The workers are probably everyday citizens. Having your mind tampered with until you believe you're completing a task... it seems they can be reprogrammed to believe just about anything.

[That thought doesn't sit too well with her, actually. She can't normally summon the level of vitriol that many other people with the application have toward the Retrospec staff, but in this their actions seem almost cruel.]

Besides that, we have to wonder why these tunnels opened.