Usage of 실장님
I'm reading business emails ramping up on the engagement I'm taking on. There is a lot of vocabulary I'm not accustomed to. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions, and learn a lot these next couple of months :).

I see one guy who always addresses another as: "연실장님"

If I understand it right, it's like saying "Mr Yeon, office boss." (Of course, if that is right, we have no equivalent term in English, I think.)

So my questions are: Do I understand the term right? Correct me if I am not right.

How frequently is this term used? Or in what circumstances.

Thank you.

Question

Usage of 실장님
I'm reading business emails ramping up on the engagement I'm taking on. There is a lot of vocabulary I'm not accustomed to. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions, and learn a lot these next couple of months :).

I see one guy who always addresses another as: "연실장님"

If I understand it right, it's like saying "Mr Yeon, office boss." (Of course, if that is right, we have no equivalent term in English, I think.)

So my questions are: Do I understand the term right? Correct me if I am not right.

How frequently is this term used? Or in what circumstances.

Thank you.

Answer

You are right. "연" is just his or her last name and "실장" is literally a head of the office or the person representing the office. (실 is a Chinese character, which means "room, house, space" 장 is also a Chinese character, which means "top person or head" as you may know.)

I think there is no clear-cut answer on what occasions we need to call a person "실장님". It just depends on what size of the company, what industry the company is in and how they like to name or position employees.

So there are some small companies where the owner wants to be called "실장". It makes sense because he is the head of the office. In other companies, "실장" can be a senior manager or manager, generally.