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I spent a week of my life at a major insurance company in Seoul once, and the military style security, the obsession with corporate espionage, when all they wer
by skissane 1y ago
I spent a week of my life at a major insurance company in Seoul once, and the military style security, the obsession with corporate espionage, when all they were working on was an internal corporate portal for an insurance company… The developers had to use machines with no Internet access, I wasn’t allowed to bring my laptop with me lest I use it to steal their precious code. A South Korean colleague told me it was this way because South Korean corporate management is stuffed full of ex-military officers who take the attitudes they get from defending against the North with them into the corporate world; no wonder the project was having so many technical problems-but I couldn’t really solve them, because ultimately the problems weren’t really technical
- msla 1y ago[flagged]
- ahartmetz 1y agoI've done some work for a large SK company and the security was manageable. Certainly higher than anything I've seen before or after and with security theater aspects, but ultimately it didn't seriously get in the way of getting work done.
- skissane 1y agoI think it makes sense that although this is a widespread problem in South Korea, some places have it worse than others; you obviously worked at a place where the problem was more moderate. And I went there over a decade ago, and maybe even the place I was at has lightened up a bit since.
- throwaway2037 1y ago> South Korean corporate management is stuffed full of ex-military officers For those unaware, all "able-bodied" South Korean men are required to do about two years of military service. This sentence doesn't do much for me. Also, please remember that Germany also had required military service until quite recently. That means anyone "old" (over 40) and doing corp mgmt was probably also a military officer.
- skissane 1y agoThe way it was explained to me was different... yes, all able-bodied males do national service. But there's a different phenomenon in which someone serves some years active duty (so this is not their mandatory national service, this is voluntary active duty service), in some relatively prestigious position, and then jumps ship to the corporate world, and they get hired as an executive by their ex-comrades/ex-superiors... so there ends up being a pipeline from more senior volunteer active duty military ranks into corporate executive ranks (especially at large and prestigious firms), and of course that produces a certain culture, which then tends to flow downhill
- solarengineer 1y agoDid you happen to notice interesting phenomenon like “the role becomes a rank”?
- jeena 1y agoThe difference is that South Korea is currently technically still at war with North Korea.
- yard2010 1y agoThis - you and half of the smart people here in the comments clearly have no idea what it's like to live across the border from a country that wants you eradicated.
- cthalupa 1y agoDepends on if these were commissioned officers or NCOs. Basically everyone reaches NCO by the end of service (used to be automatic, now there are tests that are primarily based around fitness), but when people specifically call out officers they tend to be talking about ones with a commission. You are not becoming a commissioned officer through compulsory service.
- majewsky 1y ago> That means anyone "old" (over 40) and doing corp mgmt was probably also a military officer. Absolutely not. It was very common in Germany to deny military service and instead do a year of civil service as a replacement. Also, there were several exceptions from the """mandatory""" military service. I have two brothers who had served, so all I did was tick a checkbox and I was done with the topic of military service.