Thanks for playing through my game and for your useful feedback! I tried to imply that the factory is an evil place and that you should, in fact, escape, but I realize it’s not clear enough.
While escaping, you can rescue your coworkers by taking them with you. If you manage to save all 6 of them, you can trigger a different ending in the last room of the game (instead of just escaping via the elevator). They serve as a way to trigger the good ending, and as a way to add another layer of puzzle in some rooms.
I lacked time to implement the story as much as I would have liked, so a lot of it is summarized or implied.