Workplace reviews and discussion: 普拉瑞斯創意整合有限公司

I’m a planning assistant in the Group Marketing Department. The reason I’m leaving a comment on Tianyancha is that we really did notice that the company has received a lot of negative reviews here. The company has both good and bad sides, and I wouldn’t want future colleagues who could have worked with us to be scared away by the sheer volume of negative reviews here, so I came to share my own perspective.

This is my first job, and Polaris is very different from the workplace I had imagined. After working here for half a year, I would say that Polaris is a good company, but it isn’t for everyone, and not everyone will be able to adapt. To be more specific, I would recommend this job to friends whose personalities and ways of thinking align with Polaris. At the same time, I also understand that some of my friends would feel that Polaris has a terrible work environment.

The reasons I can work happily at Polaris can be summarized as follows:

1. Be your authentic self:

If you don’t know something, say so (but make an effort to improve yourself afterward). If you think something is unreasonable or feel wronged, say so directly. At Polaris, you say things as they are; there’s no need to beat around the bush. Everyone’s goal is to solve problems. When we make mistakes, can’t carry something out, or feel that something is unreasonable, we discuss other approaches together. I have never experienced being scolded for making a mistake or being afraid that others would make things difficult for me because I spoke up about a problem. You really need to let go of those thoughts completely. It also took me some time to adapt, but once I did, I was able to work here comfortably and happily.

2. Establish consensus before acting; communicate first when there is no consensus

People often don’t consider the things I think are important to be important themselves. This doesn’t mean that my ideas aren’t respected here. Rather, time is limited, and it’s impossible to finish everything, so we inevitably have to make choices. Either we give up something we think is important, or we ask someone else to give up something they think is important. That’s why communication is necessary—to decide what to do first and how to divide the work.

For me, if I can’t do the two things above well, there’s a pretty high chance that I’ll have to work overtime frequently. I might feel that I’ve contributed so much to the company without receiving the return I deserve, and feel aggrieved. However, when you’re willing to show your authentic self and communicate, everything becomes different.

Let me start with the parts I like. To keep this from getting too long, I’ll mention three points first:

1. I have never been blamed for making a mistake

I’m a newcomer to the workplace, and I often make silly mistakes that make me want to dig a hole and crawl into it. Once, I scheduled a Facebook post that was still in draft status to be published. After it went live, my supervisor urgently helped me take it down, without saying a single word of blame. Here, I feel that everyone’s attitude is: once a problem has occurred, instead of assigning blame, it’s better to think about how to do our best to remedy it and avoid repeating the mistake next time.

2. When I feel that there is an unreasonable amount of work or that I can’t finish it, I can raise the issue and receive help

My supervisor really doesn’t want me to work overtime, and she also considers frequently working overtime (more than half an hour) unreasonable. Once, I had to develop a game for LINE@ while also preparing articles for an upcoming exhibition, along with a pile of other tasks all at once. I made a work list and realized that I really couldn’t finish everything, so I raised the issue with my supervisor. When she heard me say that I couldn’t finish everything, she didn’t say unhelpful things like, “But all of these are important, and the situation is a little unusual right now...” Instead, she immediately discussed with me how to adjust the workload: which tasks could be skipped, which ones she could help with, and which ones didn’t need to be pursued so perfectly—as long as something was produced. Just like that, the huge pile of work was resolved smoothly, and I didn’t have to work overtime.

Also, I wrote this article during working hours. After work, I want to do my own things and spend time with my girlfriend, so I don’t want to come here and write an article after work, either. XD

3. Free coffee

The company has a coffee machine, and I can make a cup whenever I want. Coffee is very important in my life; if I add coffee to my work, it can boost my motivation to work for around three hours or so~

1. No overtime pay

There isn’t much to explain. The company says that overtime may be caused by low work efficiency, by employees being busy with unimportant tasks (or pursuing excessive quality), or by too many last-minute tasks from clients that genuinely require overtime or rush work. However, how to determine the cause is still under evaluation. Some people may feel that the first two situations contradict the advantages I mentioned above. It’s true that the advantages I described only apply to my department; I don’t know whether other departments are in the same situation. Also, many colleagues don’t want to raise the problems they face at work themselves (maybe I’m just a fearless newcomer?). I feel that as long as everyone is willing to work here, everyone’s ideas and values should be respected. However, from an employee’s perspective, I don’t think companies that pay overtime necessarily avoid this problem either. From the time I joined the company until now, the issue of unpaid overtime still hasn’t been resolved. Our rights and interests have indeed been affected. I believe the reality is that not everyone is willing to communicate (which does indeed conflict with the company’s philosophy), but when faced with this fact, what method should be used to solve it? Looking at it through the lens of Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the motivators are being satisfied, while the most basic hygiene factors are not, so employees are unlikely to feel balanced. I hope the company can resolve this issue as soon as possible.

2. We have to write a daily report every day

Writing the daily report really takes up a lot of my time, but rationally speaking, I would describe it as a “necessary evil.” My thinking is that supervisors have many people to manage, so how could they possibly track everyone’s progress at all times? The daily report is therefore the best approach. In addition, my supervisor reads everyone’s daily report every day. Since she takes them so seriously, I’m only writing a brief account of what happened that day, so I suppose it’s not too bad. If I only do routine tasks throughout the day, I really don’t feel like writing a daily report. I often have to take many screenshots on my desktop and upload them to EIP to explain my work, and uploading images to the company’s EIP is a little troublesome. However, if the tasks I originally planned to do that day are delayed by unexpected interruptions or communication with colleagues, the daily report can help my supervisor understand why the scheduled work wasn’t completed. I don’t have to worry that my supervisor will feel uneasy because I didn’t finish my tasks.