1. The boss often treats everyone to food (once every 1–2 months)

2. The boss can discuss things with everyone (most of the time)

3. Music is played at work

There seems to be a discrepancy between the time points provided by everyone and the facts that actually existed. I’ll provide my observations from the year before last.

1. Turnover

I heard someone say: A certain former senior manager was arrogant in attitude toward both superiors and subordinates. After repeated admonitions went unheeded, did they resign?

(If this happened at headquarters, it must have been in a different parallel universe.)

Managers: Some are the boss’s relatives or friends; otherwise, they are... parachuted in? (Even the CEO is a company shareholder and a parachuted-in manager from Hong Kong.)

But I can say this... managers who are parachuted in without relying on connections leave even faster. (And many of them are real oddballs. I even experienced a personnel manager leading slogan-chanting sessions every morning...)

The managers who truly stay for a long time are genuinely capable of getting things done well. At the very least, they know what communication means! For example, a manager who had worked there for nine years left. I wouldn’t say she was exceptionally nice or had particularly insightful ideas about marketing underwear, but she was genuinely very good at dealing with people and handling matters.

Non-managerial employees: Few stay for more than a year, especially foreign employees. (It may be because after one year, work visas lead to increased salaries for foreign employees, raising personnel costs.) The company also seems unwilling to pay severance for more than one year.

Many foreign employees say they can’t continue working because of their work visas. But what is the reality? Is it really that difficult to obtain a work visa from the Republic of China government? Or are these foreign employees incapable and not worth the company’s assistance in applying for visas so they can continue working there?

(I have hardly ever seen a foreign employee stay for more than a year. If capable employees don’t come to the company while incapable ones are constantly laid off, should the company or the employees be the ones reflecting on the problem?)

2. The relationship between the boss and employees

Someone mentioned: In most cases, bosses have very serious ego problems... but I didn’t see that at Qmomo.

Of course you didn’t! Because by last year, the boss had basically stopped handling day-to-day matters. The company’s marketing was entrusted to the CEO (I mentioned his background earlier, but I don’t know whether he is still there) to manage, while the boss was responsible for supervision.

The boss probably just decides the company’s overall direction, and, as some people have said, treats employees to food, fires employees who are nearly at their one-year mark if he considers them “unsuitable,” and so on.

So it’s quite difficult to see the boss come out and talk to employees, let alone see what kind of attitude he has.

The boss’s wife appeared even less often. Her job was probably to commute to and from work with the boss, right? Also, she had to review the copy written by the junior editor: all the marketing department’s campaigns and fan-page copy. Besides having the manager review it, she had to look it over once more. That may be another story altogether. (I don’t know whether she continued supervising after the new CEO took over.)

3. Regarding overtime

Whether overtime can be reported depends on the manager and the nature of the work.

Manager: The direct supervisor is the one who has to approve overtime forms and leave forms. Whether the manager is willing to take responsibility is very important. Some managers, afraid of being held accountable by the boss, do not allow employees to report overtime.

Overtime that can be approved must be discussed with the manager in advance. In most cases, it involves launching a new product or an event.

If you can’t finish your own work, that means you’re inefficient! You are more likely to get the opportunity to report overtime when you support company work instead.

Of course, whether you can report it still depends on the character of your direct supervisor.

Nature of the work: It is almost impossible for the advertising and customer service departments to report overtime. The operations department depends on the event. The IT department (at least when I was there) reported overtime most frequently. As for the administration department (HR), the procedure was simple because only the manager worked overtime, so it depended on whether the boss approved it.

When I worked at the company, most of the overtime I reported involved helping the warehouse pack and pick orders or clear out inventory. The warehouse often lacked manpower and needed to rotate in staff from headquarters.

4. High stress tolerance in e-commerce? High turnover?

Turnover in e-commerce depends on each company.

If a company has low tolerance for employees’ stress, declares them “unsuitable” at the slightest issue, lays them off to save short-term costs, and the managers and boss are unwilling to spend time coordinating and communicating with departments or even discussing how to improve things and whether there are alternatives...

Then, not just in e-commerce—every industry is the same. Employees naturally won’t stay long, just as at this company.