The Horror of Work You Can't Quit [Slate]

Netflix's "Dream Part-Time Job"
A labor horror series that twists ordinary workplaces into internet horror stories

There is usually a catch behind an excessively high hourly wage. Some people know this and still take the plunge. Those burdened by debt are a prime example. For them, money is not a choice but a condition of survival. Byeon Hyeokjun (Lee Jae-wook), in the Netflix series "Dream Part-Time Job," is no different. A jeonse rental fraud leaves him with more than 100 million won in debt. Just as he is about to jump from a bridge over the Han River, he spots a flyer for a high-paying part-time job. Fifty times the usual hourly wage. With his back against the wall, he has no reason to turn it down.

A still from Netflix's "Kkulalba."

The jobs Byeon Hyeokjun is offered at the Geomi Manpower staffing office are ordinary work: night shifts at a convenience store, milk delivery, and late-night shifts at a movie theater. But each workplace has strange rules that must be followed. Break one, and the workplace becomes a threat to your survival. The protagonists of most horror stories would try to escape, but Byeon Hyeokjun holds on until his shift ends. His goal is not to defeat a monster, but to earn his day's pay. Staying alive is the bare minimum required to get paid for his work.

This premise resembles the conventions of internet horror stories, in which people must obey rules for no apparent reason. "Dream Part-Time Job" connects this surrealism to the realities of labor in South Korea. The monsters appear in places where anyone can work: convenience stores, movie theaters, and delivery sites. The horror unfolds in the middle of everyday life. Its roots lie not in the monsters, but in the conditions of work. Employers decide everything, from the nature of the work to the level of risk. Marx called the state in which workers cannot control their labor and are estranged from both the process and its results "alienation from labor." The only choices left to them are to follow the rules or risk their lives.

Lee Chung-gil (Lee Hee-jun), owner of the Geomi Manpower staffing office, makes little effort to hide this structure. "We have to offer sacrifices to save more people. That's how the world works." The line brings to mind Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Omelas's peace is maintained through the suffering of a child locked in a basement. Most of the citizens know this, yet choose to look away. The world of "Dream Part-Time Job," where other people's peaceful daily lives depend on someone else's dangerous overnight labor, is no different.

Netflix's "Kkul Alba" still cut.

In this system, wages are the means by which workers are induced to make sacrifices. Pay that is 50 or 200 times the usual hourly wage looks like compensation for the danger. In reality, it is just bait to lure in people who are desperate. The poorer people are, the harder it is for them to turn down dangerous work; the more they do it, the more they become dependent on the higher daily pay. The reasons Byeon Hyeokjun returns to work even after nearly dying are his ever-growing debt, interview shoes for his younger sister Byeon Jiyoon (Kim Min-ha), and the hospital bills for his friend Kwak Byeongcheol (Lee Seok-hyeong), who was injured in an industrial accident. When Byeon Jiyoon takes a late-night shift at the movie theater to look for her brother, she is asked if she is afraid of ghosts. She replies that poverty is scarier. Monsters may be avoidable, but the pressures of making a living are not.

Director Kim Damin makes good use of the appeal of horror anthologies, introducing a different setting, monster, and set of rules in each episode. The second half, however, leaves something to be desired: it focuses too heavily on explaining the identity of Geomi Manpower and the otherworldly setting. The story of the missing father and the women who worked in the textile mill also goes no further than illustrating how labor is repeated across generations. Most of all, the series fails to clearly reveal who is putting the workers in danger.

The final scene offers a clue. In a recorded message, Lee Chung-gil asks Byeon Hyeokjun to run Geomi Manpower in his place. A young man who has endured dangerous work is invited to take a position distributing it. This can be read as a hint that the workers are put in danger not by a particular villain, but by a system that keeps running by drawing survivors back in. In "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," a few citizens who learn the truth leave Omelas without a word. The workers in "Dream Part-Time Job" are not even allowed to leave.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.