The exploding Note 7 is no surprise – leaked Samsung doc highlights toxic internal culture

[nekokonneko.livejournal.com]

Exec-only presentation encourages intimidation of staff

A leaked presentation to Samsung executives has provided further insight into the company's damaged internal culture.

The PowerPoint document focuses on strategies to prevent the creation of labor unions at the South Korean company and takes a very aggressive stance, treating employees as enemies and suggesting "countermeasures" as well as ways to "dominate employees."

It also talks about "punishing" union leaders, isolating "troublesome" employees and "inducing internal conflicts" as a way of intimidating employees and preventing the creation of unions. The presentation is also dismissive of labor laws and government ministers that have proposed changes to protect employees.

The presentation [PPT] [PDF] is dated 2012, but appears to have been used repeatedly by Samsung executives up until two years ago. It was unearthed by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which drew a direct line between the approach demonstrated in the presentation and the recent aborted launch of the Galaxy Note 7 due to exploding batteries.

"Inhumane conditions are rife" at the company, the ITUC reports, noting that Samsung employees are overworked, under-paid and forced to suffer appalling conditions, including "standing for 11 to 12 hours, verbal and physical abuse, severe age and gender discrimination, and lack of worker safety."

It quotes one worker who claimed that during an intense three-month period in the run-up to the release of a Galaxy tablet she slept only two or three hours a night and had to give up breastfeeding her three-month-old baby as a result.


Contents
While the presentation takes a relentlessly aggressive stance toward the creation of labor unions – in fact the entire purpose of the presentation appears to be to develop greater coordination across all departments into order to squash them – it also makes clear that the company is aware of problems with its internal culture.

In a series of remarkable slides, it lists the insults that senior executives have been heard to hurl at employees. A vice-president of its electronics division is quoted as having said: "Fuckheads, you've never gotten what I'm saying" to employees, among other aggressive insults.

The executive director of the company's lighting division is quoted as having said: "Bitch, fuckin' asshole, I'll rip your trap. You've got to be careful," and "You, son of a bitch, why didn't you do what I'd ordered?"

Yet another executive is quoted as calling an employee a "fucking asshole" and threatening to keep an eye on another.

Amazingly, the presentation also includes the aggressive and unhappy responses from a senior executive to another senior exec because he didn't like the way he was treating employees. "When I saw you treating researchers like slaves, my blood boiled," he said. "I'll leave this dirty company, dirty organization with no regrets."


Life and death
The presentation also highlights positive developments, while acknowledging serious persistent problems.

One slides lists examples of employee deaths that have been attributed to overwork. One employee, Kim, killed himself and the presentation notes that he had worked 100 hours of overtime each month for nine months. A widow of a manager is quoted as saying he "died from overwork."

It then provides positive reinforcement of ensuring that overtime is not abused by listing positive cases when it has helped people and the company flourish.

The presentation also tackles sexual harassment, noting continued problems by saying: "If we fail to take clear actions against the accidents of sexual harassment, they will aggravate the image of our company by requesting petitions to the National Human Rights Commission, filing civil/criminal lawsuits, and involving mass media, etc."

And, in what is both an endearing and patronizingly cynical recommendation, the presentation notes that giving employees gifts – including signed photos of Samsung's CEO – for their birthdays, wedding anniversaries and childbirths can help contribute to a healthier workplace.

"If organizational culture is warm and caring, employees' complaints will be decreased, and their satisfaction and pride will be getting stronger, which leads interests to labor unions to naturally disappear," it notes.


Evidence
Despite these positive efforts, there is no sign that Samsung takes anything but a negative view on labor unions, however. On one slide, it notes that while breaking union laws can come with a two-year jail sentence "in practice only amercement is enforced" – in other words, fines that the company will pay.

It also notes, somewhat unnervingly, that "in the case of facing a lawsuit on unfair labor practices, the existence of evidence is the crux of the matter." Which gives strong implicit justification to executives to behave badly so long as they make sure they don't leave a trail of evidence.

That culture was highlighted again this week when The New York Times reported that Samsung testers on the exploding Galaxy Note 7 smartphone were told not to communicate with one another electronically – no emails, instant messages or texts. They should only talk offline, the testers were told, to avoid producing potentially damaging information that could be picked up in a subpoena or lawsuit.

Quite how much Samsung toxic internal culture led to what may be the most embarrassing and damaging electronic recall of all time is hard to tell, but it is clear from this presentation and the cynical lessons that the organization appeared to have learned from past problems that it is not the nicest or happiest place to work.

We gave Samsung a lengthy opportunity to respond to the questions raised in the presentation and to provide examples of where its workplace culture has improved in recent years. We have yet to hear back from the company. ®

The Register

have you ever had to work in a toxic environment?

Comments

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

if you know anything about Korea's work culture and/or economy, this isn't surprising at all.

most toxic environment I worked in was retail. we had two terrible store managers in a row. one lied about me to my department manager, making up things that I didn't do, calling me lazy and a detriment to the store, which my department manager thankfully ignored. I was going to report that store manager but she was fired for other offenses before I could.

the other manager hated me because I had purple hair, and was always high strung about the regional manager springing an inspection on us so the lowest rank staff suffered his temper. plus he refused to sort an issue with my payroll which meant I worked nearly 3 weeks without pay. on another occasion, he tried to fire me for not coming into work WHEN I HAD A UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAM even though it wasn't my contracted hours and I'd removed that shift from my availability. my mother had to ring him whilst I was in my exam and yell at him and after that he left me alone. thank god for mothers.

[lulufairybubble.livejournal.com]

Sadly no matter where you work a lot of the time you find somebody in a leadership position who feels powerless and frustrated in their life so they take it on the staff. Dont let them break you. I wont say they will never be successful in business bc they might but they wont have people's respect. In the longrun that means a lot.

[xxhna.livejournal.com]

given autographed photos as a wedding gift?? uhm. ok. no. and testers being told not to communicate electronically, how shady. that sounds like an extremely unforgiving environment to work in. i work as a nurse in a hospital, and yes it can be very stressful and toxic at times but so far it has not reached that level of behavior (or that i've noticed). i wonder how this kind of information could gain traction in sk. i'm assuming samsung is the biggest, richest company there. it shouldn't be like this =/ also intimidation is something that should be reported right away. i remember recently in another department, senior nurses were bullying this new hire. like purposely making work difficult for her. i don't know the outcome of the situation but i do know that the cno became involved.

[yixingsforehead.livejournal.com]

i mean... i know it's bad, and i have seen and experienced things myself as well, but some of this is more disgusting than what i thought.

the only thing i would not mind as an employee, is that the communication ban for testers. like i don't think people get how damaging industrial spies can be, and how small pieces of leaked information can render useless something that thousands of people have been working on years.

all the rest, horrible. no words. so toxic. i was lucky enough to be able to get away from toxic places, cannot begin to imagine when someone feels like they have no other option.
edit: omg i need a break, i literally copied op without noticing:Dd sorry!

[soyunatetera.livejournal.com]

I have a friend that worked at samsung here in my country a couple of years ago, she worked for over a year and when she talked to me about the working culture in there it was like I was reading one of the many articles I've read before about korean working culture. It doesn't suprise me tho, Samsung is the biggest tech company in Korea, it'll be conflicting to think that they escape what we know about Korean working culture

[scionofawhisper.livejournal.com]

SK already has a low birth rate problem, perhaps even worse than Japan.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

My eyes got so big as I read this.

[chibi-rei.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky to have had mostly awesome bosses (really one 1 was an ass and we all hated him).
Even going back to part time work I'm happy with how I'm treated. I work at Trader Joe's and I have for years on and off. For part time our benefits are amazing (health insurance? 401k? Are you kidding me??). The managers all are nice and listen to us. I mean gdi we just had a cook out yesterday on the loading dock cuz my boss felt like it lol. You treat your workers well and they'll wanna work hard for you.

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

I think that's true to an extent. My gf works for a place like TJ in terms of perceived quality and how they treat their employees. (Good insurance, above min wage pay with lots of chances to get raises, etc.) But her job is SO stressful that they still have a really high turnover. It's not so much her coworkers and bosses that kill her, it's the customers. (She works in the deli, so she's basically in Hell 2.0) I used to work for an eikaiwa in Japan that was one of the better ones to work for in the country. Unfortunately most of the kids and parents were total nightmares so we still got out ASAP, even with corporate bending over backwards to keep us. Sigh.

Basically I agree with you, but sometimes it just can't be helped no matter how good the company is. That and I just wanted to rant on my gf's behalf, lol.

[jeliza]

This is impressively horrid.
IDK why people claim unions are useless -- there is a reason companies go to insane lengths to prevent them.
(I am biased; I walked a picket line as a toddler with my mom when her union struck.)

[jrt131n.livejournal.com]

I use to work with my uncle.....I was always under some sort of emotional stress because of him, damn near always crying, he always put down what I was doing, plus he called me a bitch in front of customers.......I don't talk to him anymore.

[atelierlune.livejournal.com]

I was always afraid it would be like this... why must corporate culture in big organizations always be so toxic? I am reminded of the articles that came out a while back about working conditions at Amazon. Why can't companies innovate and take care of the human beings that do most of its work (I mean, not the executives) at the same time?

I have had a toxic boss everywhere I have ever worked. From being sexually harassed to screamed at and told hiring me was a mistake to my face, to being teased, gaslit, and treated like a suspected criminal, every time I start over somewhere new I hope that things are different, and they never are. Thinking about it makes me want to lie down in a ball now.

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

this was such a difficult read. my mother dealt with a v toxic and racist work environment and she ended up taking the stress out on the home. it can definitely break you and it's such a hard thing you recover from because you're always worried it'll happen at your next job. i really feel for the families of samsung. this is so disturbing.

[skybluecotton.livejournal.com]

I'm watching awl right now and it's so heartbreaking to realize how true to life it is.
it's even worse wheb i notice the similarities between some of the scenes and what my mom goes through at her work

[dropthecrates.livejournal.com]

i currently work in a highly toxic environment - for the past 8 months i've been doing three separate roles (literally handled by three separate people /departments in all other branches of our company) with bare-minimum recognition (which i only get if i throw a tantrum), last year i did so much overtime (including one memorable stint of three 19-hr days back-to-back) they forced me to change my hours to minimise it, not out of concern but because the financing department was breathing down my manager's neck (funfact: i still do overtime because my line manager refuses to train half our staff so the three competent staff members are constantly doing damage control), any acknowledgement of our work is decidedly negative (even when we make superhuman efforts to meet ridiculous client deadlines) and my line manager has graduated from verbal intimidation and public humiliation/undermining of my shift coordinator to borderline physical bullying so we have to plan our work days to make sure they're never alone together. i'm seeing three separate doctors to deal with my stress and intense depression. still got to pay the bills somehow tho right?

[adlyeith.livejournal.com]

I can actually relate to this. I'm a terribly socially anxious person, have been struggling with major depression for almost ten years now, and I work in a sales-based position where I'm tracked on sales, credit card applications, etc for weekly numbers, monthly numbers, and 6 months goals (but not paid on commission). I've pleaded with managers before not to make me call a customer because it would cause a panic attack, but they just threatened me with write ups for disobeying management, talking to customers I don't know has caused breakdowns where I just start crying in the middle of the floor, and despite how often I try and plead with my parents to let me quit my job, I can't because I have to be able to pay bills. The downside is, I can't even really find a new job because I need healthcare coverage for my prescriptions and my therapist/doctor bills.

[dropthecrates.livejournal.com]

it breaks my heart that other people go through similar shit :( i honestly hope it gets better for you asap.

[adlyeith.livejournal.com]

I work for Home Depot here in the US. They actually, as part of their onboarding computer training for all new hires, have an anti-union propaganda class that is required to be taken by all employees - literally telling you all of the bad things about unions, how they'll impact your job, how terrible it would be for your store if your coworkers decided to unionize, etc etc. Not like it matters, because here in Wisconsin our governor decided to basically strip unions of literally all of their power, but never the less Home Depot is terrified of their employees unionizing. It's pretty heavily emphasized that we shouldn't talk about it.

That being said, you look up Home Depot reviews from existing and past employees and you'll understand why so many people would probably unionize if we felt that we could. The work culture/environment is so incredibly hostile and toxic, and weekly my bosses make me cry by yelling at me for something and making me feel devalued, humiliated, and like a worthless sack of shit. The horrible thing is, I sell appliances. One of the brands that I never want to sell is Samsung, because it's a terrible company with shit customer service (they actually have told us on the phone before that they have so many customers they don't need to provide good customer service, it won't hurt their company either way), and pretty frequently we complain about the employees we've interacted with, the terrible quality control on their products, and the constant problems that we have with them. Reading about how they're treated like shit, makes me feel pretty terrible for how I've moaned and complained about them.