The Shift That Never Clocked Out

The Team That Never Clocked Out

Kim Munsik looked at the line that read no scheduled clock out and laughed. It was a laugh with no sound. He started to fold the paper, then stopped. He was afraid that folding it would make the sentence disappear.

Doyun slid the paper into a clear file. "Don't fold it."

Baek Gijun picked up the radio. "Don't stop line 3 shipping. Team B stays on standby. Kim Munsik's case is under review on site."

Han Sua asked right away. "If Team B is on standby, do they still get paid?"

"Depends on the contract."

"Who's going to show us that contract?"

Baek Gijun lowered the radio. "If shipping falls behind now, the whole overnight delivery run gets delayed. If we lose the refrigerated stock, that's a big loss. Much bigger than the workers' day wages."

"So because the day wage is small, it's fine to push them?"

"That's not what I meant."

Seojin cut in between them. "We need to check the entire team that failed to scan out, not just Kim Munsik. If we only deal with him, someone else gets left behind."

Eunchae pulled the center's attendance log remotely. Seojin's account was blocked because of Oh Jeongho's exclusion memo, but Baek Gijun opened part of it using Daon's manager permissions. He kept trying to narrow what he showed. Employee number instead of name, code instead of company name, blank instead of wage.

"There are a lot of blanks," Seojin said.

"That's personal information."

"If you want to protect personal information, you use a substitute label. Leaving it blank can make someone look like they don't exist here at all."

Baek Gijun opened the monitor again. Partial name, company name, work team, number of clock-ins, clock-out status. He let only five columns show. In Team B, four people had failed to clock out. Kim Munsik, Raman, Park Seonyeong, Nguyen Thi Lan. All four were day laborers or dispatched workers. Oh Seungpil, a full-time employee, was marked as successfully clocked out at the same time.

Oh Seungpil bowed his head. "I did the same thing. But mine got scanned."

"Because you have an employee number," Eunchae said. "Full-time staff have a single key. For day laborers, the company app, the temporary QR code, and the on-site stamp all run separately."

Baek Gijun said, "That's why the site foreman is supposed to confirm it."

"Where is that foreman right now?"

No one answered right away. Han Sua pointed toward the door outside the break room. "He left a while ago, closed the door behind him. Said he'd take responsibility if shipping gets delayed."

The fire door leading to the warehouse was shut. The conveyor kept running on the other side. The display above the door should have read Team B on standby, but it actually said Team B working.

Doyun grabbed the door handle. "How many people are inside."

Oh Seungpil answered. "Twelve on the roster. Might actually be thirteen."

"Why do you say that?"

"There's always one more person visible at every shift change. But when you scan the barcodes, the count comes out right."

Baek Gijun blocked the door. "If we open it now, the refrigeration line temperature drops. Shipping delay is one problem, but there's a forklift running around in there."

"If we leave it closed, the people inside just keep working," Seojin said.

"If we open it, someone could get hurt."

This time Baek Gijun's words weren't just an excuse. A forklift reversing sound came from beyond the fire door. Doyun kept his hand on the handle and said, "Ring the bell first, and send the stop signal."

Baek Gijun looked at the emergency stop button. Next to it was a plastic cover. A small seal was fixed to the cover. Seal number 47-1. Seojin took a photo. She didn't attach any meaning to it.

"If I hit the emergency stop, the whole line halts. That's a huge loss," Baek Gijun said.

Han Sua stepped closer to him. "So it's a button that causes losses, which is why nobody's allowed to press it, and that's why it's sealed."

"It's to prevent safety malfunctions."

"Isn't it a malfunction when people can't clock out?"

Kim Munsik tried to get up from his chair. Doyun stopped him. "Stay seated. If you go back into the line, you'll still be marked as clocked in."

The moment those words ended, the break room speaker crackled on.

Team B worker Kim Munsik, please return to line 3.

Kim Munsik's wrist terminal vibrated. A new task assignment appeared on the screen. Refrigeration line 3, picking 12 items, time limit 4 minutes. A person with no scheduled clock out had just been given new work.

Eunchae said, "The system doesn't register the break room as a departure standby zone. Even while a worker is resting, it counts as active work."

"But it's a break room," Han Sua said.

"That's just the name. In the attendance code, it's a standby work zone."

Baek Gijun heard that and couldn't deny it right away. "That's for operational convenience..."

"Convenience is why people can't clock out," Seojin said.

Doyun opened the cover on the emergency stop button. A faint alarm sounded. Baek Gijun reached for it, then stopped. Pressing it meant a loss. Blocking it meant a person stayed trapped. Instead of choosing between the two, he walked to the fire door and locked it with his manager card.

"I'll get the forklift inside stopped first. The door stays closed for a moment."

"Don't close it."

The door's lock clicked faster than Seojin's words. On the display board, the words Team B working changed.

Team B, awaiting clock out.

For the first time, the word clock out appeared. Baek Gijun looked relieved. But then a clock in bell rang from inside the warehouse. It was the short bell that rang at the start of the night shift.

When the words next shift clocking in appeared, the people sitting in the waiting chairs outside the break room stood up. They hadn't even finished putting on their work clothes. Some had just poured water into their instant noodle cups, some had only one safety shoe on. The bell was calling them.

Seojin raised her hand. "The new shift, don't scan in yet."

A man said with an irritated look, "If I don't scan in, that's a late mark."

Baek Gijun cut in. "Hold on for a moment. I'll vouch for the attendance."

"With words?" Han Sua asked.

Baek Gijun gritted his teeth and spoke to the security office. "Team C's wait time is approved as an on site reason. No late marks. I'm keeping a radio recording of this."

At that, a few people sat back down. But not everyone. One man walked toward the clock in machine. He had the look of someone who couldn't afford to miss a day's wage. Doyun didn't block his path. Instead, he asked.

"Your name."

"Jo Daeseong."

"If you scan in now, Team B inside might not be able to come out. Are you still scanning in?"

Jo Daeseong stopped in front of the machine. "If I don't scan in, I can't go in. And I need to go in to get paid."

Seojin wrote that sentence down. New shift, social coercion: fear of a late mark, fear of lost wages. It wasn't that people who broke the rules were foolish, it was that money was what moved them.

Eunchae pulled up the Team B and Team C rosters side by side. The company codes for the four Team B workers who failed to clock out matched the company codes for the four Team C workers waiting to clock in. It wasn't a shift change, it was a structure where the next people from the same company covered the empty slots.

"If Team B doesn't leave, Team C comes in, and the system keeps the headcount steady," Eunchae said.

"Then where does Team B go?"

"On the record, standby. In reality, still working."

Baek Gijun cursed under his breath. This time Seojin didn't write down his words. Instead she wrote, company codes match, possible shift overlay.

Through the small window in the fire door, Park Seonyeong waved a hand. He seemed to be saying something, but the closed door swallowed the sound. Doyun didn't press his ear to the glass. Instead he lit up his phone screen and held up large letters.

Please write your name.

The workers inside wrote their names on the back of box labels. Kim Munsik, Raman, Park Seonyeong, Nguyen Thi Lan. Four sheets went up on the window. But when the scanner passed by inside, the names on the box labels turned into product codes. Refrigerated food codes.

Han Sua almost swore, then held it back. "If you write a name on a product label, it gets eaten as a product."

Seojin took out a fresh sheet of paper. A name tag meant for witnesses outside the door. Written on plain paper instead of a label, held up to be seen from outside the window. The workers inside nodded. It took several minutes just to find a position where the name wouldn't be read as a product.

During those few minutes, Baek Gijun hung up on the client company three times. He picked up on the fourth call. "There's a safety issue on site. I'll send over a report explaining the shipping delay."

The voice on the other end rose. Baek Gijun pulled the phone slightly away from his ear. Han Sua watched him.

"Record it. They're going to pin the whole thing on the workers later."

Baek Gijun pressed the call recording button. "Recording client pressure over shipping delay. Not the workers' fault."

Those words changed the scene a little. Jo Daeseong stepped back from the clock in machine. He put the lid back on his instant noodle cup. "So it's not a late mark, right?"

Baek Gijun couldn't dodge the answer. "No, it isn't. I'll leave my name on it."

Seojin wrote down Baek Gijun's name. His name wasn't a resolution yet. But it was a step in the direction of fewer blanks.

The clock in bell inside the fire door rang a third time. Each time it rang, the name tags for the four Team B workers slipped a little lower on the window. It wasn't that the tape holding them was weakening, it looked more like the paper itself was getting heavier. Doyun wedged his foot into the gap of the door. The person who had closed the door was Baek Gijun, and the person who had to open it was also Baek Gijun.

The people in Team C were anxious, each for a different reason. Jo Daeseong worried about the late mark, Le Thi Huyen from Vietnam worried about bus fare, the college student part timer Minjae worried about his morning class. None of them looked at the clock in machine because they wanted to work, but because there was something to lose if they didn't.

Seojin didn't leave Team C outside the case. "These people might not be victims yet. But there's a risk they'll be covered over by the next shift."

Eunchae saved the Team C roster separately. She split the file names so it wouldn't mix with Team B. Team_B_clock_out_failure, Team_C_clock_in_standby. Once the names were separated, the next shift clocking in text on the display flickered faintly.

Han Sua spoke to Team C. "If you don't scan in now and you lose pay for it, that needs to be written down. If it just gets blamed on an urban legend later, the company gets off the hook."

Le Thi Huyen's Korean was slow. She spoke through a phone translator. 'If I miss my bus, who pays for the taxi.' Seojin wrote the sentence down exactly as it was. The cost of stopping work wasn't some heroic loss, it was taxi fare.

Baek Gijun saw that note and sent a message to the accounting manager. Checking whether night standby transportation costs can be covered. No reply came right away. But the question stayed on record.

Inside the fire door, Park Seonyeong's name tag turned back into a product code. This time Doyun had the outside name tags held higher on the window. Once the height of the product labels was separated from the height of the people's names, the code conversion stopped. The scanner ate whatever was closer to the floor as product first. People's names had to stay at eye level. That simple difference in position worked like a safety rule.

Seojin wrote it down. Do not keep people's name tags at the same height as product labels. She marked it not as a conclusion, but as a temporary response.

Baek Gijun tried to write out temporary confirmation slips for the Team C workers on standby. There was no form for it. He wrote it out on a blank sheet of A4. Team C clock in standby, on site safety reason, no late marks. He signed his own name in the signature line. Jo Daeseong took a photo of the paper. Le Thi Huyen checked the content through her translator. Minjae asked if he could use it as proof of a late class arrival.

"I'll get the company stamp on it so you can use it," Baek Gijun said.

The stamp was inside the office. The office door was on the opposite side from the warehouse. When Baek Gijun tried to go alone, Doyun stopped him. "Don't go by yourself. The door could get closed while you're getting the stamp."

In the end, security guard Jang Yeongsik and Oh Seungpil went with him. While the three of them went to bring the stamp back, the clock in machine stayed quiet. It had become a situation where moving a stamp around was more dangerous than a person moving. Seojin wrote down even the witnesses to the stamp's journey. One document was all it took to keep Team C from being marked late.

When the stamp arrived, the company seal and Baek Gijun's name were pressed onto the Team C confirmation slip together. The next shift clocking in text on the display didn't disappear, but the word pending appeared next to the Team C standby count. Pending wasn't a resolution. But it wasn't a clock in either.

Jo Daeseong was about to fold the confirmation slip when he looked at Seojin. "Can I fold it?"

"Photo first, then fold, then check it again."

The letters didn't disappear even when the paper was folded. Even that small confirmation was necessary in this place. Le Thi Huyen added her signature next to her question about taxi fare. Minjae wrote down his morning class time. Team C's costs had entered the case too.

While the Team C confirmation slip was being made, the Team B name tags stayed on the window the whole time. When the tape came loose, the names slipped down too. Minjae tore a page from his own notebook to make a new backing for the tape. In effect, someone who hadn't clocked in yet was propping up the name tag of someone who couldn't clock out. Seojin wrote that action down. Team C witness participates in keeping Team B's name tags in place. For a moment, the structure of shifts covering each other was written in reverse.

Baek Gijun watched that and added one more line beneath the Team C confirmation slip. Standby workers are not to be used as replacements for those who failed to clock out. The sentence was blunt, but it was necessary. Only after seeing that line did Jo Daeseong step back completely from the clock in machine.

A new line appeared on the display.

Next shift clocking in.