The only advantage is that they at least follow the law, and overtime is paid.

Although overtime is paid, the official working and break hours are really just for reference.

If you’re assigned to open the store, you basically have to come in at least half an hour early as unpaid labor. You can choose not to, but if you’re late and can’t open the store on time, you’re the one who gets yelled at = =...

The same goes for break time. You have to wash your hands before starting work, which takes at least 5–10 minutes, so you can never actually take the full scheduled break.

They’ll also ask you work-related questions before your shift, including things outside your area of responsibility (I was responsible for prepared foods in the kitchen, so why the hell are you asking me about handling events in the front of the store? = =

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The work itself is insanely exhausting, so it’s very suitable for people with a strong tolerance for being exploited.

As others have said, during the off-season, when business is poor, shifts are suddenly cut. This leaves only a small number of people to handle the kitchen. If a group of customers comes in or something goes wrong, you’ll be completely overwhelmed. It’s completely normal to cover two sections by yourself while preparing ingredients and serving food at the same time...

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At the store where I worked, there was a tendency to bully new employees.

For example, doing some preparatory work before closing usually makes closing easier and smoother.

But once you’ve consistently followed all these procedures, some blue-hat supervisors will send the new employee to another area (such as dishwashing) and take over the area that someone else has already mostly finished. The new employee is simply left to work themselves to death; conversely, if you spend the entire evening washing dishes and get everything properly sorted out, they may pull you back at closing time to deal with a chaotic prepared-food section ^^.

A new employee who started at the same time as me was even scolded during her second week because “she was the only one scheduled to open the store,” even though the schedule was made by a yellow-hat supervisor. How would a new employee know what kind of schedule was unacceptable, or know in advance that she needed to raise the issue??? If the schedule is strange, why not scold the person who made it instead of the new employee??? (That wrongfully blamed coworker resigned a month later.)

Speaking of schedules, although they’re made every two weeks, the turnover is very high, and some supervisors are too short-sighted. They may see that business is slow today and schedule only a small workforce for the entire two-week period. Then, if business suddenly improves one day, they’ll suddenly revise that two-week schedule and add more people. As a result, it often happens that after the schedule is first posted, you make plans for days you aren’t scheduled to work, only to be told a week later that you need to come in and cover a shift that day. The better ones will ask whether you can accommodate it; the harsher ones will simply add you to the schedule, leaving you no chance to refuse. Absolutely terrible.

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Speaking of supervisors, the supervisor system has huge problems.

At the store where I worked, part-time employees made up roughly two-thirds of the staff, while there were relatively few full-time employees. But the yellow- and blue-hat supervisors don’t care whether you’re full-time. As long as you’re familiar enough with your section, or familiar enough with how the entire store operates—in plain terms, as long as you’re willing enough to be exploited—you can become a supervisor. The advantage is that anyone who is motivated can get promoted, but the downside is that these supervisors have none of the management skills a supervisor should possess. So when they scold people, they often do it like high school students running a club (our store even happened to have a vocational high school girl working as a yellow-hat supervisor ^^; most of the others were university students, and at 24, I was already one of the older employees—can you believe it?). They can’t identify the root of the problem at all; they just vent their anger and emotionally manipulate people. This does absolutely nothing to facilitate communication or help new employees understand how to solve problems. In my opinion, this promotion system is the company’s biggest problem. One day, this company will be brought down by this system :)

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Conclusion

Everything above can be considered personal experience and does not represent every employee at every store, but one undeniable fact is right in front of us:

This company has an insanely high turnover rate. At any time, you can find their job openings on all the major job bank websites.

There must be a reason for it. Everyone can think for themselves: what kind of company is so completely unable to retain its employees like this?

I quit after only a month and a half, but even during that short time, half the people at the store had already been replaced by different faces.

If you’ve just entered the workforce, you can go there for a shocking educational experience. If you’re preparing for the civil service exam, planning to return to school to continue your studies, or struggling with whether to take over the family business, you’ll definitely gain a powerful source of motivation (I personally became determined to pass the civil service exams because of this, and passed the following year ^^). If you have a strong tolerance for being exploited, you can also give it a try—maybe it’ll satisfy your desires XD.

As for me, I’d rather go eat at Sushiro than ever step foot in “Funeral Sushi” again :D