Kun of WayV opened up about staffing issues at SM Entertainment. During a recent livestream, the group’s leader spoke honestly about the state of the company’s video editing team for WayV.
Kun didn’t hesitate to explain the situation clearly.
“Honestly, as far as I know, there’s really only one person editing content for our team right now,” he shared during the broadcast. He further shocked fans by saying, “All the videos you see are actually edited by just one person.”
He explained that the team originally had two editors, but after one left the company, they were never replaced. Now, a single person is carrying the entire workload for WayV’s content production.
The 30-year-old Chinese K-pop star admitted, “I feel really sorry for them.” He added, “There’s so much content piled up, countless videos waiting to be edited. I understand how difficult editing is—I really do. Especially when work stacks up like this, it’s genuinely brutal.”
Kun made it clear that he has “brought this up to the company frequently” and asked them to hire more people. He also warned SM Entertainment, “If you keep going like this, aren’t you just squeezing the last remaining person dry? One day they will be completely exhausted—how can they keep editing like that, right?”
He acknowledged that he does not fully understand why things are the way they are. “There are so many things I can’t understand right now, so many things I can’t comprehend about why everything has to operate this way.”
Former SM employees have previously described the environment as high-pressure with long hours. One review on Glassdoor mentioned that “long working hours, frequent weekend work, and overtime are common” with “tight deadlines and frequent last-minute changes.”
Another employee review was even more blunt: “over work us to the point I’m crying at least 3 times per week.”
Kun contrasted the current situation with better days in the past. “When we filmed Summer Talk, at least there was still a large staff back then,” he recalled.
The WayV leader also shed light on how content production teams function at SM—or at least how he understands it.
“The content production team sometimes works as a shared team for everyone, but occasionally splits up to support individual teams separately,” he explained. “The situation is actually quite complicated. I don’t even know how to explain it clearly to everyone.”
“There’s no easy way to fix this mess immediately,” Kun acknowledged. “That’s just how it is right now. But we will keep trying, keep fighting for better conditions.”
After the clips went viral on social media, fans are praising the Chinese K-pop star and calling him the perfect leader who looks out for others.
Some netizens are criticizing SM Entertainment for overworking staff and idols, calling it a “legendary mess.” A fan wrote, “SM is evil,” and the other commented, “Hopefully that one editor is not too stressed.”
Meanwhile, WayV released their 2nd special album, Eternal White, in early December 2025 and will make a comeback in the second quarter of 2026.
