A decades-old company and a large enterprise with several hundred employees

A traditional manufacturing business with a system based on results rather than hours, pay that depends on luck, and opportunities to learn about different fields—for example, working as a cleaner or newspaper delivery person

Some colleagues are crazy, others are ill; managers just talk and paint you rosy pictures. It can train your self-cultivation and emotional management skills

Suitable for natural actors who flatter managers—you’ll get along very well here

1. You have to sneak into major universities to hand out flyers, write on blackboards, and hold seminars

2. As mentioned above, when holding seminars you have to order refreshments and pay upfront yourself (NT$100 per student; 40 students means NT$4,000). You won’t be reimbursed until several weeks later

2. As mentioned above, when holding seminars you have to play cat and mouse with the campus security center, because the school won’t lend you a classroom (in my first week, I was yelled at by a school officer and thrown out)

I urge people with an overflowing sense of justice not to work in school-channel sales

3. During the General Scholastic Ability Test, Comprehensive Assessment Program, and any civil-service exams, you’ll be sent to work for free handing out DMs

4. I heard from senior colleagues that performance bonuses used to be better; the commission could reach double-digit percentages, but now only a pitiful single-digit percentage remains

5. They keep saying that declining birth rates mean everyone has to share the burden, but supposedly revenue hasn’t fallen

6. The company’s upper management is also similar to a family business, but it’s difficult to hear any gossip

7. The new-hire mentor system can’t really be called good or bad, because it completely depends on who your mentor is and whether they keep their tricks to themselves

8. There are tons of meaningless meetings. If you don’t hit your targets, you have to go up and give a self-criticism report. I heard that in the past you had to write it (I’d rather write it than be publicly humiliated onstage)

9. I have absolutely no idea how the managers make decisions. If they say today that we’re going to the North Pole, we go to the North Pole; if they say tomorrow that we’re going to the South Pole, we go to the South Pole. You need excellent survival and adaptability skills

10. During the interview, they said most colleagues were around the same age (almost all under 30). Only after joining did I understand that this was because the retention rate was so low

11. You have to bring your own toilet paper, and your colleagues can hear the sounds when you defecate—unless you never defecate at work

12. Your self-esteem is often put down here. Although the scolding doesn’t go as far as personal attacks, you’ll be subjected to PUA-style manipulation. They’ll say things like, “For someone with your abilities, you’re already doing pretty well here. You definitely wouldn’t earn this much at another job, and it would be harder.” Or your manager will compare and pressure you: “Look at so-and-so—they did ** ten-thousand in sales this month and even came in to work overtime on holidays to serve students,” and so on

13. Managers will lead the isolation of new employees they dislike. Group-work schedules are not transparent, creating information gaps that make it impossible to coordinate work

Eventually, you’ll realize that you’ve been targeted and that you’re no longer suited to staying, so you’ll quietly leave on your own

But the upside is that if you don’t care about anything, the company is also reluctant to spend severance money to make you leave