I. First, the conclusion:

(1) Salary?

18k + 2k perfect-attendance bonus (including free overtime) = 20k. Travel and commuting, fuel, maintenance, and three meals are all at your own expense. (You can claim fuel expenses for company vehicles, but... don’t drive one unless you have a really tough constitution.)

Calculated as a daily wage under a five-day workweek, the daily pay is about 800 yuan. This company does not have a five-day workweek system, nor does it pay year-end bonuses.

(2) Working hours?

Officially 09:00–18:00,

Actually 07:00–19:00 (excluding overtime; with overtime, the workday is approximately 14 hours or more.)

From September to February, you get half a day off every other week; from March to June, only Sundays are days off; July and August are unpaid leave (you must sign a resignation agreement and a non-compete agreement).

(3) Is labor and health insurance provided?

Health insurance is provided, but you have to enroll in labor insurance yourself through the professional union.

(4) Paid leave?

No annual leave, sick leave, or personal leave. Taking any of the above results in deductions from both the perfect-attendance bonus and that day’s pay (2,000 perfect-attendance bonus + 600 daily wage). No one has used bereavement leave or other “leave,” so I’m not sure about those.

(5) Future prospects

Honestly, unless you stay in the sales department and receive a share of the profits, the other departments really have no future. The boss is currently outsourcing work at even lower prices, and staff in the other departments have all been reduced. As for promotions, benefits, and salary... there’s even less to say. Are the people who continue staying really willing to live like this? Or have they simply gotten used to this kind of “life”? Or are they too lazy to change until they are “laid off” before finally waking up?

(6) Personal thoughts

The boss of this company is really xxx!

II. The company’s actual situation

The salary is only 18k, plus a 2k perfect-attendance bonus. You clock in when you arrive and clock out when you leave, but the work is under a responsibility-based system after hours (with no overtime pay). There is no year-end bonus. Official working hours are 09:00–18:00, but they are calculated according to the travel distance for business trips. Usually, preparation starts before 7 a.m. and continues until the work is finished; you normally leave after 6 p.m., usually around 7 p.m.

The company provides health insurance, but you have to enroll in labor insurance yourself through the professional union (the company does not help with enrollment). It does not proactively provide clock-in records or pay slips (and nothing comes of it even if you ask). There is no five-day workweek. During the busy season, you only get four days off per month and are required to work unpaid overtime unconditionally (they fob you off with a boxed meal; if you take the meal but don’t work late enough, you may even get dirty looks). Overtime often continues until nearly midnight, and the sales department works overnight even more frequently.

Except for the sales department, when traveling for photography assignments, you must pay for fuel and maintenance yourself if you do not use a company vehicle. You also pay for your own meals. The company vehicles are all used cars and are in very poor condition—for example, the air conditioning does not cool, the power windows cannot be opened, and there are often strange noises while driving. Even after reporting these problems to the company supervisors, they still did not want to spend money on repairs, and only considered repairing the vehicles after someone nearly had an accident. (It was winter and raining at the time; the air conditioning was broken, the windows could not be opened, and the entire car fogged up, making it impossible to see the road clearly. A colleague nearly crashed into the opposite lane.)

The company’s equipment is also in terrible condition. Except for the sales department, the graphic design department, and supervisors, who have their own computers, everyone else has to take turns borrowing computers (waiting for a computer wastes a lot of time, even though you have to get up early for work the next day...). Everything from the operating system to the various Adobe programs is pirated.

For the year-end party, employees have to prepare a performance for the boss (when things are already so busy, you still have to prepare this!? You even have to pay for the props yourself!). There are no raffle prizes at the year-end party, but there is prize money totaling approximately 40,000 or less. In addition to the boss contributing money, each supervisor also has to contribute. The company has approximately 70 employees, and about eight people receive prize money. This kind of year-end party is basically just overtime—only the “boxed meal” is a little more elaborate.

The company’s customers are graduating students from various schools. Externally, the company presents itself as providing graduates with a good memento, but personally, I think the actual value of the products is terrible. Selling these products really feels like a violation of one’s conscience. For example:

(1) Sales staff are made to serve as photographers, so photo quality varies widely.

(2) The company falsely claims externally that it has its own printing plant (but it does not).

(3) The profit on peripheral products sold to students is more than ten times the cost (but the quality is extremely disappointing).

(4) The contents of the graduation disc consist only of material already included in the yearbook (why pay extra for it?).

(5) Apart from those in supervisory positions, the company’s photographers are all beginners. Every year, around September, the company starts recruiting newcomers, many of whom are unfamiliar with operating SLR cameras. (But customers have no idea about this level of quality.)

As an aside, this group of people will not receive a raise until after the June graduation season ends. Before the new photography season begins in September, these new employees will be placed on unpaid leave and must first sign a resignation agreement (including a non-compete agreement), meaning they receive no pay at all in July and August. Employees are treated like toilet paper: used up and thrown away. To give a real example, one day a colleague was called into the office by the boss. The boss said, “Your résumé is very well written. I’ve kept it for you, so you can use it again next time.” After handing the résumé back to the colleague, the boss had them “resign.” (Basically, they forced the person to resign.)