Office workers already missing 'Misaeng'

Kim Dong-sik, left, and intern Jang Geu-rae, the main character. The drama depicting office workers’ difficulties had high ratings. / Courtesy of tvN

By Yoon Sung-won

In cable network tvN’s drama series “Misaeng,” Oh Sang-sik leads a sales team at an imaginary trading company “One International.” / Courtesy of tvN

The hit drama “Misaeng (Incomplete Life)” ended on Saturday ― and office workers are already missing the well-made TV series that portrayed the lives of salary workers realistically.

“I could sympathize with the bad feelings that the characters in the drama felt when they were in difficulty at work,” said Stella Choi, 27, who has been an irregular worker at a medical research agency for the past eight months.

“For example, it made me sad when the new female recruit had to withstand severe scorn and discrimination by her bosses just because she was a woman.

“There was a scene when one of the new recruits considered changing his job because he thought his skills were not respected enough by his boss. It was a realistic story that many young office workers might have thought about at least once.”

The drama series, which aired on cable network tvN on Fridays and Saturdays, was based on an online cartoon of the same name by local cartoonist Yoon Tae-ho.

The drama revolved around office workers, including an intern, at an imaginary trading company “One International.” The series dealt with issues such as discrimination in the workplace by gender and academic levels as well as subtle enmities between colleagues and departments which are uncommon in dramas shown on non-cable channels.

“In some parts, however, the drama seemed unrealistic,” Choi said. “The main character, who is an intern, is way too talented and insightful even though he had no work experience other than practicing the game of 'Go.' This is unrealistic in reality.”

In the drama, the main character is a two-year irregular worker who does not have a college degree or work experience. He and his colleagues try to fight the company’s custom of not hiring people who do not have an academic background.

Another office worker, surnamed Song, said he could not watch the drama because it was so real that it reminded him of difficulties at work.

“I didn’t watch it but I read all the stories in the online cartoon,” he said. “But my colleagues watched it and said it was very similar to our daily lives,” said an office worker surnamed Song, who works at a local steel company’s overseas trading division.

“There are several irregular workers in my company who often talk about their concerns over their uncertain job security. In fact, companies seldom give irregular workers an opportunity to continue work as a permanent employee.”

Without the love affairs and unrealistic plots that often feature in Korean dramas, “Misaeng” became immensely popular, with an 8.4 percent average viewer rating for its last episode ― unusually high for a cable program.

“It was indeed a good drama and its popularity here reflects that people are now actually in difficulty both at work and in society,” said Lee Jeong-do, 29, a fourth-year employee at a local game company. “It also seems contradictory that the drama itself is a well-made program based on a cartoon, which has been harshly discriminated against by the government for a long time.”

Seo Yun-jeong, a twelfth-year worker at a local magazine company, said, “I liked the drama more than the tight-laced dramas on the regular channels because it was not a fairy tale story. It was about ordinary office workers like us.”