SM Employees Are Fed Up: Artist not Protected, No Mental Health Care, Slow Payment

Recently, an employee of SM Entertainment published an article on Blind – a community for company workers in Korea, which requires users to prove themselves as real workers using corporate emails. 

In their article, the employee detailed various issues ongoing with SM Entertainment and received numerous agreements. 

To summarize, the issues addressed include: 

• No mental health care for employees and artists.
• Kwangya119 not really operating, just superficially addressing issues and giving out empty statements.
• Threatening to cut employees’ salaries if revenue does not increase.
• After Lee Soo-man left, company leaders rushed to make money without caring about the internal situation.
• Artists are not protected against harassment sasaeng fans and criticized on SNS to the point of wanting to retire.
• Regular employees also have their personal information leaked and are attacked on SNS.
• Overdue salaries without notification.

On the other hand, the full article published is as below: 

“Employees and artists are leaving.

If there have been people who have left the SM family regretfully because of malicious comments, then even if there’s nothing that can be done, shouldn’t the company prioritize those under its wings? 

Competitors have established clinics for internal employees and ensured that they can protect artists. However, here they created ‘Kwangya 119’ meaninglessly and never do anything but ‘forward it to the relevant department’. 

From the beginning, I knew after he (Lee Soo-man) left, some people couldn’t wait to rush in to make money. They threatened to cut employees’ salaries if revenue doesn’t increase. They only focus on making money without paying attention to many recent incidents. One member (idol) talked about their disappointment at the anniversary party while another member revealed they received disturbing messages and criticisms from sasaeng fans. If such a thing continues, how can they avoid developing a chronic issue? 

A director who built the company to what it is today has to endure malicious comments on SNS to the point of having to quit and declare retirement. All of these happened in just a few days. 

Now, even regular employees have their personal information stolen. When asked how to solve it, the company didn’t give a proper answer. Employees continue to work without any notification about salaries even though the deadline for payment has passed. The company may treat employees like garbage but can you please protect the artists? Who else do you want to leave? Whether it’s a few or many actions, just please do something. I’m really extremely worried.”

Responding to such an article, many people show agreement. Below are some relevant comments: 

• How many people have resigned? Is the number of resignations this month 70 people? There are rumors that it’s over 80 people. Does anyone know how many people have resigned recently?
• Does the company not know or is pretending not to know? Being destroyed just because of a few individuals yet the CEO does nothing? Under non-transparent management, they use power to oppress and cover up factionalism, complaints from employees are just a small part of it.
• The higher-ups have done nothing but create one mess after another 

Source: VKR, Blind