I Only Spoke Up, And My Place Disappeared
I Spoke Up — And Lost My Place
A story about someone I once worked with.
Suddenly Removed from the Team
A was a Product Manager.
He was deeply passionate about his work,
often coming into the office alone on weekends,
thinking through problems by himself.
After returning from a one-week business trip overseas,
he came into the office and was informed immediately.
He was removed from the team.
And then came another instruction.
He was assigned to a newly created unit
that handled only miscellaneous paperwork.
There had been no prior notice.
No explanation.
A was simply stunned.
Why Did A Start Speaking Up?
A was a PM in the development team,
effectively the team’s second-in-command.
He constantly worried that the team wasn’t functioning properly.
The problems were clear.
Projects were started randomly,
but almost none were properly completed.
Headcount had increased,
but task allocation was a mess—
some people studied on their own,
some nodded off, some read webtoons.
Development assets that should have been managed centrally
weren’t even uploaded to servers,
treated instead like personal property.
And the product’s core issues
were continuously pushed aside.
A spoke with the development team lead several times,
emphasizing the need for proper management.
But nothing changed.
When he raised the same concerns again,
the team lead finally responded:
You might be wrong.
Voices were raised.
After that, A stopped speaking.
But his thoughts didn’t change.
The root cause, in his mind,
was weak leadership and a lack of management.
Why Did He Go to the CEO?
A was one of the early members of the business unit.
He was straightforward by nature.
He believed that for the business unit to succeed,
the troubled development team had to function properly.
That meant the team lead needed to change—
and if change wasn’t possible,
replacement was necessary.
It was a sincere belief.
A genuine desire for the company to do well.
So he gathered his courage
and went to see the CEO.
He spoke not only about the development team’s problems,
but about the issues across the entire business unit.
After the meeting,
A left for another overseas business trip.
After the Meeting, Everything Changed
Because the issues raised weren’t limited to the development team,
the CEO began calling people in.
The development lead.
The sales lead.
The production lead.
The head of the business unit.
If what A said was true,
none of them could avoid responsibility.
Each manager explained, logically,
why A’s claims were incorrect.
And soon,
the focus shifted.
The problem wasn’t the organization.
It was A.
The combined opinions of three team leads and the unit head
seemed far more persuasive
than A’s lone voice.
The CEO began to focus less on what was said
and more on who said it.
He doesn’t integrate well into the organization.
He’s too opinionated.
He’s not suitable for a PM role that requires coordination.
The Outcome Came Quickly
Within a week of returning from his trip,
A was removed from his PM role.
After that,
he was no longer given any meaningful responsibilities.
A realized he had been discarded,
and eventually left the company.
Was A Wrong to Speak Up?
That company was my third one.
Coincidentally, all three worked on the same type of product.
The first company collapsed due to quality issues
right after product launch.
The second company succeeded with its first product,
but failed when new product development fell apart.
Having witnessed two failures,
A’s warnings felt painfully realistic to me.
The outcome followed a familiar pattern.
Revenue declined year after year.
The development team’s high salaries—
nearly half of the entire unit’s headcount—
deepened operating losses.
As the second-in-command in sales and customer support,
I avoided entering the development office.
What are all these people actually doing?
The product problems remained,
while some people dozed off or read webtoons,
a few worked endlessly,
and others stayed idle without consequence.
What Does “Speaking Up” Mean at Work?
At the second failed company,
B and I were early members.
The company grew from less than one billion won in revenue
to forty billion,
and many external hires joined.
The CEO and B, once close like friends,
began clashing frequently in meetings.
Gradually,
B was excluded from those meetings.
Eventually,
someone new was placed above him.
B left the company.
I watched the entire process unfold.
The dictionary definition of speaking up is:
To state one’s honest thoughts about what is right and wrong.
But real workplaces are different.
Executives are still human.
Most people don’t easily change their minds.
Expecting others to think the way you do
just because you spoke up
is naïve.
In Companies, Speaking Up Is About Order, Not Content
Many people believe speaking up
is about right versus wrong.
But in companies,
it’s usually about timing and order.
Is this the stage where this can be said?
Has internal consensus already been formed?
Or are you moving ahead alone?
A was right about the content—
but he skipped the order.
Only Certain People Can Afford to Speak Up
Very few people can speak up safely.
If the work can’t run without you.
If the organization is prepared to lose you.
If someone powerful will protect you.
Without at least one of these,
speaking up becomes a bomb.
The Illusion of “It’s Okay to Say This”
The CEO nodded.
The manager said, “That’s a good point.”
The meeting atmosphere didn’t feel hostile.
But that wasn’t agreement.
It was politeness.
A nod in a meeting
doesn’t mean the decision has changed.
There Are Still Times You Must Speak
Even so,
there are moments when silence isn’t an option.
When it’s a legal issue.
When safety or quality is directly at risk.
When responsibility will eventually fall entirely on you.
That isn’t speaking up.
It’s self-defense.
If you stay silent then,
you may never be able to speak again.
Conclusion
In life,
there are moments when speaking up is necessary.
But if your goal is to change someone,
it’s better to let go.
Just as you and I don’t change easily,
organizations change even less.
Every act of speaking up
meets resistance from those with greater power.
That resistance isn’t about right or wrong.
It’s about position and authority.
Cross the line,
and your place
quietly disappears.
Just like A.
If you still choose to speak up,
think about the order first—
not the content.
댓글
댓글 쓰기