Editor’s note: In 2014, Ilda is publishing the stories that women in their twenties have written about their work experiences. The series receives funding from the Korea Foundation for Women’s Funding for Gender-Equal Society.

 

Various working experiences of a university diploma-less person in her twenties

 

My friends have a nickname for me: ‘marvelous job hunter’. I have been able to get hired for a variety of jobs. A production worker in a big company, a veterinary nurse, an office clerk and illustrator in an illustration company, an office clerk of cooperative association and an illustrator in a home-school materials illustration company, just to name a few. Since I have worked in such a wide-spectrum of jobs, people are often amazed when I talk about my work experience.

 

The reason I have chosen to work such jobs is, just as it is for many, out of necessity, however.

 

I neither have a university diploma nor have acquired any professional qualifications, so I try to maximize my possibilities and not to set boundaries about what I can do. That I did not hesitate to try completely unfamiliar work is also partly because I am a naturally inquisitive person.

 

Indeed, not all the workplaces I have worked at were the best. However, if I did not try them in the first place I would never know whether they might be a good fit for me.

 

Such working experience has given me confidence and allowed me to better understand the concept of labor. After all, whether they were good or bad I feel very proud of my experiences.  

 

I always get a lot of questions when I talk about my work experience, questions such as, ‘Why did you have to quit that job and do this one?’ and ‘Isn’t it too unstable to wander around since you are getting older?’ I indeed feel a sense of vulnerability when I need to answer such questions.

 

Most people stick to one job for a long time and have a stable life. And many agree that that is the proper way to live. Is it okay to go on like this? Keep changing jobs? Some careers regard age as one of the important factors for entry.

 

One question always arises in my mind when I think about this, however: ‘But is it right to stick to one job no matter how painful and distressing it is?’

 

Manufacturing work in a big company

 

I worked as a production employee in a big enterprise for four and half years starting in my last year of [vocational] high school. The 3 shifts changed on a weekly basis plus I had to work overtime at night and during weekends. I got paid overtime but I was swamped with a heavy workload every day.

 

Once, after an inspection from the Ministry of Labor came up, the head office ordered branches to reduce workers’ allowed overtime to a maximum of two hours. We ended up still working more than two hours of overtime yet we got paid for only two hours, which was a worse situation for us.  

 

Female employees experienced a glass ceiling because the head office thought they would quit their jobs when they got pregnant or got married. What is more, the ‘prettiest female employee’ who won the company annual beauty contest was moved out of production to office work.

 

I, who was only just taking my first step into the real world, did not complain about such a work environment. I did not even attempt to understand the situation and kept doing the work that my boss asked me to do. Not just me but everyone who worked there believed ‘This is how things work, we have no choice’.

 

I stopped thinking that working for a big company is always right when I started work at an animal hospital where they treated me fairly even though the wage was lower. After experiencing different things, I have come to realize that the workload in the big enterprise was unreasonably heavy, I was treated like a machine, and received many kinds of discrimination, including as gender discrimination.

 

The growing workload of a 800,000-won-per-month ‘part- time office clerk’

 

Then I had to quit the job at the animal hospital after two years because my health got dramatically worse after a minor accident. After resting for a while, I looked for another job, wondering whether I could find a drawing-related career since one of my hobbies was drawing. The part- time work at an illustration company I finally found was the worst jobs I have experienced.  

 

▲ The part-time job at an illustration company was the worst job I have ever had. ©Park Eun-ha

At the beginning, I worked as a part-time office clerk who got paid 800,000 won [about 800 USD] per month, but soon I also had to do some illustration work. I enjoyed this very much at first just because I could learn drawing. But as time went by, the amount of illustration workload increased to the point that I could not handle my clerical tasks and had to work overtime without extra pay.

 

After a lot of thinking, I asked my boss for a raise. He merely said, ‘Other companies pay a lot less to part-time office clerk’. To be honest, I was looking to advance in the field, moving up to a full-time illustrator. Nevertheless, I realized I was nothing but a mere part-timer to him. 

 

I did get a 100,000 won raise. Calculating my working hours, my wage was still below minimum wage. I worked hard for a year and endured till my boss recognizes my potential. Nonetheless, my position remained that of a ‘part-timer’ and my monthly wage barely reached 1,000,000 won even when I had a lot of illustration work.

 

Yet I still had affection towards the company at that time and believed that the system might change if I kept trying. When I demanded fair reward for doing two kinds of work, my boss always replied, ‘I am not satisfied with the quality of either your clerical or illustration work, why do I need to pay you more?’ When I asked him to enroll me in industrial accident compensation insurance, employment insurance, national pension and national health insurance, he kept making excuses like ‘I will do it when I hire new finance person’ and ‘I am busy right now.’

 

I explained and discussed the problem with other staff members many times, but no one dared to speak out. It is hard to find a decent drawing-related job and the staff members were always being treated like incapable workers, which ruined their confidence.

 

Can I ever find a workplace where I can be treated fairly?

 

I had complaints towards the company, but at the same time I learned many lessons. I gained confidence that I can earn money from drawing and the chance to study cooperative association.  

 

While I was working, I began to wonder about the incomprehensive behaviors of my boss. Does everyone act like that when they become a chairman? Can I ever find a workplace where everyone can be treated fairly and equally? If not, why don’t I establish one?

 

In those days I took classes from a cooperative association introduced to me by an acquaintance. The lessons did not show me my dream workplace, but I was able to properly learn the idea of a cooperative association. Plus they helped me to reconsider the concept of labor.

 

I thought about why I needed to deal with so much unfairness, how easy it was to treat people as mere tools in a society full of people who only know productivity and competitiveness and steeped in the ideologies of capitalism and materialism, and how I should act in this situation.  

 

I talked to colleagues in order to change the system of our company, and continued to agitate to my boss. Nevertheless, it did not change after all and felt like a fool. I quit that job at last and decided not to endure anymore. Receiving unreasonable treatment and enduring difficulty and pain do not help me at all. And serious changes will not happen even if I express the uneasiness I have.

 

Signing the first employment contract in the company’s history

 

For a half year recently, I worked at another illustration company. They recognized my abilities and I received a reasonable amount of wage. Nonetheless, it treated employees like simple tools and gave them massive workloads. Furthermore, there was not even one employment contract signed among tens of employees. I demanded to sign a contract when I entered the company, and this request was not fulfilled. Plus, my boss’s promise to make me a regular employee came to nothing because he was ‘busy.’ So this time I did not put up with the unfairness and took the risk of being fired.

 

I demanded to sign a contract and be made a full-time worker. Also I asked for the right to leave the office at the regular time for my health, because I have back problems. (In fact, these are not things that I should to have ask for but rights that everyone deserves to have, but people in this society need courage to demand them.)

 

I simply could not change the system all by myself, but I think my actions did have some influence. Four months after I started working there, the first contract was signed since the company was established. Even my boss, who often said ruthless words to employees, apologized for breaking his promise to me. The company was still a harsh and difficult place to work, but there were some changes made.

 

Now I am not working at that company, but I often think about what would happen if other employees also stopped standing for the poor treatment. In fact, I told other colleagues to voice their complaints, but no one listened to me.

 

Some consider working tirelessly for company a sacrifice. And the sacrifice is often described as a noble one. What advantage is there to continuing to work tirelessly? And what is the disadvantage if you stop enduring it? Are these thoughts too idealistic and naive?

 

No need to judge and feel unrest beforehand

 

I will express uneasiness if I receive poor treatment regardless of what kind of work I am doing, and if the situation still remains unchanged I will quit the job. This is neither illegitimate nor unreasonable. Though I do feel distress at the thought that my reasonable behavior might bring me some disadvantages.

 

However, I do not want to prioritize work over life in any case. Not all companies are terrible, and I can hunt down another job anytime. I may find aptitudes and interest in the fields which I have never thought about, which lead to other possibilities. What is wrong with doing different kinds of work and wandering around different places? There is no need to fall into despair before even trying.

 

I still cannot figure out which is right or wrong, though I tellmyself that I am trying hard to broaden my view. I want to work under fair and good conditions in which I am treated like a human being. If I cannot find such a workplace, I will try to change the one I am at. If that doesn’t work, I will create one myself.

 

I cannot tell whether all these things I say and think are merely the grumblings of immaturity. [Translated by Kim Jae-ah]

 

*Original article: http://ildaro.com/6702 (Published May 31, 2014)

 

◆ To see more English-language articles from Ilda, visit our English blog(https://ildaro.blogspot.com).

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