Misaeng: Episode 7

by dramallama

We get a look into the darker and more discouraging side of working in an office. There’s a tough lesson to be learned in the workplace: Sometimes, hard work isn’t enough. Limitations are set by the hierarchy of the workplace and how much power you wield. And even if your hard work isn’t acknowledged, you’ve got to clock in at the same time the next day, ready for a whole new set of demons.

 
EPISODE 7 RECAP

As Geu-rae walks into the break room, he hears loud scolding from the next room. He peeks over to see Young-yi being yelled at by her senior coworker, Ha Sung-joon, for assessing his report. She replies calmly to his yelling, but he gets so worked up in his anger that he throws the papers in her face, leaving a paper cut on her cheek.

She replies again while maintaining her composure, which prompts her mad coworker to grab a book and… a smiling Chief Oh interrupts the conversation just in time, telling Sung-joon that Chief Jung is looking for him. Once he leaves, Chief Oh and Geu-rae pick up the papers (with a little tug-of-war) for Young-yi, who takes them and leaves. Chief Jung and Sung-joon glare at the duo from Sales Team 3 as they walk past, but Chief Oh walks onward with a forced smile on his face, turning Geu-rae’s face away from them.

Sales Team 3 holds a meeting to decide their new sales project. Dong-shik recommends that they choose the safer route with the grade-A product, but Chief Oh gravitates towards the riskier, grade-B one. Geu-rae analyzes his decision-making process, noticing that he’s imitating the movements of a baduk gambler who rolls two stones between his fingers while holding a hidden stone. He’s sure that Chief Oh has a hidden card somewhere in this deal but can’t seem to analyze Dong-shik’s expression as they decide to go forward with the grade-B item.

Chief Oh tries to convince his manager that the Iran petroleum deal will bring in more profit, even though the China rare earth element deal is more stable. He gets a tentative approval, but he’ll have to get it passed by the finance and risk analysis teams.

Dong-shik explains to Geu-rae that Chief Oh tends to choose more difficult projects because he believes that anyone else can complete the easier ones. It brings out his passionate and competitive side, but Dong-shik wishes that he would play it safe sometimes, especially with so many people ready to watch him fall.

Sung-joon flings all the proposals rejected by the finance committee at Young-yi, telling her to do her best to fix them and get them approved. He adds that if she does well enough, she could be included in their next business operation. Hearing this, she gets right to work.

Geu-rae overhears a conversation between Sung-joon and his coworker talking about how it will be impossible to get approval from the finance committee — all of Young-yi’s work will be for naught. He purposefully didn’t give her the feedback from the finance committee to put her at even more of a disadvantage.

Chief Oh catches Geu-rae staring at hardworking Young-yi and warns him not to intervene. “If you want to protect someone, you need to have the skill set first. There’s no greater nuisance than intervening without the skills to help.”

Geu-rae then asks about the finance committee, and Chief Oh explains that the difficulty is mainly due to the meticulous and tenacious manager. “Even if you have a good record, you won’t get past her easily. You have to be thoroughly ready to confront her with your proposal, or else you get shattered to pieces. But I find her work ethic surprisingly sexy.”

Cue: Seok-yul walking down the hallway with his pervert radar on high alert. He follows a woman with an attractive figure down the hall and taps on her shoulder, only to get an unexpected face of an ajumma. His wide smile quickly turns into a frown, and he’s later told that she’s the finance manager, known to look like a traditional mask but is a reasonable and open person.

As usual, Baek-ki has little to do, and his frustrations are at their breaking point when Geu-rae takes orders from his superior, Kang Hae-joon. Baek-ki confronts him about not having work to do and asks why he’s being treated this way. Hae-joon notes that Baek-ki likes and attention and answers his question, saying that he doesn’t think that Baek-ki is fully trained yet. Baek-ki’s persistence finally wins him a task, but he’s disappointed when he sees that it’s a simple Excel job.

He gets up to go out for some air and is met with Young-yi. Outside, she hands him the rejected proposals from the resource team and asks if he’s seen them before. He recognizes the proposals on the carbon emissions and gives his take on why she was given this task. He advises that she give up and ask for help, as that’s what the resource team probably wants from her. But he realizes that she’s not one to give in and tells her that the proposals were rejected by the finance manager, so she’s her best bet to getting this through.

Young-yi notices that the clouds are rolling in and wonders aloud if it’ll just be a passing rain. After a moment of silence, Baek-ki takes this opportunity to ask her to get drinks after work. She’s a little surprised, but Baek-ki clarifies it to be a casual after-work drink between colleagues.

Sales Team 3 is busy at work, with calls coming in one after the other. Geu-rae’s series of work-related calls is interrupted by a call from Seok-yul, who suggests that they go out for drinks. He strolls into their workspace but gets completely ignored. Not one to be intimidated by the unfriendly welcome, Seok-yul asks Chief Oh for permission to take Geu-rae out for drinks with their intern class. Chief Oh surprisingly approves, so Seok-yul continues his round of calls to Baek-ki.

Baek-ki initially rejects Seok-yul’s offer, but the pairs end up at the same restaurant, initiating their first group bonding. Seok-yul expertly prepares drinks as he blabs on about how Young-yi should have come to him for advice. Geu-rae suggests that she talk to the finance manager directly, but Baek-ki disagrees.

Talking from experience, Seok-yul says that it’s hard to approach the finance manager because her front and back appearances are (literally) very different, but he admits that his superior told him that she’s an open and reasonable person. Baek-ki interjects and disdains Geu-rae for not understanding the formalities established in the corporate world.

After some thought, Young-yi decides to just go for it and approach the finance manager directly. She shrugs optimistically, and the three of them, excluding Baek-ki, drink to her decision.

But when Young-yi approaches the finance manager, she’s immediately told to leave. Keeping a smile on her face, the finance manager tells her that it’s inappropriate to disrespect the hierarchy within the company and come directly to her.

Back at her desk, Young-yi cringes at the comments and disapproving looks from her team. To top it off, she gets an “I told you so” message from Baek-ki. Not one to back away, she sends the finance manager a message to apologize and explain her situation, which grants her permission to come to her office. There, Young-yi is given the task of analyzing the resource team’s proposal and resubmitting a written report due the next morning.

While everyone else is still busy at work, Baek-ki gets ready to leave. He follows Young-yi into the break room and expresses his embarrassment over leaving work early while others have all-nighters awaiting them. He also hands her ointment for her paper cut, knowing that she won’t have the time to worry about it herself. Aww.

Both Young-yi and Geu-rae are in the same boat, with workloads that require them to stay at work overnight. Young-yi eats her instant ramen, washes up, puts on the ointment, and gets back to work. The two busily flip through papers all night, until Young-yi suggests that they take a break.

On the rooftop, Geu-rae apologizes for giving his inexperienced advice for her problems, but Young-yi stays optimistic, saying that she needed to give it a shot for anything to happen. She wonders how Chief Oh plans on getting his proposal approved, and Geu-rae tells her that he’s just going to be persistent. “He’ll keep trying by looking at the issue from the perspective of the other person and make things work. That’s one of Chief Oh’s unique strengths.”

Young-yi lets that comment sit and stares at Geu-rae. Then she tells him, “I think your team is a really good one.” Geu-rae smiles in acknowledgement. Back at her desk, she thinks back to Geu-rae’s comment on Chief Oh’s determination to make things work and concludes her night of work.

The next morning, Young-yi apologizes to the finance manager because in attempting to see the proposal from the finance team’s perspective, she saw its flaws. She tells her that she couldn’t fix the problem, but she did have some realizations — that phrases could be interpreted differently by the different departments and most importantly that a mechanism exists to execute a business budget. “The next time my proposal gets rejected, I will consider what more I could do to satisfy the finance committee’s requirements rather than thinking about what I did wrong.”

The finance manager is pleased with her response and tells her that she’ll think of an appropriate punishment for not completing a report. Before Young-yi leaves, the manager asks what she studied — politics and foreign policy — and recommends that she finish learning accounting soon, as it’s the language of management and business. She’s clearly impressed.

Baek-ki turns in his Excel spreadsheet upon request, but he’s immediately scolded for incompletion. He didn’t follow the basic structure required, so he’s told that if he wants to work for a different company that uses his version of data processing, he can leave whenever he wants. Oof.

Geu-rae and Dong-shik are on a tight schedule of meetings, so they’re forced to quickly scan their proposal without enough attention. When Geu-rae arrives back at the office for the meeting with the manager, Chief Oh doesn’t have time to check the files before the meeting and assumes that everything will be correct. But Geu-rae stops him and recommends that he look through the files if he has any small doubts about it. Chief Oh takes his advice and pushes back the meeting to take a last look.

They don’t find anything wrong, and Geu-rae apologizes for wasting time. But Chief Oh appreciates his caution and tells him that the most dangerous aspect of business is being too rash. Dong-shik arrives just in time for the meeting, but just before they head off, Geu-rae picks up a call from an Iranian correspondent who reports an embargo — a critical blow to their proposal.

At the meeting, the team’s proposal is disregarded and terminated because of the embargo, but Chief Oh argues that it’s still possible. Thinking on his feet, he states that they can conduct the deal through Turkey, where they have a long history of successful business. The risk analysis manager nods in approval, and the manager ultimately gives them approval.

The team goes out for drinks afterwards as they wait for final approval, and Chief Oh notices Dong-shik’s worried face. He’s concerned about the other grade-A project in China that was basically set up by their manager, but Chief Oh doesn’t seem worried. He orders pig and sets up a mini ritual to grant them luck for this business project. His phone rings, and as feared, their proposal is flatly rejected. Dong-shik grabs the researched documents before Chief Oh can throw them out and hands them to Geu-rae for safekeeping.

Chief Oh arrives home thoroughly drunk, and Geu-rae sits silently in his room thinking about how his boss is taking this blow. Looking through his boss’s notes and newspaper snippets on the Iranian petroleum imports, Geu-rae wonders if Chief Oh felt the same way he did when he collected notes and newspaper sections for baduk.

The next morning at work, everything is back to normal, and the China sales project is in full swing under Chief Oh. Geu-rae takes a moment to appreciate his new box under his desk, which holds Chief Oh’s notes on the failed project. He hopes to learn more as the box fills up.

In their meeting for the new project, Dong-shik notes how the economic situation in China has changed since the drafting of this proposal — China has significantly increased their stock for exporters. Chief Oh reports the discrepancies and risks with the project, namely how little the profit will be, but the manager takes his criticisms personally. He thinks that Chief Oh is acting up because his Iran proposal got rejected.

Chief Oh gives in and decides to go forward with the China project. Dong-shik argues that the situation has changed drastically, as all the reports show the end of China’s super-cycle, but Chief Oh knows that he has to stick with this project. It was assigned by their manager, and his name is attached to it. So the team decides to take responsibility and tackle this case for the sake of their sales manager.

While Chief Oh and Dong-shik are off on their breaks, Geu-rae continues to work with new motivation. The sales manager drops by, and after reading through the current conditions of China’s economic state, he calls Chief Oh to discuss the situation. Unwilling to take the blame, he orders Chief Oh to take his name off of the report and tells him to do his best with the deal.

It becomes clearer that the sales manager is trying to wipe his hands clean when Chief Oh’s colleague comments on his incompetence with the business deal. He was told by the sales manager that Chief Oh has been causing complications by not following directions.

This gives Chief Oh new drive, and he tells Dong-shik that they have to succeed with this business deal. Dong-shik and Geu-rae go out to research the components and suppliers of the deal, and they’re told that unlawful exports are more likely than lawful ones, making this some risky business.

As they continue to their next stop, Geu-rae asks about Sales Manager Kim. Dong-shik describes him as a full salaryman: “Without a salary and a promotion, he would be nothing.” Geu-rae asks if that’s the case for Dong-shik as well, and he replies saying that he hasn’t found anything else yet.

Young-yi catches an elevator, only to be met with Sung-joon leaving it. He calls her out for blocking his way, but luckily Chief Oh is there to execute his signature tripping move. He insincerely apologizes to Sung-joon and recommends the stairs before riding the elevator with Young-yi to the rooftop.

Trying to start up a casual conversation with Young-yi, Chief Oh asks where she learned to speak Russian. She replies that she learned to speak in college, and Chief Oh says that he’s always loved Russia. He starts speaking and singing passionately about a Russian movie, which Young-yi corrects as an American one. He apologizes for speaking impulsively and sticking some random facts together. Then, she asks about his current problems with the China business deal and says that he’ll find a solution — it’s always darkest right underneath the lamp base (an idiom meaning that we usually overlook things that are right in front of us).

That triggers a thought in Chief Oh, and he runs off to continue his thought process. Young-yi thinks back to Chief Oh’s comment about sticking random things together, and she also rushes back to her desk with a solution to her problems.

Sales Manager Kim asks if Chief Oh has found anything, so he reports that North Korea can be their source for the rare earth element exports with no problems with supply and demand. That’s enough to get Sales Team 3 back into the game, and a meeting is scheduled for the approval of their business proposal. Chief Go of Sales Team 2 gets anxious that his project won’t be chosen, so he asks a favor from the deputy chief to convince Sales Manager Kim to change his mind.

Time for the meeting. The trio from Sales Team 3 strut through the hallways and into Geu-rae’s first official meeting. He notices how all the company’s resources and connections are being used as he takes minutes. After the meeting, Dong-shik notices the deputy chief approaching Sales Manager Kim and offering to buy dinner.

This troubles Dong-shik, and he tells Chief Oh that it’s not fair that Sales Team 2 is playing dirty. He wants Chief Oh to receive his well-deserved promotion, but Chief Oh seems immune to these politics. Geu-rae notices Chief Go of Sales Team 2 yelling at his workers and thinks back to Dong-shik’s revelation about the life of a salaryman. “There’s no everyday life that’s easy.”

Baek-ki submits his revised spreadsheet onto Hae-joon’s desk, and he takes a peek at his work. It’s close to perfection, and Seok-yul sneaks in from behind to acknowledge this fact. Baek-ki seems annoyed by his presence, but Seok-yul sticks around to suggest they go out for drinks.

Young-yi finishes her presentation for the finance committee by finding a way to attach resources in Russia, and Sung-joon notices the document during her brief leave. He looks through it, annoyed that she actually pulled this off. It’s good enough for them to include in their next proposal to the finance committee.

When Young-yi returns, she finds the proposal on her boss’s desk. She’s visibly relieved and happy with this, and Geu-rae is behind her to ask if everything turned out well.

Sales Manager Kim refuses to take Chief Go’s incessant requests to reconsider his projects and calls Chief Oh to the dinner. Sales Team 3 arrives, and they’re told the final decision: Sales Team 2’s deal first, and then Sales Team 3. Dong-shik and Chief Oh swallow their disappointment as they yield to the overly enthusiastic Chief Go.

The executive director opens the door to their dinner room after recognizing some voices and greets his employees. He notices the folder with the rare earth elements business proposal, and tells the sales teams that this is a project already taken on by the resource team. He seems to force a confirmation from Manager Ma, and he tells Sales Manager Kim that the resource team will be taking (stealing) this project.

He adds that the sales teams should look for projects at their level instead of looking elsewhere. He says that he’ll be paying for the dinner and walks off with the resource team. Sales Manager Kim is frozen in place and leaves in disappointment. Sales Team 3 is left to eat dinner together in silence.

Geu-rae: “We ate without saying a word. We were overwhelmed with hunger and needed to fill that void. It was the day I learned why it was necessary to be drunk. I’m sorry for being a useless newbie in this situation.” A tear falls, and Geu-rae quickly swipes it away.

We get a quick look at Seok-yul and Baek-ki out for drinks, the latter eventually passing out. Chief Oh walks down the streets, drunk in his sorrows. When he arrives home, he needs to throw up but has difficulty opening the door. His wife lets him in, and he rushes to the bathroom to empty his system.

His wife complains that he always comes back from work drunk, and he asks her if she knows the real taste of alcohol. She storms off in frustration, and then he turns to us:

“Do you all know the taste? Do you?”

 
COMMENTS

After what you’ve been through, Chief Oh, I probably don’t know that taste you speak of. This show does a great job of inserting little bright moments amidst the darkness, but what a depressing episode for our Sales Team 3. It was great to see the team come together, but they only came together briefly to be turned down by their superiors. Sometimes, hard work is for nothing, and you can see how disheartening it is for Geu-rae to see his superhero, his super salaryman, be put down by forces out of his control. And because I’ve seen Chief Oh as the crazy and irreverent man in the office, it’s hard to see him be so powerless. This is the man who regularly yells and screams his opinions, but he’s silenced by not only external forces but also internal ones — he’s more than just a salaryman.

The show made an interesting commentary on what it means to be a salaryman — that without promotion and a salary, you’re nothing. You can see how that holds true for many of the workers in the office because they would do anything to keep their jobs and be promoted. But that’s not the case for Chief Oh. He approaches his salaryman life with an unnecessary passion, loyalty, and sincerity. I call it unnecessary because these aren’t traits that help you in the corporate world (Baek-ki would tell you). He’s willing to sacrifice and protect different aspects of his pride to remain loyal to his team and himself. When he wants to make something happen, he knows to place himself in the other person’s shoes to allow for the element of compromise. That’s something that I’ve admired alongside Geu-rae — that he can find compromise without compromising his ethics.

Baek-ki is a little bit of a different story, though I wouldn’t say that he’s in the wrong. He knows how the workplace works, and although he is condescending, he usually is right. I don’t think he’s mean for the sake of being cruel, but he definitely knows how to belittle someone — Geu-rae — to silence. Out of all the newbies, Baek-ki was the most fit for corporate life, as he seemed the savviest in this environment. He dreams of being that complete salaryman, but he’s too smart to be satisfied with just a salary and a promotion. So I find it extremely refreshing to see his ego being checked by a dismissive superior who could care less about his skills relative to the other newbies — he’s still not good enough. I’m sure he’ll learn his lesson under his hardass superior, but I wonder what he’ll have to do to earn respect under this guy. Baek-ki’s a great contrast to the rest of the newbies, as he’s the closest to being the antagonist of the group, and I’m loving the hints of bromance coming our way.

Young-yi is a strong and resilient superstar. She’s making lemonade out of lemons, being the adaptable one in the workplace. She’s not the boisterous type, but she’s still outspoken. She’s not afraid to voice her opinions and reply to an intimidating team of sexist males. I love that she speaks her mind while maintaining that fine balance of respect in the workplace, and you can see how much potential she has. The finance manager knows potential when she sees it. It was great to see Sung-joon’s smug smile being swiped off of his face when Young-yi succeeded with her proposal, and I’m sure there will much more of that to come. You go, girl.

Her relationship with Chief Oh is somewhat similar to Geu-rae’s relationship with him, which makes sense, given how similar Young-yi and Geu-rae are. They both have backbones but could definitely use a few pointers to be less trampled on. I love how Chief Oh serves as a mentor/Yoda figure/super salaryman for both of them, swooping in to save the day. He’s got to be around to take care of these kids, so hopefully he doesn’t work himself too hard to become his own kryptonite.

 
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