the timing of promotion, making this period a time of both "smiles" and "tears" for public officials.

Promotion is a crucial goal for public officials, akin to their lifeline. If promotion is delayed due to being outpaced by juniors, organizational life can become quite challenging.

Because of this, many engage in strenuous struggles to receive proper work evaluations for promotion.

Recently, Mr. A, a Grade 7 public official in one of Seoul’s autonomous districts, had to shed tears after being outscored by a junior, Mr. B, from another department.

Despite being a senior in public service and currently handling a difficult job, Mr. A was outperformed in the evaluation because he had only been assigned to his current department for six months. However, since the scores for categories 1 and 2 were not significantly different, he remains hopeful for the next opportunity.

During this process, the responsible manager appealed to higher-ups but ultimately had to accept the decision for the sake of the organization.

Such cases are common in any autonomous district. Since evaluations are conducted by people, it is never easy to ensure perfect fairness.

A few years ago, a similar case occurred in another Seoul autonomous district. At that time, Mr. C, a senior public official, was outscored by Mr. D, a junior from a different department.

Fortunately, this issue was exposed and the order was corrected. At that time, a junior employee from a powerful department had attempted to surpass a senior in the evaluation but was rectified.

Both Mr. C and Mr. D currently work as managers (Grade 5), but at the time, Mr. C faced an unfair situation.

An executive from a Seoul autonomous district advised, “Conflicts between departments often arise during performance evaluations,” adding, “Even in such cases, it is important to ensure that no one feels wronged.”