The real walking dead

Everything Wrong with South Korean Business — A Contrast with Basecamp

Leland Creswell
Aug 9, 2017 · 7 min read

Recently I read an amazingly insightful article here on Medium from living awesome and working well guru DHH where he went through, in detail, how people are paid at Basecamp.

It strikes me that South Korea, and the way that business and work is done here, is literally the antithesis of the system that Basecamp has used to build their success story. Thus, I thought it would be interesting to deconstruct the recent article, located here, with my own experiences working in the startup and small business world of this amazing country.

*Foreword: I realize that much of what you read in this article exists in other places, but I do hope that you enjoy reading nevertheless. :)

“There are no negotiated salaries or raises at Basecamp.” “Equal work, equal pay.”

In Korea, one of the most highly guarded secrets of any business is the payroll.

Decision makers at the office will go to great lengths to hide this data, going as far as to set up the office layout so that any employees with access to such data (and who might have it on their screen), are placed at the back, or corner, so that any ne’er-do-well with an interest in stealing a glance would be forced to, awkwardly, walk all the way to the corner, and hover over said employees shoulder. Salaries are *never* discussed in the office, and it is Taboo to ask other employees how much they are making.

This also tends to result in employees not feeling free to speak about pay raises, bonuses, etc… The biggest problem is that this culture is endemic across the entire country. Though this culture also does exist in North America, at least there are large parts of the business world where companies such as Basecamp exist allowing for “precedents” to be set. In Korea, the entire country is indoctrinated like this, and it’s just sad that employees are so afraid to discuss salaries and fair compensation.

Regarding equal work, equal pay… in Korea, this is also very difficult to find. Even at the startup level, those with the most “face time” at the office are usually the ones to be promoted, or at least to keep their jobs when times get tough. Face time being simply present at an office, where those that make the HR decisions can see your face, ideally early in the morning until (very) late at night.

True meritocracy based companies are very few and far between here… I haven’t ever really met one. I estimate that the reason for this may stem from the near absolute lack of trust between most employees and the ones in the organization that call the shots. There is also definitely a culture-based reason for this. It really is quite extreme. I have seen entire projects blow up, and/or die slow but inevitable deaths simply because no-one in the team had the ability to straight up talk to the head honcho and tell them their honest mind on why everything is going to shit.

If the livelihood of your family depended on you keeping your mouth shut and putting in “face time” every day, wouldn’t you do just that? It definitely doesn’t help that most Koreans are at the mercy of one of the most competitive domestic markets in the world, where it is *very* difficult to contemplate remote work or moving to another country for most individuals. The Korean economy basically has the population here as it’s captive audience.

“Raises happen automatically, once per year, when we review market rates.” “Our target is to pay everyone at the company in the 95th percentile..”

Since most businesses consider their employees to be expendable here (outcome of the extremely competitive job market), raises are few and far between. Even in more senior programming positions, Korean companies will always try to bring an employee on at the minimum salary possible, while still having a good chance of filling the position. There is more to this story, and it includes firing senior employees (regardless of how many years they have worked for a company) simply because they are “too expensive” to keep onboard when the company thinks they can fill the same role with a younger employee willing to pick up the slack at a lower wage. Probably a good topic for another article though

“We encourage remote and have many employees who’ve lived all over while continuing to work for Basecamp.”

Definitely in the right circumstances, remote can be a great option. Though it requires the right individual, who is able to self-motivate and doesn’t mind not being able to build face to face relationships with their co-workers.

In Korea though, this just never works out. Primarily due to the aforementioned issue with “face time”, remote work here is a pipe dream. Perhaps one reason for this is that the country as a whole, and it’s industries, are incredibly concentrated in a few mega-urban population centers, where most of the talent is available to commute. If you are able to commute, and want to work remote, you can bet your boss is going to eventually start asking you to come in (or you will probably just have to deal with a flat career, not really going anywhere).

“We don’t do all-nighters. There are no tricks or treats to lure people into staying at the office for untold hours. Just a great set of benefits…”

This really is the crux of the issue here. Korean companies have gotten so far away from caring about employee well-being and actual fulfillment and trust in their workplaces, that “all-nighters” are seen as “being a good employee”. I wouldn’t be surprised if many working men and women here didn’t even know that the concept of “overtime” existed at all.

I’ve seen amazing things done by a few small teams here, where the founders are all friends or have previously worked together. I firmly believe that what Basecamp is doing with their benefits and system of avoiding needless, unproductive work schedules, is the humane and RIGHT way to run a business.

But oh my god, good luck getting businesses here to ever follow this way of doing business.

I’ve seen people at work literally staring blankly at their screens, clicking and highlighting the same text over and over again for minutes on end, simply to “look busy”. In Korea, it’s just all cranked up to 11.

Even in many startups that profess to have a “better” working environment that puts an end to this issue, many still end up going home late, and spend huge amounts of time on inconsequential things. I mean, maybe they have removed the cubicles, and painted the office in bright happy colors, but it is all just a facade of wasted time and effort. Ugh.

“When I hear that the average tenure in tech is just two years, I wonder how anyone gets anything done.”

Funnily enough, in Korea, average tenure in tech is probably much higher than 2 years. Not that it matters of course. :(

Here, the short-sightedness of companies comes in their inability to place trust and responsibility in their employees. Have a bill for $30 because you wanted to pay for a customer’s lunch? That’s going to require a physical and digital entry, as well as a signed statement by a manager to fly. Most Korean companies are like miniature governments, where every decision must be discussed and agreed upon by a “decision maker”.

People in positions of power at companies here simply do not trust any of the people working for them. They think, very misguidedly, that having employees sign a bunch of papers, or make reports, on what they are doing, or want to do, will somehow protect their company from employee underperformence and project implosion. Well, one thing that I know with absolute certainty, is that most Korean employees are masters at looking busy and producing reports and “outcomes” that can make even abject failures seem to be “ok”.

“Sure boss, we failed to make any money this quarter, but we sure did put in a lot of effort!”

“There’s a fountain of happiness and productivity in working with a stable crew.”

This really is a beautiful concept. Even in failure, a team that commits to, and trusts one-another to get shit done, is going to eventually succeed.

I wish this sort of ideology can one day flourish in this country.

Wrapping Up

Though South Korea has some of the most f**ked up business culture in the world, it also has wonderful people who respect each other and their families. I’ve never before lived in a country where people care so much about their communities and relationships(though nothing is perfect of course… ;)).

Maybe some day the model that has brought Basecamp to such heights can inspire real change in workplaces here as well. Maybe people here can begin to view their work in such a way, where our purpose is to drive business with our colleagues, and to also help eachother provide and care for our families. I hope I can be a part of that change some day.

Hope everyone reading this has a great day and a great life. :)

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