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Slow Days·그렇게 중 1

[Recruitment] Trying to Get What Cannot Be Gotten

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Trying to get what cannot be gotten — recruitment.



1.

The start of this rambling

is the out-of-nowhere question: is the verb "get" really the right word to use about people — not objects?



2. 

In the end,

the employer and the employee, and the "gap" (powerful) and "eul" (powerless) poles that stand across from each other, form a relationship of interests.


The unintended grievance and regret that come from each side having different interests

lies in the fact that each party's situation and circumstances, and what they want to protect and the direction they want to go, are different.

Literally the "my heart isn't yours" of it.



3.

Actually —

going from employee to employer,

the reality I faced in running a business

wasn't: 

a brilliant strategy!

plenty of money! 

a brilliant idea!


Of the issues that came up in running things,

the ultimate problem was people.


3-1

And one more thing.

The most realistic problem in being together with that ultimate "people"

was not

having plenty of money,

or the size of the business — I found out.


Unless, of course, you're looking for hands and feet rather than a head.



4, 

In your 20s you choose your workplace for growth and meaning, 

in your 30s for income,

in your 40s for vision — 

so they say.


4-1

Personally, what's unfortunate is

the idea of a "vocation" has become nearly nominal,

and that most evaluation, whether employer or employee,

is now based on the workplace. 


5,

If the employer

is looking for hands and feet from employees — not heads —

then the money to satisfy them,

and the scale of business they can trust,

will be the biggest issues.


But

if it's not simple hiring or execution,

but finding an employee to be with for a plan that accounts for realistic running and sustaining,

then for that employer, the most real issue

may be not the employment contract
but the way of forming the connection.



6.

In my 20s, running a small business — trading — I learned that people matter more than money.

I used to think, with the excuse that I didn't have money to hire them and that my business was too small,

that "it's hard to find the people I believe matter."


But now, with a not-so-small business behind me,

even trying to find people with a more-than-enough budget to pay, 

it still isn't easy — and I'm being taught again.



7.

In words, in thought, 

I said I was looking for a head, not hands and feet.


But wasn't I actually trying to buy hands and feet?

Wasn't I trying to "get" people with money, with situations?


Without dressing it up in talk of neoliberalism,

it may be that the pervasive common sense itself — treating people as products, 

and letting one's own capability be treated as a product — 

is the essence of the problem.



This English version was translated by Claude.

친절한 찰쓰씨
Written by
친절한 찰쓰씨

Pleasant Charles — UI/UX researcher at AIT. Keeping notes on design, planning, and slow days here since 2010.

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