[Viewpoint] "Please Advise Him to Move to the Private Sector"

These days, the career preferences of liberal arts students can be summarized as 'Law School, CPA, and Large Corporations.' First choice is law school, second is certified public accountant, and third is large corporations.

Once highly regarded careers like journalism and public service have long fallen out of favor. The term 'journalism exam' is now a thing of the past. The competition rate for entry, which once reached hundreds to one, has plummeted vertically. Having reluctantly joined, when a scouting offer comes from a large corporation or elsewhere, they leave without looking back. It makes no difference whether it’s a major or minor media outlet.

What about the status of public servants who entered government service by passing the 'real civil service exam' (administrative exam)? Their standing is no better than that of journalists, and may even be worse. 'Public servants moving to the private sector' is no longer news. It has become so common that people have come to accept it as normal.

Here is an anecdote shared by a high-ranking public official I recently met. “When I was working at an international financial institution, the wife of a public servant who had passed the administrative exam came to visit my wife with a request. She said, ‘My husband will come to consult with your husband about moving to the private sector, so please advise him to go ahead with the transition.’” The private sector’s advantages in salary and benefits have long outweighed the public sector’s merits in job security and prestige.

Since their hearts have left, it is difficult to find public servants who truly regard their roles as a calling and sincerely serve the people. As a result, among MZ generation public servants, there is a marked tendency to avoid departments once considered elite tracks, such as taxation and budgeting, which involve tough work. They are satisfied with positions that have less authority but also less responsibility. Work-life balance is important to them, and they have little ambition for achievement. This is the much-criticized ‘self-preservationism.’

A Ministry of Economy and Finance press release from early June caused a stir. The title was '(Press Explanation) Expansion of Low-Rate Separate Taxation on Pension Income (Mistake).' Anyone would be drawn to the last word ‘Mistake.’ Upon checking, it turned out to mean ‘corrected by the director.’ There are also terms like ‘Guksu’ (corrected by the bureau chief), ‘Gwasu’ (corrected by the division chief), and ‘Guksuwon’ (director instructed a correction once), ‘Gwasuwon’ (division chief instructed a correction once). These are widely used not only in the Ministry of Economy and Finance but across government agencies, intended to clarify who is responsible if the policy later becomes problematic. This is a countermeasure developed after seeing cases where higher-ups who faithfully followed instructions during investigations, such as those into nuclear power plants, ended up paying the price. Former public servants who proudly claimed, “I came up with and led that policy,” would click their tongues at this.

This accumulation of shirking responsibility and self-preservationism reached its peak in the Saemangeum World Jamboree incident. The organizing committee was negligent, and related ministries such as the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Jeollabuk-do Province all responded with “Someone will handle it” or “It will work out somehow.” With no control tower to mediate in the middle, the disaster occurred.

About 30 years ago, the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee bluntly said, “Politics is fourth-rate, administration is third-rate, and business is second-rate.” Looking back, politics and administration have regressed, while business has advanced. It is also tongue-clicking-worthy that the regressed side’s authority has grown, further constraining the advancing side. The English term for '공무원' is mainly 'public servant' (servant of the people), but 'government employee' is also used. We ask public servants: Will you be a servant, or remain merely an employee?

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.