Mistaken for an S-Class Employee - Chapter 7

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: LilGuyBlastoise

◈ Mistaken for an S-Class Employee ◈

Chapter 7: A Flaw Discovered (2)

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Quality control was something the person in charge was supposed to handle thoroughly. Missing duplicate episode information was a fairly serious mistake.

Assistant Manager Song spoke, flustered.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, you don’t need to apologize to me.”

Assistant Manager Song had joined the company before I did.

She had originally been on another team, then transferred to ours when she returned from parental leave.

She was my senior by tenure, but I had more experience with Operations Team work, so we treated each other with respect.

“Is your child very sick?”

“...”

She had plenty of work experience and was meticulous, not someone who usually made mistakes.

For her to miss something this basic meant she was not herself.

“Yes. The fever’s been going on for a while.”

“Have you been to the hospital?”

“We went to the emergency room, but there wasn’t much they could do about the fever. My child kept whining about being sick all night...”

I looked at Assistant Manager Song’s face, ringed with dark circles.

It didn’t feel like someone else’s problem. If I got married someday, I would go through something like this too.

“You should just take annual leave.”

Instead of answering, Assistant Manager Song glanced at Team Leader Kim.

He absolutely hated it when team members took leave for family matters.

“Ah, right. Why even say it? This is a team where we can’t even use our leave freely.”

I deliberately said that loudly enough for Team Leader Kim to hear.

“It hasn’t gone live yet, right?”

“Yes. I’ll check what you just mentioned and...”

“Hold on. I’ll take a closer look.”

Since Assistant Manager Song was not herself, I felt I needed to review it in detail.

Her expression darkened, but I smiled.

“It’s nothing serious. It hasn’t gone live yet, so it isn’t an incident. It’s just part of the workflow.”

I didn’t want to blame Assistant Manager Song. This had happened because she had tried to finish her work somehow, even while feeling unwell.

She had always shown an excessive sense of responsibility in everything she did. Probably because she was conscious of the label of working mother.

To make sure the job was completed perfectly, I examined it as carefully as I would an initial quality check. The problem was serious.

Duplicate episode information was not the only thing that had been missed.

If Assistant Manager Song had simply accepted Team Leader Kim’s instruction to handle it herself and skipped the follow-up review, it could have turned into a major incident.

Could Team Leader Kim have...

Known?

It was a reasonable suspicion that he might have been trying to create an incident to make his presence felt.

Either way, I had caught it. Now I just needed to clean it up properly.

“Assistant Manager Song, could you spare me a moment?”

To save her face, I took Assistant Manager Song into a meeting room and told her about the issues I had found.

“Are Originals normally like this? It must have been tough for you.”

Assistant Manager Song was solely responsible for reviewing Original content.

Some of the missed points were hers, but the sheer number of errors suggested the larger problem was with the content provider.

“Since they’re part of the same company, I think they tend to trust us and leave it to us.”

“So they barely do an initial quality check.”

Writers checked for typos while revising.

An editor performed the final manuscript review, including typo checks, but if the writer did not revise properly and there were too many mistakes, errors were inevitable.

OTT content was the same.

It was fundamental for the original producer to conduct a thorough review.

“First, I’ll contact the supplier right away and have them correct it.”

We left the meeting room together and were about to return to our desks when a thought crossed my mind.

“Assistant Manager Song, wait a moment.”

* * *

Two birds with one stone.

It was one of the strategies Hyeok often used in The Office Worker from the Apocalypse.

Everything at a company was connected. This was especially true at large corporations, where work was often accomplished through collaboration.

I did not think the mistakes found during the Original content review should simply be passed over. They were connected to my larger plan.

The reason I was cooperating with Director Yoon was to propose a deal for a team transfer.

The Content Team.

If the Curation Team was GoPlay’s crown jewel, the Content Team was the center of power. The success or failure of an OTT business was largely determined by what content it acquired.

That made the Content Team of the Content Planning Bureau a gateway for talent. You had to pass through there to land an important post.

Before I began earning a lot in royalties, it had been the team I most wanted to join in order to advance within the company. Now, I was interested in it because I wanted my novels adapted for the screen.

I was already earning enough from my work, so my next focus was influence. To achieve that, my work had to be adapted into media that were easier for the public to access, most notably dramas and films.

Being popular did not automatically mean a work would be adapted. There seemed to be criteria unique to them, and I wanted to learn those while I was still at the company.

I was also curious about just how impressive the people working there were.

“Don’t contact the supplier directly. I think it would be better to make a request straight to the Content Team.”

“What? That might be...”

“At this rate, I think there’ll be a major incident eventually.”

“...”

“Rather than contacting the supplier to make corrections, I think it would be better to let the Content Team know what is really going on.”

Assistant Manager Song looked troubled. She probably didn’t want to make a bigger issue out of it.

I told her, “If you’re all right with it, I’d like to bring this problem to their attention myself.”

Assistant Manager Song’s face brightened at once, then she looked embarrassed.

“I’d be grateful, but you’re busy too, Assistant Manager Go...”

“It’s fine. I’ve been in the Operations Team for a long time, haven’t I? I know the history of these matters well, too. I think it would be better if I went and explained it.”

To transfer teams, the other team had to accept me. First, I needed them to know I existed, and this could be my opportunity.

“What’s with all this enthusiasm?”

Assistant Manager Jeon suddenly appeared.

“Senior, you’ve surprised me several times lately. You’re stepping up for work that isn’t even yours. Seriously, what’s gotten into you?”

In the past, I would have scolded Assistant Manager Jeon for eavesdropping, but I couldn’t say something unpleasant to a reader who supported me.

“I’m trying to fulfill my role as the senior on the team properly. Assistant Manager Jeon, if you have anything difficult going on, tell me. I’ll step in.”

“Wow...”

Assistant Manager Jeon looked surprised.

“You’ve changed so much that it’s a little scary. You aren’t planning to stab us in the back one day, are you?”

“What would I even stab you in the back over?”

“Like suddenly changing jobs...”

I snorted and changed the subject.

“Did you read yesterday’s episode of The Office Worker from the Apocalypse?”

It was serialized every night at 8:20 p.m.

“Ah, you said you read it too, Senior, right? Of course I did! Wow, the way the protagonist landed that blow on the team leader yesterday. It was incredible.”

“You don’t save them up to read?”

“How could I save them up? I’d die of curiosity.”

How could Assistant Manager Jeon pick out nothing but such pretty things to say?

I was even more grateful for readers who read every day. It had a positive effect on the novel’s growth metrics.

“Assistant Manager Jeon, want to have dinner tonight?”

“What? All of a sudden?”

“Yeah. My treat.”

“If that’s the case, I’m in, but... why do you keep treating me lately? First coffee, now this.”

I snorted and patted Assistant Manager Jeon’s shoulder.

“There’s a reason for it. See you at dinner, then.”

* * *

After organizing the needed corrections, I left the office.

I soon arrived at my destination.

The Content Team.

As its name implied, it handled content acquisition.

It was the core department that determined the quality of GoPlay’s OTT service, and it also spent the largest budget.

In other words, it was the place where it was easiest to produce the most visible results at GoPlay.

“Hello.”

I entered and greeted everyone loudly.

The people in the Content Team looked at me with puzzled expressions.

I was surprised by how many people there were. Was this really a team on the same level as the Operations Team?

“I came to see the person in charge of acquiring Original content.”

“What’s the title? There isn’t just one or two people handling acquisitions.”

“I Only Did My Best.”

“Ah, go over there. Assistant Manager Seong Jae-jun!”

I walked over to a sharp-looking man in transparent-frame glasses by the window.

“Hello. I’m Assistant Manager Go Min-hyeok from the Operations Team.”

“Yes, I’m Assistant Manager Seong Jae-jun. What brings you here?”

“I found some issues while reviewing I Only Did My Best. I came to discuss them with you.”

“Oh, really?”

Assistant Manager Seong turned toward me and pointed at an empty chair.

“Please sit here.”

“Thank you.”

“You could have told me about the issues by email. Why come all the way here?”

I smiled.

“If I sent it by email, it would leave a record. I thought it might place an unnecessary burden on you.”

I had come to the Content Team on Assistant Manager Song’s behalf to build a good impression, not to pick a fight.

“What burden could there be in telling us what needs correcting...”

Assistant Manager Seong placed his hands over the laptop keyboard.

“All right. Please go ahead.”

“Yes.”

I explained in detail the issues found in I Only Did My Best, including duplicate episode information, typos in subheadings, and several synchronization mismatches.

“Damn... That was close.”

There were so many corrections that Assistant Manager Seong looked at a loss.

“How could this be such a mess...”

Muttering to himself, he checked the production company.

GoPlay managed more than a few production companies.

“Ha... This place won’t do.”

Assistant Manager Seong clicked his tongue, then bowed his head to me.

“Thank you. We almost had a major incident.”

“It’s nothing. There’s one thing I’m curious about.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Does the Content Team not review things at all?”

The question itself could sound aggressive, so I asked it with the gentlest smile I could manage.

“Hmm! We do, but there are so many titles to review that we can’t examine them in detail.”

“Ha ha. You’re not relying on the Operations Team too much, are you?”

“Ah... Well.”

That was how organizational life went.

They were busy, so they put the work off.

The Operations Team was the department ultimately responsible for final review.

“If the review is not done properly at the first stage, the finished quality is bound to suffer. I looked into it before coming here, and Original content seems to have an especially high number of these problems.”

“...”

“If you are too busy to review it yourselves, it might be a solution to systematize the review stages on the producers’ side.”

I smiled.

“Especially since an incident involving Original content would be very bad for the company’s image.”

Works made under the company’s name were given the title Original.

Assistant Manager Seong nodded, then said, “Yes, we need to come up with some kind of measure. I had no idea it was this bad. Thank you for letting us know what is really happening.”

“Not at all. I only hope I wasn’t overstepping by saying all that.”

While writing novels, I had studied how to win people over.

When meeting someone for the first time in business, you had to be polite yet firm. That was how you earned trust.

“Assistant Manager Seong! What’s going on?”

A man at the innermost desk in the center of the office, the one using the largest desk, spoke up.

“It’s nothing!”

After answering, Assistant Manager Seong asked me, “Have you met our team leader before?”

“I only know his name.”

The Content Team leader, Jo Min-ho.

A man who had secured the highly influential position of Content Team leader at a young age.

Even people of higher rank could not stand up to him. There was a rumor that he was a distant relative of the chairman.

“Come with me. I’ll introduce you. It will be useful in many ways if he recognizes you.”