Complacent Inertia and Idle Comfort
“I Ganghan?”
“Yes.”
“Your seat is over there, I Ganghan. The senior staff have been wiping down that desk for days since they heard you were coming to our section.”
First day at Haedong City Hall.
Choe Yeongpyo, Chief of Delinquency Section 2, smiled with an inscrutable expression.
“Here. You’ll be receiving your appointment certificate this morning and paying your respects to the Mayor, so you won’t really have much time for actual work. Just tidy up your desk.”
Section Chief Choe Yeongpyo lightly patted my shoulder and returned to his seat.
The rearmost seat in Delinquency Section 2, Finance Division, Haedong City Hall.
My first duties as a public official had finally begun.
First, I booted up the desktop computer and accessed the local tax portal system.
While I was looking around the city hall’s local tax portal system, the General Affairs Division called.
They said that after the appointment ceremony in the conference room, there would be tea time with the Mayor.
“Chief, the General Affairs Division is calling me to come receive my appointment certificate.”
I reported the tea time schedule to Section Chief Choe.
“Yes. Hurry back. I knew about the appointment ceremony schedule, but I appreciate you reporting to me first like that.”
“Then I’ll be back.”
After greeting Choe Yeongpyo, I headed up to the main conference room.
From behind me, I overheard the conversation between Section Chief Choe Yeongpyo and Deputy Section Chief Shin.
“These days, new hires don’t report to their superiors, but I Ganghan at least has the basics down.”
Deputy Section Chief Shin replied to Choe Yeongpyo’s remark.
“Right? Accessing the local tax portal on his first day of work... He didn’t transfer from another local government, did he?”
“Really? He already accessed the local tax portal?”
“Yes. When I looked earlier, he had logged in and was reading the latest cases.”
“Hehe... A promising one has joined our team.”
Had Choe Yeongpyo and Deputy Section Chief Shin spoken too loudly?
The staff of Delinquency Section 1 looked at Choe Yeongpyo and Deputy Section Chief Shin with envious eyes.
***
After the appointment ceremony ended, we moved to the Mayor’s office.
The Haedong City Hall Mayor’s office was far more modest than I had expected.
Fabric sofas rather than leather, so old that their corners were faded and threads were coming loose.
The furnishings and furniture in the Mayor’s office also looked ancient, as if they had been there for at least a decade.
*Directly elected local governments started ages ago—how is there still such a frugal mayor?*
The new hires who had joined with me were greatly moved by the Mayor’s integrity.
*They say you can know ten things by seeing one.*
I already knew well of Haedong Mayor Jang Samcheol’s integrity.
The sofas and furniture were a prime example demonstrating Mayor Jang Samcheol’s integrity.
“Our city hall has been severely short of hands, so having fourteen new employees join us this time is reassuring. If you all do your best with the mindset you had when you first entered public service, the citizens will recognize your hard work.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Tea time began with the Mayor’s words of encouragement.
Mayor Jang Samcheol, who had been making eye contact with each new employee one by one, looked at me.
“Our I Ganghan ranked first overall in this year’s local tax service examination, didn’t he?”
“Yes. That is what I understand.”
At the mention that I had passed with first place overall, the other new hires looked at me with surprised eyes.
“I apologize for sending an employee who passed with top marks to the Delinquency Section. With your skills, I Ganghan, you could have been assigned straight to the Tax Administration Section. However, I heard from Chief Choe that you personally requested to be sent to the Delinquency Section first, is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
When I answered firmly, Mayor Jang Samcheol asked again.
“Why? I’m curious about the reason.”
Jang Samcheol set down his teacup with an intrigued expression.
It seemed he wanted to calmly hear the reason.
“Because the basics are important, whether in public institutions or private companies.”
“Do you think Delinquency Section work is the basics, I Ganghan?”
“Yes.”
“That’s strange. Usually, Finance Division employees say Collection Section work is the basic work...”
Jang Samcheol tilted his head.
“The Delinquency Section is a department where new employees can handle all types of taxes. Delinquency work covers all tax items of the city hall—resident tax, acquisition/registration tax, automobile tax, and so on.”
“Ho...”
Jang Samcheol nodded.
“That’s a plausible answer. According to Chief Choe’s report, March is the period for comprehensive crackdowns on automobile tax delinquency and confiscating license plates of habitual delinquent vehicles... Our I Ganghan, please show us your skills.”
“Understood, Mayor.”
He meant it literally.
March was the month when first-quarter work was wrapped up, and almost all local governments operated a comprehensive crackdown period to clear delinquent automobile taxes.
According to the memories of his previous life, Jang Samcheol was an influential figure who had started as a county magistrate, served as Haedong Mayor, and risen to become a National Assemblyman.
Because he was inherently frugal and unpretentious, and possessed a personality incapable of compromising with corruption in work, he received concentrated opposition from local power brokers, but he was a man of both character and competence who had broken through such risks to become a National Assemblyman.
For the sake of a smooth public service career going forward, it was necessary to build a close relationship and maintain friendly ties with Mayor Jang Samcheol. In particular, if I were to move to the National Tax Service, Jang Samcheol would take the lead in legislating laws that could block tax evasion by the entrenched interests.
When Mayor Jang Samcheol showed particular interest in me, some of my fellow new hires looked at me with eyes full of envy and jealousy.
Thus, after about thirty minutes of tea time, I returned to the office.
***
When I returned to the office, Section Chief Choe Yeongpyo approached.
“I Ganghan, congratulations on your official appointment!”
“Thank you, Chief.”
“The Mayor didn’t say anything special, did he?”
“No, Chief. He didn’t say anything in particular.”
“As I said earlier, it’s not yet time to start work in earnest, so tidy up your desk, look around the system, and after lunch we’ll do the full handover of duties.”
“Yes, Chief.”
I returned to my seat.
While I was sitting at my seat looking around the local tax portal system, a female employee from Delinquency Section 1 approached the opposite side and turned on the fax machine.
A Grade 8 female employee in her third year of service.
She seemed to be trying to use the fax to send a delinquency demand notice.
“Hyosang, when sending a fax, should the text face up? Or down?”
She asked Gang Hyosang, a junior who had joined after her, how to use the fax machine.
Fax machines—if you use them often, you wouldn’t know, but people who only use them once in a while always get confused about whether to put the document in with the text facing up or down. Not only that, but they also inevitably get confused about whether to dial the number first and then press Start, or press Start first and then dial the number, and so on.
Moreover, when a new fax machine is brought in as it was now, it was even more so.
“Huh? Should the text face up? I haven’t used the new fax machine either, so I don’t really...”
Perhaps busy with his own work, Gang Hyosang answered the female employee’s question half-heartedly.
It was such a basic task, and seeing that she didn’t know it, I cautiously opened my mouth.
“The text should face up.”
For a moment, Grade 8 employee Kim Seryeong stared at me intently.
It was a gaze asking, *Are you sure?*
I nodded silently, and the female employee returned to her seat after sending the fax.
Looking at the female employee and Gang Hyosang, I recalled the “quests” that had been in the [Collection System].
There were various “quests” in the [Collection System], and among them was “Mission: Step 1 of Eradicating Complacent Inertia and Idle Comfort.”
Watching employees use the fax as-is despite the inconvenience, I thought I could clear the idle comfort mission.
***
Strangely enough, a working man’s morning passes in a flash.
Saying a new employee had joined, the Finance Division Chief came out and took the executives to lunch.
After the meal, the Finance Division Chief and the Chief of Section 1 rested their heads on the headrests of their armchairs and took naps, while Choe Yeongpyo, Chief of Delinquency Section 2, disappeared to the restroom to brush his teeth.
While the managers were sleeping, I ran the word processor.
And using the table editing function, I made something look nice and printed it.
On an ordinary A4 sheet printed in business-card size, the fax usage instructions were briefly recorded.
---------------------------
【Fax Usage Instructions】
Insert the paper with the text facing up.
Press the hook button and 9, then enter the phone number.
When you hear the receiving tone from the other party’s fax, press the Start button.
---------------------------
I printed the fax usage instructions edited for high readability.
After neatly attaching Scotch tape to the corners, I stuck the instruction guide where it was clearly visible in the center of the fax machine.
After checking the neatly edited notice and sitting down, I felt a strange gaze from behind.
When I looked back, Section Chief Choe Yeongpyo was staring at me intently.
“This, the fax usage instructions. Did you make and post this, I Ganghan?”
“Yes... I did.”
“Hehe...”
The scent of mint spread from the mouth of Choe Yeongpyo, who had returned from brushing his teeth.
“A valuable asset has entered our city hall. I’ve been in public service for over twenty-five years, but this is the first time I’ve seen a new public official print out fax usage instructions and post them on his first day of appointment.”
“Yes... I overheard the senior employees talking earlier, and it seemed like they were confused, so...”
“No. That’s not why I’m surprised. Honestly, even I sometimes get confused about how to send faxes.”
Choe Yeongpyo tilted his head slightly and looked back and forth between the fax machine and me.
“The fact that a new public official recognized such a problem and, without anyone telling him to, voluntarily made such a great notice and posted it neatly. Actually, that’s what’s more surprising. Public officials have a habit of only working when someone tells them to.”
With a deeply satisfied expression, Choe Yeongpyo patted my shoulder, laughed heartily, and returned to his seat.
It was an action I had taken expecting rewards for the mission, but receiving praise from a superior still felt good.
It was then.
*Ding—*
After returning to the past, for the first time, an achievement notification sound rang from the [Collection System].
【You have achieved the first-ever “Eradication of Idle Comfort (無事安逸)” achievement.】
【You have acquired 500 points as a reward.】
Idle Comfort.
A word meaning being comfortable and leisurely while doing nothing, and together with complacent inertia, it symbolized the negative aspects of public service society.
All I had done was make and post a usage instruction for employees who were confused about using the fax, yet...
I obtained an unexpected achievement reward.
And 500 points at that.
Breaking through complacent inertia and idle comfort on more macroscopic issues directly connected to the lives of the people—how much greater a reward would it give? I was already looking forward to it.
The [Collection System]—the more I knew about it, the more I wanted to dig deeper into it.