Leaked posts reveal the growing chaos inside SM after "Lee Soo-man" scandal airs on national news in Korea

Article: "The uproar on SM 'Blind' right now"

Source: Pann

[Context] On the 3rd, SM announced their new 'SM 3.0' vision where they plan to replace Lee Soo-man's management style with a new multi-production/label system. On the 5th, singer-actor Kim Min-jong wrote a lengthy email to staff expressing his frustrations over Lee Soo-man being "kicked" out by the current CEOs (Lee Seong-soo and Tak Young-joon). His "letter" resulted in chaos and uproar inside the company with executives, artists, and staff on opposite ends of the new reform plan. 

Staff began writing posts on SM's bulletin board on Blind expressing their frustrations over Kim Min-jong's letter and stated they're in support of the new 3.0 plan because SM is getting left behind in the industry with their uninspiring productions in past years especially with the 4th gen idol era. 

Below is quick summary of the leaked posts and growing anger over Kim Min-jong's email.

1. Lee Soo-man left SM.
2. People who stuck next to him and received bonuses are the ones saying SM without Lee Soo-man doesn't make sense.
3. The employees on the bottom are the ones working like dogs and are the ones upset.

<Blind

@ illillliol

What are you talking about...

 
Unfair? When he hasn’t once listened to employee grievances about low salaries but he’s out giving incentives and throwing parties over stock prices? How long has it been already since we demanded reform but you’re asking we treat him with respect??

 
From our point of view, a company that makes changes and listens to opinions of its employee is the best company.

 
I understand the desperation you must be feeling to send an email like this under your name, but most employees here have never once received proper treatment by this company so its hard for us to sympathize with the contents of your email.

 
[+18]

 
[Top Comments]

@haaappppy
If communication was possible, it would’ve happened earlier on. Expecting the whole company to move on a teacher’s words?? Is there even a path for communication?

@lloy
Anyway, I think our company needs change and it’s difficult for that to happen as long as teacher Lee Soo-man is there...

@lllii1liq
From now on, the only suffocation should be from change

@zcDW67

I read the email again and I find it even more ridiculous now... In that last line, is he really asking us to give teacher LSM the respect he deserves?? Who does he think he is? Is he really aiming this at usㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ?

@wjdjdjjd
I found out through email that secretary office salaries were excluded from wage increase. But of course they went on and on about personality etc.. ㅋㅋㅋ

@abSc87
Why are teachers allowed to have secretaries when they don't even care to pay them?? And then saying it's because the teacher's secretary isn't an affiliate of SM?

<blind

@zqsaragsg

Why are you sending me this kind of email?

I seriously don't understand why a singer-actor is sending out an email like this? And at dawn on the weekend?? Were you ordered to do this by the manager?

..Just found out he belongs to our company. It's so ridiculous that an SM family artist is doing something like this. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. Does he think this is going to persuade anyone?

Secretary wages have been stagnant for years but its strange he's the first to receive his paychecks?? And what if you don't agree with the co-CEO's plans?? I could care less what you want or what you're even trying to convince anyone of ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Employees are more worried about making ends meet with their positions so please stop with trying to complicate our lives by sending emails like this.

I'm going to pretend I didn't see this (the manager that crafted this email sure worked hard.. take care of your health)

< blind

[Anonymous]

I was going to hold it in.. 

No.. do you even know what you're talking about? And sending me an email at dawn?? I'm seriously pissed over this chaos sh*t.. f*ck off because you're not any help right now.

All employees and artists are in shock?? Write down those employees and artists names and send that email again!!

Everyone else at headquarters is staying still so why are rabbits from affiliate companies crawling out?

Are you stressed your affiliate company is going to get shut down?? Whether you work hard or not doesn't matter. You'll get thrown here and there like Ahn Cheol-soo if you don't produce results. I guess you haven't been at this for a long time.

Well, I don't know how well you know this company and how deeply involved you are but it's the employees who made this agency. All he [Lee Soo-man]'s done is sit down, sprinkle tickets around and drank wine. What the hell do you know?? F*cking annoying sending us this on the weekend too.

I don't know 100% if it's you that crafted this email yourself or if you were forced to do it but if you had good morals or character you should've refused to put this out!

I don't need an actor to tell me how I should feel. I'm on the side of re-organization!!

<blind

[Anonymous] 

Everyone is going to die if you keep doing this.. 

Kim Min-jong hyung, is this really you? I didn't realize you were such a good writer. If you hadn't revealed it was you hyung, I would've thought a writer or lawyer wrote this.

Hyung, I just want to ask, do you really believe what you're writing? Did you really write this letter yourself? 

I doubt you wrote this on your own free will!

This writing is too rough and clunky, someone must've told you to do this for them.. no?

If not... it honestly doesn't seem like you wrote this so I'm wondering what you were doing or where your frame of mind was? No celebrity is going to spend their weekend writing emails like this at dawn?

All employees are already shaken up and confused.. we don't need even more chaos.

Aren't you embarrassed?  

You can't judge the situation from what's playing out in the media and news reports right now?

You should've put this out separately.

You're probably working hard at your job, right? In this situation, which you yourself call a "crisis," the best any of us staff can do is just that..

That's why.

So please just concentrate on yourself and your job as an actor!

<blind

ㅋ

I guess teacher LSM is lost on the path to take..

Seeing us as you're sending us polls to feel out the public opinion ㅋㅋㅋ

Really ugly of him 

*Let's start with cleaning up things used as a shield on the backs of teacher LSM, incompetent unit leaders, useless departments + Kim Min-jong hyung first.

[📢Shout out] 1 million won congratulatory money if you change your job now.

[Replies]

@unit jjang*

Reps, let's do our best to clear out the corruptions ~ 

1. [+508, -5] Once Lee Soo-man is completely out, the 3 people that are going to get hit the most and hardest are Kim Min-jong, BoA, and Kangta. They were Lee Soo-man's pet favorites too. When Lee Soo-man was still there, those 3 were treated like Directors so it makes sense they're going to take the most hits in the future. Anyway, f*ck off with subunits like Got The Beat. Make sure you don't do any more subunits like that ever! If you get an itch for another another unit Kangta, BoA, and U-Know Yunho suit each other well.
2. [+475, -8] Get rid of all the dead weight firstㅋㅋㅋ.. that's what all of us including artists have been saying.
3. [+312, -1] Go on Naver and search 'Lee Soo-man' and read all the articles getting put out. Lee Soo-man is the largest shareholder at SM but hasn't held an in-house position since 2010 after he established his private production company Like Planning and siphoned off 30% of SM's operating profits. Since he's the founder and major shareholder, he got tasked with all the work. Usually, if corporate profits are good, employees get incentives and shareholders receive dividends but SM staff have been on measly wages with zero perks and cash incentives for a long time now so of course his "letter" wasn't going to be well received? And what masterpieces has Lee Soo-man been producing exactly? Kwangya mess, Naevis, Black mamba plagiarisms, infinite expansions of NCT??? He has turned NCT into an infinite meme with China Hollywood dreams임
4. [+278, -0] It exploded this time because Kim Min-jong sent out that lengthy email but even before then, there has already been a lot of talks inside. This isn't just rumor within the industry.. honestly there's no hope.
5. [+231, -2] I thought he resigned because of his age but it looks like there are issues internally..?
6. [+198, -27] This is not the time for NCT fans hot takes ㅋㅋㅋ The biggest benefactors from Lee Soo-man being at the helm has been Kangta, BoA, and NCT itself ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. That's why the minute Lee Soo-man got kicked they announced they're launching a new male idol group after 7 years ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Once NCT made their debut he should've got back to the drawing board and prepared plans for their next rookie idol while their current groups continued to dominate the industry but he missed the golden hour and handed over the idol throne for male and female groups to other agencies ㅋㅋㅋ He kept on with his obsessions over NCT and didn't try to put out anything new. ㅋㅋㅋ. Isn't the best vision and plan one that includes a new idol group every 2-3 years..? It's already been 7 years since NCT ㅋㅋㅋ The only thing left is to put NCT on back burner now and focus on a new rookie male idol group.
7. [+181, -2] Well, Lee Soo-man can still stay on and provide his advice from time to time, there's no need for Lee Soo-man's pet kids to lose their brains over him retiringㅋㅋ. At this point, any idol groups or celebrities in the red should get disbanded. 
8. [+170, -3] BoA, Kangta, U-Know Yunho... the 3 that deserve to get kicked.. 
9. [+142, -2] I'm not sure about all else but please sort out idols that are bottlenecks inside SM! Especially those kids that are causing a lot of damage within the teams. Anytime you look, they keep trying to crawl out and are just pissing off the fans and the public. Stop with the mess and kick them out!!!
10. [+139, -2] Start with celebrities inside SM first. There are a lot of forgotten singers that haven't been able to work for years due to illnesses, scandals, and everything else. Is this a charity or a for-profit agency? If they're no longer profitable it's only right that they get kicked. Even if they're a singer who brought the company glory in the past, this is not the case now!!! The proper structure for an agency is one that is able to turn a profit. SM already has so many famous celebs and idols it's only right to focus on investing in the future and stop living in the past. Just look at Sony who got drunk of their past glory during the Walkman era and didn't keep up with smartphone market and ended up a flop in the industry.
11. [+133, -2] SM is going to be in ruins if they don't make a change this time.. Rather than relying on personal loyalties, focus on a proper structure and come up with a strong long-term plan.
12. [+122, -2] He probably tried to negotiate another management seat on his way out too f*ck ㅋㅋㅋㅋ isn't he embarrassed overdoing things to this level ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋthere's nothing more tiring than a washed out celeb trying to hold onto their past fame ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
13. [+115, -69] When is the idol market going to implode? There's nothing to listen to anymore because fans are lining up the charts with idol music..