The software development engineers at this company have it incredibly easy: they start work at 9:30 a.m. and finish at 6:30 p.m. Employees can take leave whenever they want. There is also an engineer who comes to work at 10:30 every morning—he has even more clout than the general manager, like an underground general manager, with the supervisors above turning a blind eye.

This company has a huge number of problems. The problems begin with the interview: there is no written test, and you can be hired casually after just a verbal interview. However, during the interview, the interviewer will usually ask you to take on three different roles at once; as long as you agree, your chances of being hired are high. Now to the main point: the reason this company is in such a terrible state and has so many problems lies with the general manager and the first-level supervisors. It starts with requiring one person to handle three different roles, which causes the company’s systems to become an utter mess and makes it impossible to do anything well. People who are not specialists in a particular field are forced to take on that role—how could they do it well? Some employees resign shortly after joining. After they leave, no one hands over their work, and no documents or data are transferred. The position then falls into chaos, and it can take several months to fill the vacancy, resulting in gaps in technology and data. The company’s systems are a complete mess. The company was established seven years ago, but only started having an ERP system this year. The ridiculous thing is that hardly anyone uses it. A newly hired procurement employee is expected to learn the ERP system and then teach all the employees. The company’s first-level supervisors have authority and responsibility, while the second-level supervisors spend all day shirking and have neither authority nor responsibility. The ERP system should have been properly handled by these second-level supervisors, so why ask a new employee to teach everyone? For the first seven years, BOMs were created with Office and on paper, and no one managed them. Looking at those BOMs is like looking at work done by kindergarten children—it is so bad it makes you want to cry. The company has hired several PMs, but none has a background in electronics-industry system manufacturing. They do not know how to organize BOMs properly, have almost no understanding of electronic components, cannot understand or prepare approval documents, and do not know how to create product plans or schedules. The data handled by the entire company—from warehouse management, factory engineering, quality assurance, procurement, PM, R&D, sales, and accounting—is a complete mess. Anyone who has worked in the electronics industry and sees this company, its systems, and its procedures would only shake their head in disbelief. The attitude is simply that having someone do it is good enough; anything that comes your way gets dumped on you. There are countless ISO deficiencies, and they are the same every year. The owner and first-level supervisors have no intention of putting things in order. They spend all day putting on a superficial show for customers. One person takes on three roles, and each role is performed at only 30 points out of 100—not even passing. The employees have no concept of time: they come in late and leave early. R&D employees sleep whenever they want. They are supposed to return from lunch at 1:00 p.m. but sleep until 1:30; after 3:00 p.m., several people feel like sleeping and simply lie down. At 6:30, everyone leaves. The company is sinking lower and lower and getting worse. The company owner and first-level supervisors seem to have water in their heads. Every week they invite a bunch of lecturers to give courses at the company, but the content provides no benefit whatsoever to the employees or the company—topics such as wellness, health, traditional Chinese medicine, and sports injuries, all in a completely haphazard mix. Do they have too much money and nowhere to spend it? Every so often, they force all employees to sign in or move tables and chairs to attend the courses, and they even have to take photos. Enough already. Some of the company’s engineering projects, R&D work, and data are also a complete mess; things that should be done are left undone. Bringing in people like this to teach courses is of no help at all and only drags the company down. It is completely misguided. After seven years in business, the company has no equipment or instruments—truly outrageous. Three-quarters of the company’s products are purchased from other companies and sold under its own brand. Only the remaining quarter is developed in-house, and even most of that development is outsourced. The entire company is like an outsourcing firm; R&D has no core technology at all. The company has hired a huge number of female employees, but they can only do clerical work. Can they handle moving things or technical work if asked? What benefit does this provide to the company? Is the company trying to become a trading company? It is dragging the company down. There are pitifully few middle managers, and no one cares. No one manages the engineers below, which leads employees to avoid taking on extra responsibilities, because once something touches you, it becomes your responsibility. As long as someone does it, that is considered good enough. To the general manager and first-level supervisors of this company: listen carefully. Were the companies you previously worked for like this? Could you personally do three jobs at once and do them well? If you cannot do it yourselves, why force it onto employees? You do not offer employees particularly high salaries or good terms either. This approach is extremely unprofessional. Please think about allocating roles according to industry responsibilities and organizational systems—each field has its own specialist. When responsibilities are forcibly added, the results are not good; they are poor.