A former employee of popular children’s YouTuber Hey Jini, who has more than 4 million subscribers, has alleged that excessive working hours led to serious mental health problems, including panic disorder and even a suicide attempt.
In a lengthy online post, the former employee, identified only as A, claimed to have worked up to 16 hours a day for an annual salary of 20 million won (about $15,000) without overtime pay. A said their condition was officially recognized as work-related in January 2020 and that they continue to receive psychiatric treatment.
According to A, they had been longtime friends with Hey Jini before joining her company in December 2016 to work on a Chinese-language channel. However, A claimed they ended up managing nearly every aspect of production, including scriptwriting, translation, voice actor recruitment, dubbing, editing and uploads.
Despite a salary increase to 21 million won, A said they regularly worked weekends and holidays, with repeated requests for additional staff going unanswered. They submitted their resignation in October 2018 and were diagnosed with panic disorder, depression and social anxiety after experiencing breathing difficulties while working overtime the following month.
A also accused the company of initially offering to support their workers’ compensation claim before submitting a statement disputing the connection between their illness and working conditions. They further alleged that Hey Jini offered them 4 million won personally in exchange for dropping the claim.
“I couldn’t accept that someone who had personally witnessed how severe my panic attacks were at work would question my illness,” A wrote, referring to how the company used a trip they took during a leave to cast doubt on their condition.
A said their workers’ compensation claim was approved in January 2020 after approximately a year of review, but their condition continued to deteriorate, leading to a suicide attempt that April.
The former employee also criticized Hey Jini’s portrayal as a boss who does not require overtime on the KBS variety show Boss in the Mirror, saying it contradicted their experience.
In an earlier statement reported by Sisa Journal, the company maintained that A’s duties had been mutually agreed upon and that an all-inclusive employment contract accounted for the difficulty of tracking work hours. It also claimed that flexible arrangements, including remote work, were available.
A rejected that account, stating, “I never worked from home, not even for a single day.”
“I didn’t write this to criticize or attack any particular person,” A concluded. “I wanted to share the working conditions I experienced firsthand, the workers’ compensation process and what happened to me along the way.”
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