Workplace reviews and discussion: 定暉有限公司

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I stayed here for about a week. I applied for an administrative assistant position.

During the interview, the boss pointed out my shortcomings, so he told me I would have to learn to do everything, and that he would later look for a genuine administrative assistant. He also asked me to start work the next day. At the time, everything seemed normal, but it was what happened during the final two days that made me decide I wanted to leave.

When I started, there were only three people in the company: the boss and two employees. One was Uncle Abei, who was responsible for cleaning equipment at the company, and the other was an older colleague who handled maintenance work outside. I did not see any full-time administrative staff. At first, I thought the person was simply out handling business, but after asking, I learned that the only remaining administrative assistant had resigned at the same time I joined. I had naively assumed that I would be responsible for full-time office administration.

Since there was no dedicated administrative employee, Uncle Abei, who was responsible for cleaning the equipment, used the photocopier to make copies of both sides of my ID card and a copy of my bankbook. Those two sheets of paper were then placed directly into a conspicuous thick folder in an unattended office. The folder also contained documents belonging to other former employees. Honestly, this method of storing personal documents was extremely worrying.

Most importantly, I never saw an employee contract, even when I was about to resign. Everything was based solely on what the boss had said verbally during the interview. Even now, thinking about it still feels frightening.

On the second-to-last day before I decided to resign, the older colleague who handled outside work brought a friend to the company. At first, I thought the friend was a part-time worker, but I immediately saw Uncle Abei use correction tape to cover the name on an unused time-clock card belonging to a former employee, so the newcomer could write their own name on it and clock in before heading out to work. I was completely stunned. How could they hire someone to start work so casually? This was a completely unstructured company.

Before his friend arrived, I had been working alongside the older colleague. The boss had said during the interview that the company was short-staffed—but I had not imagined there would be so few people—so he wanted me to do everything. During that time, I also learned roughly how the process of signing orders and entering orders worked, since I had originally applied for an administrative assistant position.

After some time, the boss came to the company and told me to go out with him. At first, I naively thought he wanted me to learn more about the company’s business or other office-related tasks. Instead, he wanted me to accompany him to a construction site to carry tools and set up ladders for him ??? Since I had never learned how to do these things, I could only stand there helplessly, staying with the boss until about an hour after the company’s scheduled quitting time. By the time I got home, I was already considering resigning, but the boss had said during the interview that overtime was not routine, so I just swallowed my frustration and decided to let it go.

On the day I decided to resign, the boss did not come to the company until after 11 a.m. When he arrived, he told me he had overslept and said that I should call to wake him up in the future ??? That afternoon, he again wanted me to accompany him outside. He said we would return to the company even later than the day before. I was completely baffled. Wasn’t overtime not supposed to be routine? How had we ended up working overtime two days in a row?

We did not return to the company until around 9 p.m. Once again, I had accompanied the boss to a construction site to handle work. My family was extremely worried and kept messaging me, but the boss showed no concern at all for me, the new employee, while we were in the car. He just kept talking about his own affairs.

What happened to the administrative assistant job I was promised? How did it turn into being a construction-site apprentice?

The next day, which was my day off, I angrily messaged the boss to resign.

To this day, I still do not understand why there were so few people at the company.