Badminton MZ incident.
A time when the Paris Olympics were in full swing. Gold medalist Ahn Se-young took aim at the Badminton Association‘s outdated practices. Immediately after winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, he continued with a ‘statement of intent’ instead of ‘feelings’.
In order to stand up to the president of the association, who exercises omnipotent authority in the badminton world, he reported unfairness to the people (media) who are above him. That voice reached the president, the highest authority in Korea, a presidential system.
President Yoon Seok-yeol said at a dinner party attended by Ahn Se-young, “Old practices must be boldly innovated to create a free and fair training environment for the young generation.” The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also put pressure on the Badminton Association.
Ahn Se-young did not point it out blindly. I held on until I felt confident enough to speak out. I tried. It exploded right after the gold medal was announced.
His behavior of not taking old practices for granted and pointing them out is interpreted by some as ‘fearlessness’ and by others as ‘imposing courage’.
There was an incident in our company where I took on the role of Ahn Se-young.
Recently, the three departments under our headquarters each achieved success in winning government projects. It is a government project that requires students to take a 10-hour accounting training course and then submit a certificate of completion.
The project consists of a team of 2-3 business people and 1 finance person. If one finance manager who is part of three teams takes the 10-hour training, the training obligations of all teams are resolved.
However, our company has always been run in such a way that each team member receives 10 hours of training. In other words, 30 hours of the company’s labor costs are spent on work that could have cost only 10 hours. Since it was an accounting-related job, it was also something that finance managers at other companies heard about.
Everyone was aware of the inefficiency. The general manager also knew. But no one raised an issue. There was one reason why the head of the department belonging to the Ministry of Finance was senior to our head.
I’m going through a situation I don’t understand. I received a personal contact from the company’s second-in-command, the vice president. To thank him for his contribution, he offered to buy me lunch on a one-to-one basis. I reported the current situation to the Vice President on the spot.
The vice president immediately gathered executives together and instructed them to coordinate well between headquarters. Then, the finance director started a one-on-one argument with me, a junior, for various trivial reasons.
In conclusion, it ended with a ‘happy ending’ in which the financial manager received the training.
Ahn Se-young, who became Joan of Arc, also seems to be leaning towards a happy ending. Recently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism requested an investigation and requested the dismissal of Kim Taek-gyu, president of the Korea Badminton Association.
These two cases are perhaps representative of the MZ that Generation X fears. However, for Generation
