A real-life palace drama setting

The comments on this site really resonated with me. The following supports and corroborates them:

* The boss is skilled at sowing discord. She forces Department A to provide Department B’s shortcomings, then turns around and tells Department B that she heard Department A had raised issues xx, intensifying the conflict between the two sides and seemingly fearing that things might be too peaceful.

* She argues with current employees that the online comments are all nonsense, explaining that the company operates properly. Yet she herself cannot determine or distinguish who the actual commenters are, because she treats all employees in the same way.

* Favored employees can take long vacations abroad, while other employees face all kinds of difficulties if they want to take consecutive days off. She then creates new leave regulations.

* The boss often takes an inexplicable dislike to someone, switching targets every so often. She privately messages other colleagues and assigns tasks to the employee being targeted.

* The boss seems to think she is a superior person capable of bestowing favors. She believes that anyone who wants something should proactively ask her for it, yet she maintains a lofty attitude and often looks down on people while using sarcastic remarks.

* She is always boasting about her many years of accumulated business experience, saying that she can finish replying to the company’s emails in no time and does not understand what everyone is doing all morning. She also questions why people who do not understand something do not ask her. But when an innocent colleague actually comes to ask for guidance, they get scolded: “Why should I tell you?!” Moreover, the process and technical knowledge she rarely shares are clearly outdated.

* You need to have three heads and six arms here. While handling Matter A, you may be questioned about why Matter B has stalled. After rushing to finish Matters B and C, she will then criticize you for making no progress on A. In fact, she can see all the emails, so it is unclear whether she is selectively looking for faults or simply blind to them.

* She often does not finish reading the customer’s previous correspondence or the complete email before jumping in with instructions based only on the current message, berating the sales staff mercilessly and not allowing them to talk back. In the end, the case becomes increasingly complicated, and they have to clean up the mess themselves.

* The boss claims she can provide the previous contact person’s email address so that matters being handed over can be checked. But when an issue arises and the back-office staff have not properly filed the records, anyone who asks about it gets scolded: “Why should I provide you with the information?!” The incident ultimately ended only after the boss publicly disclosed a former employee’s personal information so that the other party could contact them directly.

* The male boss is nominally an assistant manager. Basically, he only leaves his small office for meetings. He remains silent throughout the meetings and only speaks up when a problem happens to arise—pure armchair theorizing.

* The PPM meetings are also just for show. When temporarily serving as a colleague’s substitute, you are expected to hold a PPM meeting that same day, even though you have not yet become familiar with the product yourself. As soon as the meeting time arrives, you are forced to go up and sign the handover documents for the sales coordinator.

* After a typhoon day off, employees are asked individually whether they want to use annual leave to offset the day or have their pay deducted. A small number of colleagues who replied by text message on their phones may be counted as having “worked” and therefore not have their pay deducted. The list is determined solely by the boss, and the criteria have never been publicly explained.

(Many colleagues whose pay was deducted for not processing emails on the day off were actually busy until eight or nine at night before and after the typhoon, but the boss simply turned a blind eye.)

* The boss gives privileges to employees she likes or wants to win over—for example, fully refunding the salary deducted for tardiness the following month or providing miscellaneous allowances.

* Before accepting an order, if there is a difficult issue or it is clearly impossible to meet the customer’s expectations, the boss still insists that the sales staff find a way to win the order. She implies that she will later step in and pressure the order-follow-up department.

* Whenever something benefits the company, the rules are changed accordingly. Whoever the boss favors gets the rules adjusted for them.

* During the company’s stated 20-minute afternoon break, the boss often stops people she dislikes, finding fault with them or questioning delays in quotations, and makes them continue standing at their posts so they cannot enjoy this employee benefit.

(But when she is rushing to send something out, the boss will also imperiously announce that she needs to go out, and suddenly the quotation is no longer important. Employees often have to wait for her to return leisurely at five or six o’clock to approve it, forcing them to work overtime.)

* You need to learn how to deflect issues and accomplish a lot with little effort. Telling small lies when necessary is also acceptable. The boss may even think that someone who acts like her has great potential and a bright future.

* There is only one microwave in the company, with dozens of people waiting to use it. It is perfectly normal to wait nearly an hour for your turn.

* The office building is old, and the restroom is located in the stairwell. It is so old that even standing up can cause the toilet seat to stick to you and shift out of place…

There is no toilet paper in the restroom, so it is recommended that you bring your own disinfectant and hand soap.