Why Did Gwangjin-gu and Nowon-gu Shorten Department Heads' Retirement Leave by 6 Months?

In Seoul's autonomous districts, it is customary for Grade 5 officials (department or neighborhood heads) to have a 6-month sabbatical period, and for Grade 4 officials (directors) to have a 1-year sabbatical period.

However, Seoul's Gwangjin-gu (District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho) and Nowon-gu (Oh Seung-rok) have attracted attention by frequently shortening the sabbatical period for some Grade 4 officials to 6 months.

Since taking office in the 8th elected term, Gwangjin-gu Mayor Kim Kyung-ho allowed former Administrative Director Kwon to enter sabbatical leave at the end of June last year. In most cases for directors, sabbatical leave would have started at the end of 2023, but former Director Kwon worked for one year and had his sabbatical period reduced to 6 months.

Subsequently, former General Affairs Director Shim Gyu-hong was promoted to Grade 4 and became Administrative Director as of July 1 last year, succeeding former Director Kwon, and is scheduled to enter sabbatical leave at the end of June this year.

In this way, the sabbatical period for two Administrative Directors was reduced from one year to six months. This was because Mayor Kim believed that since the Administrative Director manages the entire organization, reducing the sabbatical period would shorten the working period.

Nowon-gu also appointed Song Mi-ryeong, Education and Welfare Director, as Cultural City Administrative Director as of January 1 this year. Director Song was also scheduled to enter sabbatical leave at the end of last year along with the other two directors, but considering that having three directors on sabbatical leave would cause organizational operation issues, she was appointed as Cultural City Administrative Director and will enter sabbatical leave at the end of June.

Thanks to this decision by the district mayors, the current top director can work for an additional six months, which is a significant benefit for the individuals involved.

However, there may be internal dissatisfaction within the organization due to fairness issues with other directors and the fact that when one director steps down, four others at Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 are promoted in succession, which can invigorate the organization.

An executive from a Seoul autonomous district said, "Since the 8th elected term, the reduction of the Administrative Director's sabbatical period to six months in two districts is not desirable from an organizational management perspective," adding, "The judgment that the organization only functions well if a specific person holds the Administrative Director position can be problematic."

Nevertheless, this phenomenon may continue depending on the decisions of the district mayors, who hold personnel authority in the autonomous districts.