u/Kimchi_Wasabi_1617

My experience working at a chaebol

I wont name which one it is. All I can say is that it's one of the main chaebols, famous for its corruption practices and illegal behavior.

When I was recruited I was told I should spend 3-4 years in Korea before being sent back to my country. In reality, after 5 years in Korea they asked me to stay 2 more years. After 7 years, they asked me to stay 2 more years. And I quit for the reasons below.

My initial contract was for 2 years. Then, they would give me 1 year extensions every year, for another 5 years. They also said that my pay included everything and that there was no pay for overtime or anything else.
The first week I started, I was told they had given 3 months to an employee that had been there for 2 years to find a new position in a different division, or she'll be fired. And in the end she was fired after 3 months. At least that's what they told me. That was my first week.

Then, they sent me on a biz trip. Took the plane on a Sunday, landed the same day in the US. Unpaid. Worked on Monday and Tuesday. Flew from west coast to east coast of the US on Tuesday during the night (unpaid). Landed at 5am. Was asked to go to work by 9AM on Wednesday. Full day of work Wednesday and Thursday (no overtime). On Friday, worked all day and took the plane back to Korea during the night. Landed in Incheon on Saturday night. Unpaid. Went back to work on Monday morning.

Over my first 2 years, these types of situations happened all the time. I was working at least 6 days / week once a month (for free). Then covid happened and that stopped.
When the law changed and that overtime pay became mandatory, they decided that 20 hours were already included in my contract. They told me it's because we need 30min to get ready in the morning and 30min in the evening to close down what we were doing.
And when my (confidential) contract was due for renewal, HR gave it to my colleagues to make sure everything was leaked to everyone.

After that, I was moved to another department (R&D). I had never worked in R&D. Fortunately I managed to move to sales instead, after 1 month. In sales, I frequently worked overtime from home to take midnight calls with the US (unpaid of course). After 1.5 years, they asked me to lead a small team of 5-10 members. No training at all, not even on the internal policy, labor law etc. Nothing. After 6 months, my boss's boss was promoted and they moved me to be in another team under him. Back to being single contributor, no explanation (just got an 'excellent' rating and got 'demoded' at the same time lol).
Then, I realized colleagues starting lying around me about work. And people talking in my back about my demotion.

After that, I did not realize that my employer started to basically conspire to make me commit faults so that they could fire me with cause.
I heard several times around me employees using our company's internal mall for their friends and distant family, or even 'selling' their points. I never did it in 7 years except one time specifically. One person I met told me that one of my close colleagues had bought an item for his boss and asked me to do the same for him. I was furious, but i did it out of stupidity. Now I understand that this was actually planned by my employer, as my new boss (2 years later) made a reference to me buying stuff for my friends. I couldn't believe how petty that was from their end to plot things like this -and track me in my private life.
Another example is some colleagues telling me how they would expense everything into the insurance plan (toothpaste, soap etc.) which I assume they would think I'd do the same(?).

In terms of other benefits, my employer was providing housing. But they did not increase my budget for 7 years, forcing me to move apartments when the landlord would ask for a price increase (every 1 or 2 years). So I lived in 4 apartments over 7 years.
I had colleagues who told me they were paying their landlord some extra on the side to stay in their apartment, which was against the policy and I never did it. I suspect this was also a trick to make me do it, but I'll never know for sure.

I changed teams at some point, and I was put on a project that consisted of gathering 'market intelligence'. This time there was a senior colleague working with me, who kept trying pushing me to commit frauds and/or doing dubious actions. For example, he asked me (orally) to ask past employees of our competitors about their internal data. Or he would suggest I contact people on LinkedIn and pretend I want to hire them to gather data about their companies or the market.
Then, some colleagues started to ask when I would leave the company.

Finally, one day, after my boss told me everything I had done over the weekend, I decided I couldn't take it anymore. I left the country and lost all my belongings in the meantime. I asked for medical leave which I was obviously rejected. I also asked if they could just open the door of my apartment so that the shipping company could come ship my stuff back home, and they rejected as well. They said I either had to come back myself, or pay for a company to come and destroy them (in which case they could open the door of course). So I lost everything.

I've most likely forgotten a lot of other details. But that's enough for today.

Note: I have not added my reactions to my employer's behavior, which were as petty as them for some time. I used to fight for my rights when I thought things were unfair.
It took me some time to realize they had been making the situation unbearable on purpose for several years and obviously they were recording all our meetings, where of course was pissed off, to show that I was the guy. Never seen such a shitty employer in my life.

Just needed to rant.

China ETF

Moving to Russia (banks)

Living in Korea in ‘26

Long rant about former employer