Officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, the Ministry of Intellectual Property and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups attend a presidential policy briefing session at Government Sejong Convention Center in Sejong, Wednesday. Yonhap
What drew the most attention at Wednesday’s presidential policy briefing by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources was Minister Kim Jung-kwan’s introduction of a task force organized within the ministry to eliminate at least 30 percent of “pseudowork.”
Inspired by a book by Dennis Normark and Anders Fogh Jensen, Kim said the ministry has been collecting feedback from employees since October to cut tasks that seem productive but create no real value.
“I told staff not to host events just for show, but the number of events under our ministry is beyond imagination,” he said. “Since all these events are funded by taxpayers’ money, we should refrain from organizing new ones.”
After drawing President Lee Jae Myung’s interest and prompting him to order other ministries to set up similar teams, Kim again emphasized his ministry’s efforts to reduce needless paperwork and overtime during a follow-up dinner with reporters later that day.
However, critics say the project to cut extra work is actually generating more of it.
“There are concerns that the government is creating unnecessary tasks by assigning officials to find unnecessary tasks to eliminate,” a central government official said on condition of anonymity.
The complaint reflects fatigue stemming from the unprecedented livestreaming of annual presidential policy briefings by ministries and public institutions.
Some government officials argue that the ongoing presidential event itself has created so-called pseudowork, as they have had to work late nights and weekends preparing for the briefing instead of handling their usual duties.
Tensions are particularly high in institutions led by officials appointed under former President Yoon Suk Yeol, given Lee’s aggressive and confrontational tone toward them during briefings.
“To collect data, prepare answers for every possible question and write press releases, I had to work on Sunday and couldn’t do my regular job,” another government official said.
A working-level official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs — nicknamed “ChatGPT on beans” for impressing the president with his recall of statistics on genetically modified crops — even prompted Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung to clarify via social media Thursday that the staffer had made factual errors during the briefing.
Despite the side effects, the presidential office has defended its decision to livestream the policy sessions, saying it helps the public understand how government policies are made.
Given mounting calls for the president to adopt a broader perspective and focus on urgent national issues, it may be time for him to consider whether he himself is creating pseudowork.
