Workplace reviews and discussion: 大寶國際行銷有限公司

During the interview, they will tell you that you’ll be working overtime until you have “no day, no night, and no friends” (please believe them).

The boss is very good at sweet-talking you. She will coax and deceive you, telling you that you can do it and making you think she is great. You’ll have a honeymoon period of nearly a week to get used to things.

If you want to leave, there won’t be much suspense—they won’t try to keep you.

Ahem, I have to say that this company is basically a graveyard for fresh graduates. It’s easy to get in, but the boss’s moods are unpredictable. Her assessment of your value in the company is like that of an ex-girlfriend who treated you as a tool: she will use you as much as possible, and when she realizes you can’t do something, she’ll sweet-talk you a little, deceive you into staying, and then continue using you. Her attitude toward you is like that of a terrible husband who drinks heavily, clings to you, and abuses you at home: she will constantly subject you to verbal violence, berating you until nothing is left of you. She will scold you regardless of whether something has anything to do with you or whether it is your fault, but she does it very skillfully, always finding a way to make it your problem. This is especially damaging to fresh graduates who lack the ability to distinguish right from wrong. You will start wondering whether you really are that bad, whether you are incapable of helping, and whether you are just a useless piece of trash. Then, like a dog, you’ll be harassed and attacked by the boss every day and every weekend, all just to complete something the boss may simply want for herself...and so on.

As stated above, planning/execution basically means working overtime until you have no day, no night, and no friends. Apart from sleeping, you’ll have almost no opportunity to rest. And please believe this: other than “no day, no night, and no friends,” do not believe in “any benefits,” “any perks,” or even “any appealing qualities the boss claims to have.” Either they do not exist at all, or you will never get to enjoy them.

The boss is extremely childish. She can fly into a rage over any trivial matter and has absolutely no understanding of the employees’ situations. In most cases, she can only feel at ease if she sees or knows that employees are staying at the company (does she lack a sense of security?). And the situation I described above refers to working overtime until ten or eleven at night, or working on holidays.

The boss is also extremely vindictive. Unless you are willing to devote every moment from opening your eyes in the morning to closing them at night to her—including holidays—there is a high probability that she will make trouble for you, tell your coworkers what is wrong with you, or use matters involving you to scold your coworkers. That’s right, the tone is roughly: “Why hasn’t A done these things!!!! B!! What the hell are you doing!!!!!” Yes, it really is that inexplicable. She cannot hold back even a single breath of anger.

The boss’s EQ is astonishingly low—or, more accurately, her attitude toward subordinates is unbelievably bad. Basically, as I said above, whenever anything upsets her, if any of her subordinates are nearby, she has to find a reason to get angry (note: she “has to” get angry) and vent it on the employees below her. But if there are no subordinates around, whether you are a superior, a client, or an ordinary member of the public, she can remain remarkably calm. So, in practice, the key requirement for this job is to be able to serve as a long-term punching bag.

The company culture of “enduring hardship together” is extremely severe and incredibly wasteful of time. There is no such thing as work that falls within your own responsibilities. Whenever something goes wrong, everyone must share the blame, making it feel like military service: if one person makes a mistake, everyone has to come to the company and solve it together. It doesn’t matter whether you touched the project, how much you can do, or whether you have finished your part. As long as one person still hasn’t sorted it out, you are not allowed to leave.

For the reasons above, if even one coworker is a liability (seriously, just one is enough), basically the entire company will be chewed out by the boss. If you are lucky enough for that liability to be in planning/execution, prepare yourself mentally to be berated into complete chaos for every possible reason. Worst of all, if there is work that only they can complete, or they keep it in their hands and refuse to let anyone help, you are doomed. You will have to sit beside them and wait until they finally finish the work in a panic—or until the boss finishes scolding them—before you can leave.

There is no day when the work is truly finished, because the boss is not the kind of person who gives you an endpoint. As soon as she realizes something could be done better—or even without any particular way to improve it, as long as she sees a sliver of time she can exploit, including after-work hours or holidays—she will portray tasks that absolutely do not need to be done around the clock as client requirements, or as work that must be completed to that level, and make you figure out how to help her. If you are someone who insists on resting and does not want to be disturbed, bothered, or exploited during your own time, then no matter how capable your methods are, how reasonable or justified your reasons are, or how tactful you are, she will hold a grudge and find trouble for you. It is as though your waking hours belong to her, and refusing to give them to her means you owe her.

The boss will tell you, “We have bonuses.” Yes, that’s true—there is a chance of getting one. In practice, these are basically controlled by the planning/execution staff. Every incorrect decision can lead to various unnecessary expenses, and every missed opportunity to charge the client means one less bonus. If you are not a capable planner/executor, or if you are a designer or some other role below planning/execution—or even doing odd jobs or whatever—believe me, don’t bother dreaming about getting a bonus.

But do you think being capable means you have a chance of getting a bonus? The boss herself is also full of strong opinions about events. If she thinks there is room in the budget, she will happily spend your event funds on adding things to the event, even when the client did not ask for them. Whether it is for show, appearances, or company exposure, whatever the reason, the employee is definitely not the one who benefits. I have even heard that when someone “fought hard enough to earn a bonus equal to their base salary,” the boss added afterward, “How annoying,” as if she had never intended to let them receive it in the first place.

In short, if you want to join this company, try to start during the off-season for the events industry. And don’t entertain the daydream of “I’ll stick it out for a year.” Unless you have an utterly hopeless level of passion—enough to withstand the situations described above for more than three months without being fired—it is basically impossible to last a year, because the boss’s problems really flare up once the busy season arrives.