The non-managerial colleagues are really nice and take great care of newcomers; coworkers help one another a lot.

If you happen to meet a metalworker who is willing to teach you some tricks, you can learn other metalworking techniques as well.

You can learn all the skills required for the position at the fastest possible speed. You can train a new employee after one month and be responsible for a counter after three months.

Pay is not provided on time. During the interview, they tell you that the base salary is $22,500, but you must be willing to include 10 full-day shifts in your schedule every month to receive this base salary. If the daily sales exceed $10,000, you can receive a $500 commission. Metalworkers have an easier time earning this: as long as sales exceed $10,000, they get $500. Store staff have it even worse: they must first reach their individual monthly target before they can receive the $500 commissions for the days that exceeded $10,000 that month. If they do not reach the monthly target, all those $500 bonuses—earned through extremely hard work—are forfeited.

The morning shift is 11:00–20:00 (physical stores)

10:30–20:00 (department-store counters)

(The half hour that department-store staff must arrive early to hold the morning meeting is not paid as overtime.)

The evening shift is 14:00–22:00.

During anniversary sales or the Lunar New Year period, department stores may need to extend or start business hours earlier. There is no overtime pay, and wages are not doubled; only an additional $700 is provided for each of the first three days of the New Year.

If you work the morning shift and a customer happens to come in just a few minutes before you are about to finish, while all the other coworkers are also serving customers, you can only go over and assist them. However, the extra time you work to serve this customer is not paid as overtime. The boss says, “You chose to stay; I never told you not to get off work,” so it does not count as overtime.

Regardless of the position you interviewed for, you will have to work on the front line in sales and serve customers.

The boss frequently changes policies from one day to the next, and even more often changes them verbally. Everything is decided by her.

If you want to gain experience, learn how to handle the most miscellaneous tasks in the shortest possible time, and quickly understand the dark side of the workplace, you are welcome to apply to this company. I guarantee that after you leave, any company with normal pay, normal benefits, normal working hours, a normal boss, and normal supervisors will feel completely satisfying—like heaven~~