"Even second-year staff hold 100 million won in stock, we've thrown work-life balance out the window"... Post reveals mood inside SK hynix

As SK hynix Inc. continues to post record-breaking earnings, a post detailing how much company stock employees hold has been drawing attention online, according to Financial News.

On the 12th, screenshots of a post titled "Atmosphere inside SK hynix" spread rapidly across various online communities.
The post had been uploaded a day earlier, on the 11th, by a user on X (formerly Twitter) who identified himself as an SK hynix Inc. employee.
The original poster, referred to as Mr. A, wrote, "When I first joined the company, the share price was around 90,000 won. Back then, most people just felt like they were working at a typical large company, and the culture emphasized work-life balance," adding, "Some people in their 40s and 50s had bought company stock and were stuck with it, sighing over their losses."
He said the mood has changed dramatically over the past few years. "Since the year before last, the company has allowed employees to receive their Profit Sharing (PS) in company stock, and many employees signed up," he explained. "Those people are now holding company shares worth hundreds of millions of won."
He went on, "Right now, more than 50% of the people around me hold over 100 million won worth of company stock," adding, "There are even second-year employees who already have 100 million won." He then poked fun at himself, saying, "I sold everything at 200,000 won. I'm an idiot."

Mr. A continued, "Long story short, everyone has basically thrown work-life balance out the window this year for the sake of the company’s operating profit," and added, "Money really is scary. Everyone is working proactively and smiling." This is how he described the current atmosphere at the company.
When one commenter responded, "If you want employees to work like owners, you just have to reward them like owners," Mr. A replied, "The owners get more. Instead, it seems enough if you let people dream beyond just making a living."
Around 9 p.m. the same day, Mr. A posted another image titled "One-picture summary of the mood at SK hynix," giving netizens a laugh. The picture showed a man in a suit, apparently SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, holding a flag that read "hynix," while animal characters in company uniforms busily worked inside a semiconductor plant.
Netizens reacted with comments such as "Happy, willing 'dogs and pigs'" and "So fitting. 'Dogs and pigs' will move if you feed them (money)," finding the image amusing.

In fact, SK hynix Inc. recorded operating profit of 4.72063 trillion won last year, setting a new all-time high. Analysts say the surge in demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) amid the trend toward more advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems drove the strong performance.
Last month, Profit Sharing (PS) was paid out at a rate of 2,964%. For an employee with an annual salary of 100 million won, the bonus alone is said to have reached about 148.2 million won.
The securities industry expects the company’s operating profit for the first quarter of this year to exceed 2.8 trillion won, more than 280% higher than the same period a year earlier.
People who read the story commented, "If the rewards are solid, you can endure the hardship," "A sense of ownership ultimately comes from pay and benefits," "If you pay properly, Koreans will voluntarily work even harder," and "You could still smile and work even if your work-life balance collapses."


sms@fnnews.com Reporter Sung Min-seo Reporter