Workplace reviews and discussion: 亞莫士股份有限公司

If you are interviewing for the position of Marketing Planning Manager

This is actually another company owned by the boss—in other words, a small startup that has been operating for just over five years.

1. The boss has a very gentle personality; I’ve hardly ever seen him lose his temper.

2. The workplace is close to the city center.

3. The daily working hours here are 7.5 hours, with almost no overtime.

4. The only people who usually show up at the office are the boss, his son (irregularly and without any functional role), and one colleague (me—I’m currently actively looking for a job). When there’s nothing to do, you can do your own thing; when it’s quiet, it’s really quiet.

5. You will definitely receive your salary.

6. The boss is very optimistic. Although he is quite old, he is still passionate about entrepreneurship and says that he is learning as he goes.

7. The restroom is very upscale.

8. The boss places great importance on family. The colleague who resigned previously could basically take leave whenever their children had activities.

1. “I’ve been running my other company for more than forty years, and several of my employees have been with me for nearly thirty years. I’m giving you the opportunity to learn by working alongside me.” In reality, this is a small startup starting from scratch. It loses money every month, its industry is vastly different from that of the boss’s previous company, and every decision has to be made by the Shanghai-based colleague. He is very insistent that his friends of the same generation do the design (which is ugly and frightening). Although he asks for other people’s opinions, it is actually just a democratic façade to convey, “See, I did ask you.”

What he calls “being able to learn things by working alongside me” actually means that many business dealings will necessarily go through private clubs, along with the values that Chinese people are greedy for small advantages and love showing off their wealth, and that we will definitely make money, blah blah blah. Apart from not being afraid to burn money, you could say that he paints a very grand picture; the planning is quite casual in practice, and it is impossible to see any future development or stability.

2. It is a family business.

3. The office area is very small (although the entire floor is not small). Other than the boss’s seat, the other areas are extremely hot, and it is often difficult to get much cool air from the air-conditioning.

4. The boss’s voice is very loud and very local, and perhaps because he is elderly, he does not bother covering up when coughing or clearing phlegm in an enclosed space.

5. You often need to run errands for him, such as delivering documents to the bank, and help him operate his phone and computer software.

6. I strongly suspect that the boss or his son occasionally uses the women’s restroom.

7. There is a huge information gap, and there was no proper handover before, so communication often becomes exhausting—or I simply take on the work myself to avoid the effort of communicating.