A senior executive at Kakao is facing internal controversy after allegations surfaced that employees were mobilized to handle cash gift reception duties at the executive's child's wedding. Because the executive's organization oversees Kakao's ethics and management transparency, employees are criticizing that the "horizontal culture has collapsed."
According to Kakao and the IT industry on the 13th, senior executive A, a member of Kakao's CA council, held a child's wedding at a hotel in Seoul earlier this month. At the time, employees belonging to the CA council reportedly sat at the congratulatory gift table and took on the role of receiving cash gifts from guests.
The allegation that executive A mobilized staff for the wedding spread after a post recently appeared on the anonymous office worker community "Blind," saying, "I heard they called employees to work at the daughter's wedding—is that okay?" The writer said, "A wedding is a private event, so why are employees going there to work?" and noted, "Even at large conglomerates these days, this is hard to see."
The post drew more than 70 comments, such as "If it wasn't a request, it's clearly coercion," "Even if it was a request, in a hierarchical relationship it can feel like an order," and "A textbook case of workplace harassment as cited by the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL)," intensifying the controversy.
In response, some employees who sat at the gift table explained that they "voluntarily helped, considering the congestion on the wedding day," but skepticism prevailed inside the company that "when a superior asks, it inevitably feels like an order." One employee said, "At Kakao, even the CEO's personal family events were not handled at the company level, so it's shocking that an executive in charge of ethics did this."
Executive A in question previously served as the head of a legal team at an S Group affiliate and as a lawyer at a major law firm, and joined Kakao in May last year to take a key post overseeing legal, audit, and ethics. Among Kakao employees, criticism is mounting that "the executive who should manage ethics has undermined ethics."
Meanwhile, the CA council, which serves as Kakao's control tower, was established in 2021 to reform the organization following controversies over "octopus-like expansion" and the "Kakao Pay cash-out." However, with various issues recurring around senior figures, some say it has degenerated from a "symbol of reform" into the "epicenter of controversy." In fact, in 2023, executive B in management support within the CA council was dismissed for swearing during meetings and workplace harassment, and Bae Jae-hyun, the former chief investment officer who drew controversy over alleged stock price manipulation of SM Entertainment, also came from the CA council.
Inside Kakao, there are self-mocking remarks that "the organization created to reform the group has itself become the target of reform." One employee said, "Kakao's core values of a horizontal and rational culture are becoming increasingly authoritarian," adding, "This controversy should be an opportunity to reflect on the organizational culture."
Kakao said it is "checking the facts."