Clocking in gets you overtime.

A: Hey, did you finish editing that video from yesterday? Wasn’t the supervisor saying they wanted to use it as some kind of “corporate culture promotional material”?

B: Yep, finished it on my laptop. Then afterward I was told, “Why didn’t you add the company logo to this part? If you’re not creating value, who’s going to take the fall for you?”

A: Hey, hey, hey—isn’t “who’s going to take the fall” the same thing they said to you last time? I remember you only asked, “Who made this request?” and then the whole conference room went silent. The blame-shifting competition had officially begun.

B: Exactly—the Olympic gold medalist of blame-shifting. Then the next day, someone came over to me and said, “Why haven’t you been helping at all? My friend couldn’t handle it, so they came to you. This is really important, so you need to help out more.” The tone changed 180 degrees. I almost thought the fish in my aquarium had started talking.

A: Cool!! You have an aquarium too! Lately I’ve started feeling that my fish are much more stable than our department. At least they don’t emotionally blackmail me every day.

B: Exactly. And they don’t put on an act before the morning meeting every day, pretending, “I’m so busy,” while secretly watching dramas on their laptop.

A: Speaking of that, I saw someone in the Marketing Department watching dramas and sleeping at the same time—and they still got promoted. I suspect the three secrets to their promotion were: watching dramas, taking naps, and inappropriate relationships between men and women.

B: Seriously, whenever I see the supervisor’s expression change (Wistron), I play dead like a fish. Otherwise, you really never know whether they came in to shift the blame or go crazy today.

A: Seriously, the company even dares to call that benefit a “benefit.” If you stay for less than a year, you still have to pay the money back. That’s basically leasing your life, isn’t it?

B: I also saw that recent article about workplace PUA. Comparing it with our situation—oh my god, we’re not just being PUA’d; we’re being beaten up by an entire PUA coaching team.

A: This company isn’t looking for talent at all. It’s waiting for some free laborer who can take the blame, and then it’ll edit the video into “We’re a loving company.”

B: (sighs) I really want to hide in my aquarium. At least there’s no clock-in system in there.