The Overly Competent Junior Employee

“I’m sorry, we’re sold out.”

Dokyung, who had been standing in line at a dessert shop on Teheran-ro, turned to look at Han Dahyun beside him.

“What should we do? Should we go somewhere else?”

“…It’s the second week in a row we’ve failed.”

The place where they had been queuing was a famous handmade donut shop on Teheran-ro that opened its doors precisely at 11 AM, sold the day’s prepared quantity, and then closed.

Dokyung had been dragged here by Han Dahyun as soon as their lunch break started, and she lamented that this was her second consecutive week of failure.

“Today, the line seemed unusually short, so I thought we’d succeed. That’s why it’s even more disappointing. Right in front of us…”

Han Dahyun hung her head dejectedly as she turned around, and Dokyung couldn’t help but smile at her reaction.

“What can we do? Let’s hope for success tomorrow. What would you like for lunch…”

“Customers!”

The donut shop employee called out to the two as they were about to leave.

“We actually have two vanilla cream donuts left. Would you like them?”

A smile spread across Han Dahyun’s face at the employee’s words.

“Yes! And two iced Americanos, please.”

Han Dahyun excitedly made the payment and returned with the packaged coffee and donuts in both hands.

“Let’s sit over there.”

As soon as they sat down on a bench along the walkway, Han Dahyun turned to Dokyung.

“When I’m with you, Dokyung-ssi, my luck seems to improve.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t you think so? When we go out on field work together, I notice more parking spots than when I’m alone. Yesterday, when we went for lunch, a waiting line formed right after we entered.”

Han Dahyun captured the donuts and coffee on the bench with her phone camera and looked at Dokyung.

“Look at now, too. We thought it was sold out right in front of us… but there were donuts left. I brought you along today just in case, and I’m glad I did.”

Dokyung chuckled at Han Dahyun’s words.

“I think I might be a bit lucky too.”

Ever since the day the message mentioned small fortunes, Dokyung often felt that luck was on his side.

“That’s why I brought you along today, and I was a bit disappointed when it seemed to end right in front of us. But it turned out well after all.”

“I was wondering why you were so eager to go out for lunch.”

“I’m sorry. But thanks to you, we get to try these famous donuts.”

Dokyung took a bite of the donut Han Dahyun handed him, and he could understand why people were so enthusiastic about them.

“Don’t you feel like Teheran-ro has become younger?”

As Han Dahyun spoke while eagerly eating her donut and drinking her coffee, Dokyung listened intently.

“Three years ago, when I came here for a listed company inspection, it was a bit… how should I put it…”

“There were more financial companies back then, right?”

“Yes. Now there are many startups. Oh, did you know about the Coffee Club that meets every Friday at 7 AM?”

“Coffee Club?”

“Yes, it’s a gathering where startup people meet to introduce their companies and share know-how. Even though it starts at 7 AM, I heard it’s always full.”

Han Dahyun seemed quite knowledgeable about new businesses, likely due to her experience in corporate finance at headquarters.

“They say unicorn company CEOs come to share their expertise. Don’t you want to go sometime?”

“That sounds good. We could also catch up on recent tech trends.”

“Great! Let’s go together sometime.”

Dokyung furrowed his brow at Han Dahyun’s words.

“Don’t tell me you’re bringing me along because it’s always full…”

“Come on, what’s wrong with utilizing a good colleague? It’s nice to share good fortune, right?”

Realizing Han Dahyun’s ulterior motive, Dokyung smiled.

“By the way, have you fully adjusted?”

“Yes. There’s nothing particularly difficult. A senior colleague who worked at the same branch before coming here tried to scare me, but I like that the clients are quite polite.”

Han Dahyun nodded at Dokyung’s words. She also found adapting to the Leaders Center easier than she had worried about.

“But it seems it’s just us.”

“What do you mean?”

“The other newbies who came with us are struggling. I think we got lucky with our team assignment.”

Unlike the Seongnam branch, the Leaders Center operated on a team system, but Dokyung hadn’t noticed much difference. Although they shared an office, the nature of sales work meant they mostly handled tasks alone except during meetings.

“Why? What’s happening in other teams?”

At Dokyung’s question, Han Dahyun sat up straight and began to explain.

“You remember the Team 1 leader who introduced us to the center on our first day?”

“Yes.”

“He’s the second-best performer after the Center Director, across the entire WM Division.”

Dokyung recalled the Team 1 leader, a person who exuded confidence in every action.

“I heard that entire companies entrust their accounts to him, and since he has so many clients, it seems the newbies have been saddled with some of the work.”

“But if it’s for performance, isn’t that good…”

“If it counted towards their performance, I wouldn’t mention it! But apparently, it all goes under the Team 1 leader’s performance.”

Dokyung furrowed his brow as he looked at Han Dahyun.

“So it’s not just handing over clients…”

“Exactly. He’s delegating his own work and giving orders. That’s why the Team 1 newbies are struggling. They have to manage their own clients and do what the team leader assigns them.”

“That’s unfair.”

“Even if it’s unfair, they have to endure it. It’s a company, after all.”

“Does the Center Director know about this?”

“Have you ever seen the Center Director at the company? He’s always out at external meetings.”

The Leaders Center Director, Ha Min-jae, was a person whose schedule was packed with appointments with high-net-worth individuals. As a result, he only received reports about internal affairs after the fact.

Dokyung wondered how he would have reacted if he had received such unfair instructions. He couldn’t come up with a clear answer, but he thought he would have given it a lot of consideration if faced with the situation.

“Anyway, our team leader gives us clients and… we’re lucky with our team leader.”

“We should do well then.”

“How?”

At Han Dahyun’s question, Dokyung stood up with a smile.

“Isn’t showing results through performance the best way? After all, half of my performance is also the team’s performance.”

Han Dahyun, who had stood up following Dokyung, thought for a moment before nodding.

“In that spirit, why don’t we go to the Coffee Club next week?”

Han Dahyun seemed to have latched onto the idea of the startup gathering she mentioned earlier.

“Well… my luck comes at a high price…”

Dokyung answered with a smile as he started walking.

“Dokyung-ssi!”

⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱

“Yoon Dokyung-ssi’s performance is quite good.”

Two months had passed since Dokyung was assigned to the Leaders Center. During that time, he had managed to attract several new clients and adapt reasonably well.

“Yoon Dokyung-ssi ranked first in our team for new client acquisition last month.”

At Team Leader Seo Jeonghwan’s words, all team members smiled and looked at Dokyung.

For a moment, Dokyung thought that this team system wasn’t bad at all.

He had read about office politics within teams and the stress people receive from others, but that wasn’t the case in Team 3.

It seemed that sharing performance results played a big role. In a system where individual performance contributes to team performance, it’s difficult to feel jealous or envious when someone does well.

Of course, there might still be people who feel jealous or envious even in such a system…

Fortunately, as Han Dahyun had mentioned, they had good team luck.

“It’s all thanks to the client you connected me with, Team Leader…”

“Haha, I just threw you a client I thought would fail. The fact that you secured a contract is entirely due to your ability, Yoon Dokyung-ssi. You deserve the praise. Honestly, I was quite surprised.”

“I realized there’s a reason your name is well-known in the industry.”

As Assistant Manager Lee Dae-sung said this, Dokyung slightly bowed his head in gratitude.

“It’s good to work hard, but don’t overdo it. Just work moderately hard. You might end up disappointed later.”

The team leader’s words were somewhat cryptic, but Dokyung nodded.

“I understand.”

“Dokyung-ssi and Dahyun-ssi might not know since it’s your first time, but next week we have an internal presentation within the branch.”

Dokyung and Han Dahyun looked at their seniors as if hearing about this for the first time, but the seniors seemed already familiar with it.

“It’s not as grand as it sounds. At certain intervals, we choose an industry, select a stock from it, research, and present as if explaining to a client.”

It felt like a kind of investment briefing.

“There’s nothing specific given, but we look at the return rates of the stocks selected by each team.”

Judging by the not-so-bright expressions of Seo Jeonghwan and the team members, it seemed that the performance of the stock chosen by the team in the previous quarter wasn’t particularly good.

As Seo Jeonghwan said, nothing was given, but there was clearly competition between teams within the center. In such invisible competitions, ‘feelings’ were more important than ‘rewards’.

For some, the sense of superiority that their team was better than others could be a reward in itself.

“I think it’s a pointless exercise… but for some, it’s a somewhat serious event.”

Dokyung nodded in understanding at Seo Jeonghwan’s words.

“And besides performance, the higher-ups use this to gauge each team’s capabilities.”

The company hoped that each team would diligently discover stocks, compete with each other, and achieve upward standardization.

“This time, the theme is the defense industry. Limited to the domestic market.”

Everyone started taking notes at Seo Jeonghwan’s words.

“First, organize your thoughts on attractive stocks and present them this Friday. We’ll choose one stock from there to take to the presentation.”

“Understood.”

“As I said, I don’t think this is an important task. No one will say anything even if you prepare halfheartedly, so don’t feel pressured. Let’s prepare within limits that don’t interfere with our current work.”

“Understood.”

“Well then, I have an external appointment, so I’ll be heading out. Everyone, keep up the good work today. See you this afternoon.”

After the meeting ended, Dokyung sat at his desk, deep in thought.

‘Defense industry… Defense…’

Although Seo Jeonghwan had said to prepare halfheartedly, Dokyung was serious.

‘I can’t resist this kind of thing.’

He found immense joy in discovering stocks and introducing them to others, more than the competition itself.

Bzzzt-

As Dokyung was suppressing his excitement while examining the defense industry sector, his phone vibrated. He checked the screen.

[This is the VIP Service cheering for you.]

A message that hadn’t arrived for the past month despite his waiting finally appeared.

Although it came at an unexpected timing today as well, it was a welcome contact, and Dokyung smiled.

[It’s quite difficult to distinguish the wheat from the chaff in the market.]

[This is because numbers don’t represent everything.]

Dokyung felt he understood what the message was trying to say. Even with perfect numbers, the market could be swayed by external environments.

There might be companies that would be better a year later, even if the numbers on their current financial statements were terrible.

Due to ‘external factors’, that is.

[Stocks of interest: Hyunpung Holdings, K-Tech, E-On Works, Jisung Precision Industries]

This time too, the message listed several stocks under the name of ‘stocks of interest’.

‘Is it telling me to choose from these?’

[We hope that Yoon Dokyung-ssi will learn how to excellently distinguish the wheat from the chaff through this opportunity.]

[We will always cheer for you.]

At the final words of the message, Dokyung nodded and began searching for data.