There is a small factory where you can make models, giving you the opportunity to work hands-on. You can also experience some new technology products alongside the PM.

From a work perspective, I feel that the company’s direction and guidelines are unclear. Although the managers and the boss believe the direction is very clear—even wondering how employees could not know what it is—the company went two years without producing a new product. At first, a vice president who headed the PM function provided direction, but one day the vice president suddenly resigned for unknown reasons. Senior management became very anxious about having no new products to sell, and as their anxiety grew, the schedule became increasingly compressed and urgent. We often had to attend impromptu meetings arranged according to senior management’s schedule, but proposals had to be presented with models. The direction given by our manager did not necessarily align with what senior management wanted, so it often felt as though we had gone in circles without making any progress. This led to a period when we frequently had to work frantically until midnight, yet the company provided neither dinner nor overtime pay. Senior management once said that when the company’s performance grew rapidly, they definitely would not treat everyone unfairly. In fact, the company’s performance had already improved and it was making money—we even once opened champagne to celebrate—but I never saw any notice of a raise.

The work in the design department is very diverse. In addition to the product design we were originally responsible for, we also had to design exhibition spaces for the annual education expo. To save money, the company asked the design department to help the sales department produce all the props and booths needed for the exhibition, including everything that would be used, advance testing, assembly instructions, and planning in advance what each display item was for. Like a mother, we had to pack everything they needed neatly into suitcases so they could simply pick them up and leave. Product descriptions, packaging boxes, all sorts of things needed for the boss’s private gatherings, repairs to the female owner’s broken jewelry, props for the princess’s birthday parties, and other miscellaneous tasks were also handled by the design department. However, performance evaluations only counted whether new products were produced.

The products primarily target teachers and students in the U.S. K–12 education market, but we had not received an American education ourselves. We suggested to senior management that they help us communicate directly with customers, but nothing came of it. After countless proposals, the feedback from senior management was different every time, leaving us powerless and physically and mentally exhausted. After the company was inspected by the labor authorities, we were effectively made to clock out first and then continue working. Then, one morning, the company suddenly laid people off on the grounds that a change in business operations had reduced the need for workers. Those being laid off were also required to leave by noon that same day.

That night, I dreamed that someone told me they had heard the company had been inspected by the labor authorities three times, and that it was only fined after the matter could no longer be suppressed. It seemed that someone felt they had lost face, so they targeted the department most likely to work overtime in the entire company. This dream reminded me that the first time I stayed at the company until 10 p.m. was to handcraft gifts for the boss’s private gathering... Oh, right! The company may look American-style at first glance, but it is actually still more like a traditional manufacturing business; you need to understand some unspoken rules, such as knowing how to flatter people.