Park Hyun-jung, president and CEO of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, is under fire over allegations that she sexually harassed employees, verbally assaulted them and abused her power in hiring and promotion decisions.
Insiders of the Seoul-government funded orchestra say Park tried to touch a male employee’s genital area in October last year by pulling him by his necktie at a public dinner gathering after drinking an excessive amount of alcohol.
“From the look of you, I think you will do well as a (bar) hostess,” she was also quoted as saying to a female employee during a meeting.
A petition filed against her reveals that Park told two other female employees at the meeting that they should serve important guests by sitting next to them and doing the duty of bar girls. [Korea Observer]
The orchestra head has spoken out on the accusations and blames her attempt to change the culture in the orchestra that was wasting tax payer dollars for the accusations against her:
“First, I would like to express my deepest apologies for disappointing many of the orchestra’s supporters and fans as well as Seoul citizens,” she said in her opening remarks, subsequently detailing what she had witnessed since her appointment last year that had caused her to “be somewhat aggressive toward her staff members.”
She added that it was difficult for her to “try and tackle the whole system head-on, which has been running like maestro Chung’s private organization [rather than] a proper public organization.”
“I was so shocked when I realized that the orchestra had been operating like some sort of club rather than a public organization,” she said. “I’ve been trying to reorganize this slothful and idle culture where there’s no line between public and private matters.
“That, of course, created conflict between me and other employees, who are so … comfortable with the current system.”
“The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra runs on citizens’ tax money and I was shocked to see how that money had been spent,” Park continued, adding that she could not tolerate “Chung’s overgrown bureaucracy.”
“I now understand why my predecessor didn’t choose to extend his three-year term and why the post had been vacant for nearly a year,” she said.
Park went on to list the maestro’s alleged wrongdoings, including an instance when his secretary approached her to ask whether the orchestra would finance hotel charges while Chung’s house was being renovated, an inquiry that was reportedly made at the request of the maestro’s wife.
“I was shocked by the fact that his secretary, an employee of the orchestra, actually came to me to ask,” she said. “I found out that the orchestra once had paid for the hotel charges while their house was being renovated many years ago. He had to pay it back when it was revealed in the audit, but asking for it again really shocked me.”
She may not have wanted more cowbell…
…but it sure seems she wanted more organ.
Damn, I’ve never been sexually harassed…and its starting to piss me off.
Nice ass, Mcgeehee.
I’d warm up in her pit.
The orchestra head has spoken out on the accusations and blames her attempt to change the culture in the orchestra that was wasting tax payer dollars for the accusations against her:
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2998179&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1
Sounds like the only time she touched anyone’s ass was to give them a spanking.