"I Can Burn You Until You Are Nothing": Bereaved Family Shares Stories of Workplace Bullying

"I can burn a new recruit until they are nothing." This is the verbal abuse that the late Kang (27), a nurse who passed away at her home on June 2, allegedly heard from a senior nurse while working at a hospital in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, according to her bereaved family.

Kang's mother, Kim, burst into tears while explaining the "taeum" her daughter suffered during a phone call with the media on July 7.

"Taeum" is a slang term in the nursing industry that refers to a culture where senior nurses harass and bully new recruits under the guise of training. It is known to be derived from the expression "burning someone until they become ash."

"My daughter said that while she was entering data, a senior who was playing games on her phone behind her mentioned the 'burning' caused by taeum, as if she wanted my daughter to hear it," Kim said. "My daughter came home that day trembling and sobbing, saying, 'I don't even know how I finished my shift.'"

Kang did not struggle with hospital life from the beginning.

According to her mother, Kang was assigned to the emergency room after joining the hospital in February 2023.

The family explained that she was quick to learn her duties and adapted well to the field, earning praise from her seniors.

Kang, who dreamed of becoming a nurse after listening to a lecture by a professional nurse during her third year of high school, went on to nursing college and secured a job immediately after graduation.

"My daughter was such a hardworking student that her professors wrote her letters of recommendation for hospital employment. Even after she started working, she did so well that seniors praised her, saying things like, 'We got an ace' and 'Just keep doing what you are doing,'" Kim said. "It was a time when she worked happily, even while being incredibly busy."

However, the family claims that Kang began to experience taeum about two months after she joined the hospital.

Kim explained that the incident began when an on-duty doctor offered to buy drinks for the nurses and asked Kang, the youngest, to take the orders.

A senior nurse took issue with the fact that Kang was sitting on a common, backless round stool found in hospitals while taking the orders.

"One of the people who usually led the bullying said, 'Does it make sense for someone with her level of experience to be sitting there?' and gave her a hard time. That was the first instance of harassment," Kim said.

Kim claims that the bullying against Kang intensified after that.

"My daughter said that after the drink order incident, she was often ignored by seniors even when she greeted them," Kim said. "She confided that she was frequently criticized for different ways of handling tasks, and when she asked questions because she wanted to do better, she was either scolded or received no response at all."

The family explained that starting in May of that year, Kang appealed to the head nurse, the leader of the nurses, several times, but nothing changed significantly other than a temporary adjustment of her work schedule for about two months.

"My daughter was depressed, saying, 'I can't even do things I'm usually good at when I'm in front of that senior (identified as the perpetrator of the bullying),'" Kim said. "Then, she was deeply shocked after hearing the remark, 'I can burn a new recruit until they are nothing.'"

Kim even suggested that her daughter quit, but Kang reportedly wept and said, "Mom, I didn't do anything wrong. I really love this job. I want to keep being a nurse. And I don't want to run away."

The family said that Kang, who continued to work despite the pain, finally submitted her resignation in March of last year after being severely reprimanded by a senior for a medication dosage error while treating a patient.

After quitting the hospital, Kang filed a complaint regarding workplace bullying with labor authorities.

Kim said that Kang suffered severe psychological distress afterward, and even while under the care of her family, she continued to attempt self-harm.

The family shared that Kang eventually received psychiatric treatment and was even admitted to a closed ward.

"She was a child who had never received psychiatric treatment before becoming a nurse," Kim said, unable to continue.

In September of the same year, labor authorities determined that workplace bullying was recognized for one of the three people identified as perpetrators of taeum against Kang and ordered the hospital to take corrective action.

However, the labor authorities only determined whether bullying had occurred and left the specific level of corrective action to the hospital.

In March, the Occupational Disease Judgment Committee also recognized Kang's condition (severe depressive episode) as an occupational disease.

However, Kang passed away on June 2 without recovering from the trauma.

"Please help so that my daughter's death is not in vain and that such taeum incidents never happen again," said Kim, who wept throughout the interview. "My child was devastated, saying, 'My life is ruined, yet the perpetrators are living happily,' and she spent her final days living only on her bed before meeting her death."

Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency has formed a 20-member investigation team dedicated to Kang's case within the Metropolitan Special Investigation Unit.

The police are accelerating their investigation by analyzing the one-year diary left behind by the deceased and calling in family members and friends as witnesses.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.