You're Fired !

23

Eventually, Lisa felt deflated, she looked at Jungkook, “I heard from my colleagues that you never advocate corporate settlement. As their legal attorney, your plan is to let the company have the upper hand in the end every time. Once the employee did anything wrong, you will be ruthless to the very end, leaving absolutely no room for negotiation. Even if it is a ‘settlement’, it is actually an unilateral victory for you. I really shouldn’t be so naive as to come to you and talk about getting you to back off. The word humanity doesn’t exist in your dictionary.”

“The company actually hired you for a fraction of the attorney’s fees and effort, and you could have easily handled the matter.”

Lisa couldn’t help thinking of her father, with a sore feeling she said, “Shin is wrong, but it is not that he has never thought of asking for leave through the normal process. If the company was more humane at that time, instead of snarling at him, they could have been more calm and understanding of his situation, notice the plight of Shin’s family, and offered some help then maybe he would not have at all taken the risk to do this kind of thing…”

Lisa’s remarks were almost a one-sided complaint, she didn’t expect Jungkook to pay any attention to herself anymore, yet to her surprise, Jungkook opened his mouth instead.

“Do you think being amiable is great? Does business operation management depend on friendly human behavior? If you believe in humanity so much, then why are you still a lawyer?” His voice changed from the coldness of a moment ago to full-on sarcasm and contempt, “You always thought that this case did not have the best outcome, didn’t you? You think it’s not economical at all to spend money and time to find a lawyer like me. You always use whether it’s economical or not as a criterion to judge. I believe that when you give legal advice to your clients, you consider the same way, if this solution is cost-effective or not?”

Lisa frowned as she got a bit angry, “Shouldn’t we as lawyers give reasonable and cost-effective solutions? Isn’t it faster and cheaper to settle than to persuade clients to spend money and time on litigation? Wouldn’t it amount to a litigation scam if you drag a case for no purpose? I know it’s better for lawyers to persuade clients to litigate than to settle inorder to earn more money for representation, but I can’t do that, and I’m not going to cheat my clients out of their attorney fees.”

“You don’t understand what litigation is all about.” Jungkook gave a cold laugh, “The meaning of litigation is the bottom line of the principle of justice. Should we balance the cost of firing people and the value for money and let those malicious employees off easily because it’s troublesome and not cost-effective?”

“You think companies just like firing people? Firing anyone, even if you fire a fool, means bringing chaos and disruption to your own business. Enforcing the decision to fire an employee is tough. A fired employee with a grudge may retaliate against the business, and a friend of that employee who is still employed may similarly disagree with the company.”

“Dismissal also means that there are vacancies in your company. The company must go through the process of recruiting, hiring, and grooming the new employees again. This takes a lot of energy and there is no guarantee that the newly recruited employees will work any good. So many companies are forced to have no choice, in the end, for the cost-effectiveness you are pursuing, they can only make do with those employees who are not so good and don’t bother to expel them. But is this right?

Jungkook looked at Lisa “You work in the field of labour law, but what surprises me is that you don’t understand the operations of running a business at all, you don’t know anything about business models, and you don’t understand what is the mindset of business owners.”

Lisa subconsciously argued, “I don’t like representing businesses, I’ve represented only employees because they are more vulnerable and I just want to help the more vulnerable groups to fight for their legal rights!”