Workplace reviews and discussion: 曜田國際股份有限公司

The colleagues are super nice. On our first day at work, they would wait for us newcomers so we could go eat together. The atmosphere was also pleasant, and many former colleagues would still come back to chat with the staff. Coffee and snacks were provided in the pantry, and then... I can't think of anything else.

The main drawbacks here stem from the two top people at this company. The boss has no core philosophy and doesn't know why he started this company. He started a company related to the arts and culture, but has no interest in the arts whatsoever. All he asks is, “Are there any orders?” If the answer is no, he launches into a tirade and a round of workplace manipulation. Then, all design drafts ultimately have to go through his review, resulting in endless revisions. The boss doesn't dare make decisions and is accustomed to dumping responsibility on employees. He only says, “I don't think your work is good. You need to approach things logically.” But he gives no direction and never tells you what he wants. You can only try again and again, get rejected again and again, and endure repeated manipulation. He starts talking about how terrible you are and how you need to grow and change, blah blah blah.

Next, I'll talk about the most tragic part. This endless cycle of revisions and inability to make decisions isn't only stuck with the boss. There are two checkpoints in this infinite loop, and the worst is the manager at this company. She is a workplace champion of over 100 points—a total salary thief. Following the boss's behavior, she endlessly revises drafts at her stage. This manager also gives no direction; she only tells you that she thinks the work is bad. Even after many revisions, she remains dissatisfied. She starts yelling and manipulating employees. This manager can occupy most of your workday with meetings. Basically, none of the meetings have any meaning. She isn't there to solve problems; she is just there to yell at everyone. Then, things already confirmed in meetings with her get blasted by the boss. And this highly “hardworking” manager won't step forward and tell the boss that these were decisions made in meetings with her. Instead, she joins the boss in yelling: “What on earth are you doing? Haven't I had so many meetings with you already? What the hell is this?” It's strange—the plan was decided in meetings with you. This company's manager is accustomed to shifting responsibility downward. She also leaves before 3 p.m. every day, always saying she is going to meet clients. Many times, colleagues caught her going for manicures or handling other personal matters. She never appears on Fridays. Later, we discovered that she marked herself as working from home on Fridays but was actually going camping. She likes to show off and often brags about the expensive things she has bought; the camping trips were also revealed by her own bragging. On a Thursday, before leaving the office before 3 p.m. as usual to supposedly meet a client, she said that she was going to rush out to the camping area again that night. She is simply a manager with an awful personality.

That roughly describes these two top people. Next are some rather bizarre things. Both of these top people have memory problems. The older one forgets what he said the day before by the next day. The younger one forgets the things she herself criticized after they have been revised; a few days later, she will yell at you, asking what kind of awful thing you made, even though it was exactly what she had told you to do. After joining this company, many things opened my eyes—for example, Adobe could only be installed on one computer, so everyone had to queue up to use it. Employees were expected to edit videos, yet the computers had no dedicated graphics cards. When we applied to have graphics cards installed, the boss said, “We’re not a film company.” Huh? So apparently making films is that easy—you just need a computer that can edit videos. When product photos needed to be taken, the company did not provide a camera. They said that phones are very powerful nowadays, so we should use our own phones or bring our own cameras. Other colleagues also brought their own computers to work. He even said that we spent too much time on design, that design should only take 30 minutes, and that our progress was too slow. That is what the boss here is like: his level of technological knowledge has not kept up with the times, yet he is extremely subjective and controlling. When putting a trash bag in a garbage can, it had to fit the bin perfectly, or he would scold people in meetings. There couldn't even be water droplets on the bathroom floor, or he would start yelling. There are many trivial matters like this. Basically, a lot of progress here gets stuck because the boss cannot make decisions, causing constant delays. Then the manager not only refuses to take responsibility but also attacks people behind their backs. In the end, she starts scolding us for being inefficient and too slow, and begins manipulating everyone again.

Summary:

1. The company has no core philosophy and lacks work processes.

2. The boss cannot make decisions, constantly changes his orders, is extremely picky, easily misinterprets what people say, is difficult to communicate with, dislikes what he considers negative comments (though it is unclear what he defines as negative), does not care about aesthetics, and shifts responsibility downward.

3. The manager loves holding meetings to make decisions, but she will not take responsibility and will stab employees in the back. She is very calculating, and you never know what might upset her. She will report minor matters to the boss. She is a salary thief. When she says she will help, she absolutely will not. The only thing she is good at is making phone calls and yelling at subordinates; beyond that, she shifts responsibility downward.

4. The company claims that the probationary salary is NT$27,000, but according to other colleagues, everyone earns NT$27,000, and it does not increase after probation. During the interview, they said the company would look at how hard you worked. We worked on holidays, and the boss did not care at all. The company considered this a sign of dedication, but the salary was still NT$27,000. You also have to sign a confidentiality agreement stating that, upon leaving, you cannot take a job in a related industry for a specified period, supposedly to prevent company secrets from being leaked. In reality, the company does not have any particularly important secrets—otherwise, why would we all bring our own computers to work and use our own phones and cameras to photograph products?