Employee complaints grow at Naver, Kakao
Founder of Kakao Kim Beom-su gives a speech to students at Hanyang University in Seoul in October 2020. Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Naver and Kakao are the country's two largest internet firms that young people dream of working at. However, contrary to what outsiders think, workers there have a lot of complaints.
According to Blind, an anonymous mobile message board used by office workers, Naver set unfair standards on giving out “performance-based bonuses” to its employees, and most of the bonus pay went to senior executives.
Meanwhile, a Kakao worker posted a message implying they would commit suicide after allegedly being bullied at work. Other Kakao workers there said on condition of anonymity that there is a problem with the personal appraisal system at Kakao and it may have forced this worker into the corner.
This brought the founders of the two firms to hold online meetings with their workers to talk about ongoing issues on Thursday.
Naver employees expressed dissatisfaction about receiving the same amount of bonuses despite the company's sales and operating profit last year increasing by 21.8 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, year-on-year. Naver's rival companies increasing bonuses and salaries for their employees also irritated Naver workers.
Naver founder Lee Hae-jin speaks about his future plan for entering the American and European markets at Naver's Data Center “Gak” in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, in July 2020. Courtesy of Naver
Naver founder Lee Hae-jin had to explain about the company's reward system and promised to guarantee the highest level of reward to its employees.
“Considering the nature of the internet business, where challenges do not connect to sales immediately, we need an additional reward system that focuses on long-term growth of the company. We are thinking of coming up with a distinguished welfare system for our employees,” said Naver CEO Han Seong-sook who participated in the online meeting with Lee.
Kakao founder Kim Beom-su also held an online meeting with his workers on the same day.
One of the employees pointed out a problem with the company's survey asking whether they like working with a certain colleague or not. The results are shared with the people mentioned in the criteria, which many believe is wrong.
Kim agreed by saying “there should never be acts of bullying or harassment against anybody in Kakao and people deserve respect and dignity.”
He added, “I believe this issue is a warning light on the company's work culture. There will always be clashes or confrontations but what is important is how well we deal with it.”
Despite the two founders' explanations, the complaints on Blind did not go away. Right after the online meetings, employees wrote on the community that they were disappointed that no specific actions were being taken.