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The company has no promotion system, and even managers do not receive any managerial benefits. Many people are managers in name only. Once you join, the only boss you will see is the female owner. You will basically only see the male owner during the interview; other than appearing for routine signatures and stamps or travel applications and reimbursements, there is otherwise no opportunity to see him.

The female owner loves to make grand promises. Even when there is not even a one, she will talk as if there are ten. She is the source of gossip, causing colleagues to dislike one another and develop grudges, because she believes there must be competition internally for the company to grow. (She likes to make everyone compete and compare with one another, so she often tells gossip and rumors to many people. It often eventually gets traced back to her as the source. She then immediately calls a meeting to clarify that she did not say it, acts innocent, and asks why everyone is making her sound so bad, playing the victim and saying people can confront her about it.) She says that she worked in sales for 35 years and had outstanding results, but she is completely incapable of solving problems and only knows how to talk. When something happens, she only scolds colleagues and tells them to figure it out. Her EQ is extremely low. When the problem is finally resolved, she takes pride in herself and wonders why things are solved as soon as she speaks up, even though everyone has nearly been driven to the breaking point by her. If no solution can be found, she indiscriminately blames everyone involved. Therefore, it is recommended that you find a way to handle matters yourself, because she does not know how to solve them either; if you resolve something yourself, she will instead think you are very capable. Her attitude toward employees depends on whether she likes them and whether their performance is good. If your performance is good, everything you do is right. If she dislikes you, she will constantly find fault with you; nothing you do will satisfy her, and she will publicly humiliate you and deliberately pick on your mistakes. (She looks down on anyone whose performance is poor.) She treats every newcomer well, but after a while her attitude changes 180 degrees unless you produce results.

You cannot have any opinions about the company or disagree with them at all, yet they love asking you for your opinions. Even when you express an opinion politely several times, the female owner still thinks you are questioning them. She will even spread remarks saying that employees are conceited and trying to take her position.

The company is only afraid of bad people. One salesperson was not very capable, but constantly talked back to the female owner during meetings and performed poorly on business trips and at meetings. In the end, she only dared to complain about her behind her back, while still giving her opportunities that other colleagues wanted and maintaining a good attitude toward her face-to-face. One employee had repeatedly been criticized by all the company’s colleagues for having problems with their work attitude and methods, but the boss still did not dare say a word. The matter only ended when that person resigned. (This person had also worked there for a long time, but everyone else could only continue putting up with it if they had not resigned.)

The official quitting time is 6 p.m., but working overtime every day is the norm. You are still expected to reply to emails and messages after work and even on holidays. They say that after 6 p.m. is your free time and no one will control you, but if you really do not reply, they will say behind your back that you lack a sense of responsibility. Overtime is also unpaid.

The clients assigned to you are distributed based on luck, not ability. Usually, if you take over for someone who has resigned, you directly inherit their clients. One departing salesperson’s clients were all among the company’s top major accounts, and the boss assigned all of them directly to the newest employee. Half of those clients were then lost, after which the boss transferred them out so that capable people could rescue them. They then made the capable people play the bad cop. There have also been cases where someone joined and inherited a pile of messes, only to be targeted by the boss for supposedly handling matters poorly or causing substantial financial losses. The boss repeatedly emphasized that the clients had been ruined while in that person’s hands, even though the problems had clearly been caused by the previous people involved.

The company does not evaluate people properly. Problems may already be apparent during the three-month probationary period, but because the company is short-staffed and cannot find replacements, it still will not let the person go. Eventually, a series of problems arises, and capable employees have to clean up after them. If you are capable, you will simply work yourself to death; the boss will neither raise your salary nor appreciate you, because she thinks it is all expected. It is a company where the capable do more work. As long as the boss likes someone who is incompetent, no matter how many problems they cause, none of them are considered that person’s responsibility. One salesperson was poor at their job but favored by the boss; because they could not finish their own work, the boss assigned it all to the back-office staff and made everyone help handle it.

Business trips are also described very attractively, but after going once, you will not want to go again. The purpose of the trip is to serve this husband-and-wife pair. To save on transportation costs, the company would rather have one person drag at least two large suitcases plus their own luggage, while constantly watching the couple’s expressions. To save on hotel and transportation costs, they stay in cheap, low-quality three-star hotels or hotels with many negative online reviews. Some hotels were so dirty that even the owners themselves did not dare use the towels. On one occasion, someone drove for at least five hours from Los Angeles to Las Vegas while carrying all the luggage. Worst of all, the company does not inform the people going in advance about flight tickets and other details. As a result, except for the one person the boss trusts enough to tell, everyone else is completely confused when they are suddenly told they have to go, knowing nothing at all. They have to ask for details themselves a week in advance. It is extremely disrespectful to employees. Company employees often only find out about business trips after noticing that someone is absent, and no one knows why it has to be kept secret (?). However, because the company now consists mostly of newcomers and its online reviews are very poor, the boss now puts new employees in decent hotels on business trips, fearing that they will see the negative reviews online and refuse to continue working there.

The company is extremely stingy and does not hold any activities or events. Even when it does, it is very ungenerous when treating employees. At one gathering of about 12 people, there were fewer than 10 dishes, and the two bosses had already ordered everything themselves before arriving at the restaurant. During afternoon tea, you can only order things such as black or green tea. Any added tapioca pearls or additional items must be paid for yourself. However, when newcomers join, the company often provides afternoon tea to make them think the benefits are excellent.

They bring their relatives and children to work at the company. Their son’s cases are the most important. If you do not search for or compare at least three quotations, they will not let you off. If you make even the slightest mistake, it will become known throughout the company, and everyone involved will be severely scolded. The female owner will repeatedly email every department and make them handle it (basically, it must be handled as a priority, or you are finished). Once the order is successfully secured, she will praise her son and boast about how capable he is. Before joining the company, they said everyone would be treated equally and emphasized this to all employees, but there are still all kinds of privileges.

They ask people with good English to attend interviews and conduct oral tests, regardless of their qualifications. Therefore, even fresh graduates with no work experience can be asked to interview as long as their English is good. Few people in the entire company can speak English. The overseas sales staff also use Google Translate English, and both bosses have poor English. They often cannot understand customers’ emails and take out their frustration on employees.

The boss says there will be annual raises, but there have never been any. The work expected of you far exceeds your salary and bonuses. Bonuses are secretly deducted, and the bonus system is also opaque, because the finance department deducts a little each month rather than making one deduction at once. An employee may lose money on one order but make money on other orders, yet everyone involved will continue having deductions made until the loss amount has been fully recovered. It is very common for miscellaneous expenses to be deducted from an order until less than 10% remains. The boss often orders the next step to proceed without the customer’s approval; when the customer refuses to pay, the expenses are deducted from the relevant employees’ bonuses. When quoting prices, the female owner will sometimes try so hard to win the customer that there is not even a 10% margin, meaning everyone involved is working for nothing or losing money, and then losing their bonuses as well. Worst of all, the company considers this the employees’ problem because the follow-up handling after receiving the order was supposedly inadequate. Bonuses are also given very grudgingly. One salesperson once secured a major order, but when it was time to pay the bonus, the female owner complained to other employees that she did not want to give it to that person because she had done all the work of handling it. After the entire company found out, she immediately called a meeting, became angry and defensive, and pretended to clarify that she had never said it. Many customers may have financial difficulties or poor credit because they failed credit checks, yet the female owner insists on doing business with them anyway. When the company later loses money, she blames the relevant employees.

The company has an extremely high turnover rate, and very few people stay longer than two years. There are only two or three senior employees, and the two bosses’ attitudes toward them depend on their moods (though they are basically rarely pleasant). Once they think these employees will no longer leave, they decide how to treat them based on their moods. Therefore, work resources and opportunities are not given to senior employees. The company especially likes fresh university graduates with no experience, because it can offer them very low salaries while making grand promises that give newcomers the impression that there are many opportunities.

The company has no SOP. Systems and policies change according to the bosses’ moods. After seeing online reviews, they immediately asked employees to produce a manual, but after implementing it a few times and seeing poor results, they canceled it. Everything goes back and forth and changes repeatedly. They also love creating new rules to discipline employees, but these efforts are always short-lived. They often disappear quietly after only a week of implementation. They once established a new bonus system to reward employees, but it also disappeared as soon as the first person qualified for it.