Workplace reviews and discussion: 微碧愛普科技有限公司

It has been two months since I left this company. It was what is known as an involuntary departure, and I stayed for only 23 days from joining to leaving. The impact on me was truly significant, and I even questioned my own abilities. After two months of adjusting, I have decided to make public what happened while I was at this company, so that people who plan to join it in the future can avoid experiencing the same things. I am willing to take responsibility for everything I say below, and I also welcome anyone to confront me about it in person.

The advantages are as follows:

1. Most of the company’s employees are very young.

2. There is no need to clock in or out.

3. The boss is very willing to communicate and discuss matters with employees.

4. Free snacks, drinks, and lunch.

5. Most employees are very friendly.

All I can say is that I was made a manager upon joining, which was probably unfair to the original employees. The following are the things I felt I was most obviously set up by.

1. Training: The scheduled course was supposed to last approximately 2.5–3 hours, but the manager conducting it only spoke for about 30 minutes. The rest of the time, they were outside making phone calls. Before going out to make a call, they would always say, “Try it out yourself. I’ll come back and give you a test later.” In the afternoon, they simply handed me a client’s menu without any explanation, only telling me to set up the system menu before coming to work the next day. When it was checked the next morning, they only said it was not good. I had to repeatedly ask before they were willing to tell me what was wrong and what needed to be changed. Later, it was only after another manager explained it to me that I learned I could use a computer to modify the menu through the backend and enter items in batches, rather than entering and setting them one by one on an iPad. After I corrected the parts that needed improvement, I was not given any evaluation or suggestions; I was only told that there was no absolute right or wrong way to set up a menu, and that it was fine as long as I thought it was acceptable.

At the time, I naively thought this was normal—that perhaps the manager simply did not know how to teach, or was too busy to do so.

2. After my first meeting with the boss, the manager suggested that, in order to achieve the boss’s goals, I should ask the boss for approval to arrange meetings with competitors and pretend to be a customer so I could understand how they operated. After I told the boss about this idea, the boss said that this was not his philosophy and not what the company wanted, and also asked why I had come up with such an idea. When I responded that it was an approach the manager and I had discussed together, it was obvious that the boss did not believe me and simply told me not to continue talking about it.

That was the first time I wondered whether I was being set up. But I still told myself that perhaps the manager simply did not understand what the boss wanted...

3. I asked at least five times if I could learn, from beginning to end, by observing how negotiations with clients were conducted and how discussions were handled. There were two opportunities to travel for work. On one occasion, I was called aside to help install equipment and configure the menu while the manager discussed details with the client elsewhere. The only time I was able to hear how things were explained was during the second trip, but even then it was only the final stage, when the product’s operation was explained to the client. I never had the opportunity to learn the initial product introduction or how to interact with clients before I was dismissed.

4. Two days before I was dismissed, I happened to need to travel to another county. In the car, I told the manager my current thoughts and the plan and approach I believed the boss might want to pursue: work similar to that of a restaurant-management consultant, assisting clients by providing development advice and planning. The manager replied that this was not what the company wanted, much less the direction or work the company planned to pursue in the future. I was told not to mention these things again. The manager also told me that the company was very willing to give me opportunities, that it was okay to make mistakes, and that I would always have opportunities to correct them.

Looking back now, I cannot believe I was foolish enough to trust them and give up on the plan I had originally envisioned.

5. Two days after I was told that the proposal I had made was not acceptable, following my second meeting with the boss, I was told that I was not suitable for the company and was not the type of talent the company needed. After the boss asked the two managers to leave, I asked what kind of proposal the boss actually wanted. The boss’s answer was the proposal I had previously put forward.

At that point, it was very clear that I had been deliberately pushed out.

6. The boss asked why, when I encountered problems, I did not proactively ask other colleagues. I do not deny that this may have been one of my problems. I prefer to record my questions and ask them all at once. Seeing that my colleagues were constantly busy and answering calls, I knew they were willing to answer, but I personally could not accept repeatedly interrupting them. This was my issue, and I admit it. However, whenever I asked the manager all my questions at once, the answer I most often received was: “Because your position is somewhere between sales and customer service, you don’t need to understand that much. You only need to know the basics.”

After all, the boss had said from the beginning that this manager was one of the three people who had been with him from the very start, and the only one who had remained until now. I believed that asking the most senior person, who knew the full background of the matters, would be the simplest and clearest approach, rather than asking or interrupting other colleagues while they were working and then having to ask the manager for the details again.

7. On the day I was dismissed, there was training for a new employee in the customer service department. I noticed that the training situation was clearly different from mine. I only noticed that the manager spent much, much, much less time outside making phone calls and was basically in the meeting room, unlike during my training. In the afternoon, I knocked on the door and entered the meeting room to ask whether I could sit in. Only then did I discover that the amount of content on the whiteboard, what was covered in the training, and the equipment placed on the table were all vastly different from what I had experienced.

Before the boss told me that I was not suitable for the company, while the boss and the two managers were still in the meeting room, I said that there were many things I did not understand about the training. The response I received was that everyone’s training was the same and that the content was also the same. At the time, I did not argue further, because I felt that there was no point in saying anything else, and I could not provide evidence.

I am willing to take responsibility for everything stated above, and I am also willing to confront anyone about it in person. Although this is anonymous, I have written it so explicitly that I believe it makes no difference whether my name is attached or not. All I can say is that anyone choosing this job and company should be especially cautious. I was interested in this industry and the job itself, so in addition to leaving a company where I had a higher salary, I also turned down another offer that paid more than my previous job. In the end, I became unemployed in less than a month. I do not believe anyone could calmly accept that, especially after experiencing these things. During the interview and when I ultimately decided to choose this company, it was because of something the boss said: “I will provide a stage for you to perform to your full potential.” All I can say is that I had not even climbed onto this stage before someone pulled me back down.

I will not deny that perhaps I did not meet the company’s expectations, that my abilities did not meet the required standard, or that there were things I was not proactive enough about or did not do well enough. I admit that I certainly had shortcomings, and I would not claim to be perfect. But the situations described above were not caused by me, were they? They were created and brought about by the company. If the company’s manager did not want to delegate their original responsibilities or authority, or simply did not want to employ someone like me, then please think carefully and consider the consequences. Being dismissed after just over 20 days inevitably leaves a negative mark on one’s résumé. Besides, did I really make a mistake? Or did I simply perform poorly? Is this the opportunity the company initially said it was willing to give me? To dismiss someone after merely saying they were unsuitable is something I believe most people cannot accept.

In the short 23 days I spent here, I truly learned and saw a great deal. At the same time, I reminded myself that my past work experiences had gone too smoothly. Whether overseas or domestically, I had never encountered a workplace where I was so obviously set up and given no opportunity to appeal or raise concerns—just dismissed directly. I am leaving this post not only to express my feelings, but also as a record for myself, and in the hope that those who come after me will not experience the same things. I can only say that encountering people like this should serve as a warning to anyone considering joining the company!