"Denied Promotion for 'Gwaessim Crime' Due to Absence from Ceremonies and Company Dinners, Claims Unfairness... It May Not Be the Reason"

Public Opinion Deeply Divided Over Accusations of Gwaessim Crime
Sharp Contrast in Views on Reflecting Attendance Rate in Performance Evaluations

Netizens are divided over a worker's story of suffering personnel disadvantages such as being passed over for promotion due to not attending family events and company dinners. On the 11th, a post titled "An employee unfairly passed over for promotion at a small and medium-sized enterprise" by Mr. A was shared across various online communities.

In the post, Mr. A expressed frustration, saying, "There is a colleague whose ability is almost identical to mine, differing by just a sheet of paper, but this time that colleague was promoted to section chief." He speculated on the reason for his missed promotion, stating, "It's not certain, but I heard that my complete absence from company dinners since joining and not attending a department colleague's funeral were reflected in my performance evaluation," adding, "The latter is just an excuse, and I suspect that my absence from dinners led to a 'grudge penalty'." He also said, "Maybe because it's a small company, too much meaning is given to meaningless dinners."

On the 11th, a post titled "An Employee Unfairly Passed Over for Promotion at a Small and Medium Enterprise" by Mr. A was shared across various online communities. The photo is unrelated to the specific content of the article. [Photo by Pixabay]

Some netizens who read Mr. A's story speculated that the real reason for his missed promotion was not skipping dinners but failing to attend the colleague's funeral. One netizen commented, "How can someone think of not attending a colleague's funeral, which is a significant family event, not just any event?" and added, "If there is no big difference in ability, wouldn't they want to promote someone who takes care of their colleagues from a teamwork perspective?"

Other opinions included, "Not attending a colleague's funeral is not a crime, but from an organizational standpoint, it is indeed awkward to promote such a person to a managerial position," and "Promotion is based on a comprehensive consideration of not only ability but also interpersonal relationships and social skills." On the other hand, some agreed with Mr. A's view. One netizen commented, "It is better to attend dinners and family events whenever possible, but those should not be related to promotion."

Even if the company applied a 'grudge penalty' for skipping dinners and caused the missed promotion, proving this is not easy. However, the claim that dinner attendance rates are reflected in performance evaluations has been consistently raised among workers. In March last year, at Samsung Electronics, which conducted regular promotions, a female employee, Ms. B, posted on the anonymous workplace community 'Blind' a message implying she was promoted early due to faithfully attending dinners and golf outings, sparking controversy.

She said, "Even if they dislike it, employees who want to be promoted attend regularly. It was always only men attending, and when women came occasionally, they didn't drink alcohol," adding, "I even learned golf to play rounds together. This time, all the women in the team failed to get promoted, but I was promoted two years earlier." She also criticized some female employees who spoke about the company's 'glass ceiling.'

Ms. B pointed out, "Dinners are a basic part of social life," and said, "It's natural to show favor to superiors to get promoted or receive better tasks, but they say it's a glass ceiling without doing that themselves." She then asked netizens whether her attitude was 'old-fashioned.' Although the post was quickly deleted as the controversy grew, it had appeared among Blind's popular posts and attracted much attention from netizens. Even after deletion, posts expressing various opinions related to the original post continued to appear on Blind.

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