Ex-employee exposes hospital culture after radiographer in her 20s found dead: 'Six-day weeks, called "hey, you" daily'

A former employee has come forward to expose the military-style organizational culture and poor working conditions at a general hospital in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, where a radiographer in her 20s was found dead after alleging workplace harassment.

A, a radiographer in her 20s who worked at the hospital for about two months, said she was repeatedly told to comply because "it's a military-style culture." She said staff were required to eat together at the cafeteria even if they did not want to, and that colleagues were sometimes addressed not by the respectful "teacher" title but with blunt informal terms equivalent to "hey," "you," or "that one."

Working conditions also differed from what was stated in her employment contract. Although the contract specified a start time of 8:30 a.m., employees were expected to arrive by 7:30 a.m. — an hour earlier. She also said she was told the job involved working alternate Saturdays, but in practice staff came in six days a week.

An early-arrival, early-departure system existed on paper, but it did not apply to new employees, she said. Lunch breaks lasted only about 30 minutes, and staff were expected to return immediately to the office after eating.

A said the hardest part was an organizational culture in which employees were scolded or humiliated in front of others. When mistakes occurred at work, the response was public reprimand rather than guidance on the correct approach. She said B, the female radiographer in her 20s who died last month, was likely exposed to similar working conditions, and added that the workload at the health screening center where B was assigned was also considerable.

B, a woman in her 20s, had worked at the hospital for about a month before she was found dead Sunday in a flower bed outside an apartment building in Gunsan.

Her family has alleged workplace harassment, saying B had cried while saying she did not want to go to work and had told friends she was struggling.

The North Jeolla Provincial Police Agency's wide-area crime investigation unit is conducting a forensic examination of B's mobile phone to determine whether workplace harassment occurred.

The hospital said it has commissioned an outside labor attorney to conduct an investigation and asked that people refrain from hasty criticism of its culture until the results are available.