'Lee Hoseon's cider' Lee Hoseon and Kim Ji-min exploded in anger at workplace villains who provoke 'resignation urges,' saying "abusive remarks are acts that kill the soul."
The 7th episode of SBS Plus 'Lee Hoseon's cider,' which aired at 10 a.m. on the 10th, continued its upward trend with a household rating of 0.7% (Nielsen Korea, metropolitan area, paid broadcast). This episode, themed "workplace villains who provoke resignation urges," ranked moments when a single remark destroys a person and ruins organizational morale. In the opening, Lee Hoseon said, "Those words that stick in your ear remain like echoes for life," and with a firm remark added, "Abusive remarks are acts that kill the soul," drawing sympathy.
The No. 5 spot for "workplace villains who provoke resignation urges" was the "Queen of Tears." The contributor, a three-year junior in the finance and accounting team, was briefly excited when a new junior arrived, but was flustered by a junior who repeated basic mistakes and burst into tears whenever criticized. Then one day the contributor overheard the junior telling a colleague, "After crying a few times, no one nags me," saying company life was "great." Upon hearing the story, Kim Ji-min said, "You have no choice but to call them out," and Lee Hoseon called out directly, "This is not regression but 'selective regression,'" adding, "The incompetence hidden by tears will soon be exposed."
No. 4 was a story about the "ultimate old-school boss," who during work hours pulls employees out to create a "smoke break" and uses that time to share work to favor "his side," even forcing lunch menu choices. When a new employee refused a personal favor, the boss even carried out "retaliatory pressure." Lee Hoseon analyzed it as a "typical top-down power dynamic," calling it the "armband effect," and emphasized that everyone's solidarity was needed to solve the problem, saying, "If the new employee leaves, next will be my turn."
No. 3 was "the showdown of the century: workaholic boss vs. MZ employee." The boss, who habitually says "Sleep when you're dead," normalizes overtime and demands employees take work home, while the new MZ employee declared strict leaving times and drew lines at every request. As a result, the person stuck in the middle ended up doing all-night work and suffered. Lee Hoseon warned, "You can't keep cutting away your life and dedicating yourself. If generational conflict is patched over by individual sacrifice, only the person in the middle dies."
No. 2 was the "anachronistic boss who practices sex discrimination." The contributor's boss called only male employees to meetings and said things like, "Meetings are for the people who file reports. I hate the smell of women in the conference room," making blatant sexist remarks, while continuing unpleasant jokes and inappropriate touching toward female employees, angering the contributor. Lee Hoseon asserted, "Discrimination seems gone but remains in a changed form," and said, "This kind of structure is fundamentally problematic." He then delivered a stinging remark: "You who discriminate by sex will be discriminated against in turn."
The No. 1 spot was the "colleague who rivals cyber tattle" — a colleague who spreads rumors and stigmatizes coworkers, leading to multiple victims, yet plays the victim themself. Kim Ji-min recalled being hurt by a fabricated dating rumor during her aspiring days, saying, "Those looks were so hard to bear for months," surprising everyone. Kim Ji-min is currently newly married to comedian Kim Jun-Ho. Lee Hoseon said of workplace villains, "They have a devilish trait of enjoying others' pain," and declared, "The villain's identity will be exposed soon. They will be completely isolated."
This episode covered "selective tears," "armband abuses of power," "middle manager burnout," "sexist culture," and "rumor villains," closely touching on the realities of workers and drawing public outrage. In closing, Lee Hoseon said, "The workplace is the epitome of human relationships. It's really a circus," and emphasized that people should think about "how to protect," not "how to endure." Viewers responded with wholehearted empathy: "As soon as I saw the tear villain I thought of my team member," "The old-school boss description was so real it gave me goosebumps," "My blood pressure went up during the rumor maker segment," "People like that ruin teams," and so on.
Meanwhile, 'Lee Hoseon's cider' airs every Saturday at 10 a.m.
[Photo] OSEN DB, SBS Plus
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