Apart from having a large storefront, it has a large storefront.

I had read many people’s reviews before and thought they were talking about the office, so it probably couldn’t be that exaggerated. It wasn’t until I actually joined that I truly regretted choosing this job in the first place......

1. During the HR interview—I support the concept of division of labor, so the company had a secretary and a product department team leader interview me. They described the company’s situation and the job responsibilities fairly clearly and in an easy-to-understand way. However, when I asked about the salary and benefits, they simply said, “The salary is confidential; HR will discuss it with you separately.” Even up until I resigned, I still didn’t know exactly what my base salary was. Later, after asking internal employees, I discovered that HR had quoted every person the same figure. Confidential salary?! What a load of crap.

2. Family business—Perhaps most people don’t know much about Matsu Yama. It just feels like a large company that sprang up out of nowhere, suddenly appearing by the roadside. In reality, this company is run by an elderly chairman, the chairman’s son, who is a director (similar to the brand’s CEO), and the son’s wife, whose title is “director” (the person in charge of the tourist factory). These three people seriously affect the operation of the entire frontline staff team. Above the rank-and-file employees, they have also established many managerial positions, which in reality are merely nominal. The three of them have different understandings and explanations of what is right, and they even change decisions from one day to the next. Various rules also leave people at a loss. In short, apart from personnel regulations and salary grades, they have the final say over everything else—especially the operation of the restaurant...... Well, the people who put up the money are the bosses, right?

3. Office clique culture—Anyone who has read the other articles will know that Matsu Yama’s internal office politics are quite severe. At first, I thought this was limited to the office and wouldn’t affect the product department (that is, the restaurant or café). But as it turned out, the product department had no fewer cliques than the office. Even the kitchen staff were divided into two groups. Come on, there were only three chefs, and they could still form cliques. I don’t know whether having cliques is necessarily good or bad. After all, if everyone normally gets along well, cooperates at work, and a few people happen to be closer, then having a small group isn’t a big deal. But that wasn’t the case here. Even though everyone worked together, they wouldn’t discuss problems with the people involved. Supervisors led the exclusion of certain people; during work, they said nothing, but privately they were very happy to curse and complain.

4. Training—I don’t know whether the training in other departments of this company is good or bad. At least I know that the restaurant’s training was basically equivalent to no training at all. I can understand that when there are many customers and a heavy workload, and that insufficient staffing makes training impossible. But is it acceptable to teach people nothing during normal times and simply leave them sitting aside? After asking, there were countless different versions of the SOP—is that acceptable either? Is it acceptable to leave new employees on the floor, teach them nothing during normal operations, and assign them the easiest tasks when closing? Most absurdly, when problems arose, the more experienced employees didn’t step forward to solve them. Instead, they first rushed to complain on LINE and in their cliques. No wonder new employees came and went and never stayed long.

5. What happened to the promised 5S?—Matsu Yama is a certified tourist factory, and quality control and occupational safety constantly emphasize hygiene, safety, and the quality of food production, among other things. But what about the product department?! After taking customers’ orders, staff handled money and didn’t even wash their hands afterward. They didn’t wear gloves and directly touched partially prepared ingredients. When collecting used plates, they used a scraper intended for dessert preparation to scrape off food waste, then after washing the scraper, directly used it to scrape semi-finished food products. Most outrageous of all was the waffle maker. Its new interior should have been an off-white Teflon color, but the entire inside had long since turned black, covered in burnt butter. And that’s not even mentioning the other hygiene-management problems. What response did I get after reporting these issues? The on-site supervisor was unmoved, occupational safety only issued fines, and naturally there were gaps in new-employee training. When I actually asked whether gloves were required, they guiltily replied: “Actually, they are required; it’s just that everyone takes shortcuts because we’re too busy.”

There are many more problems, but the fundamental issue with this company is that when those at the top set a bad example, those below follow suit. Perhaps the factory upstairs at Matsu Yama has very rigorous food-safety controls, but what about the other departments?? If a company cannot lead its people and win their trust, nor sincerely train its employees, and everyone is constantly wary and suspicious of one another, what is good about such a company? Please think carefully before joining!