This place can train your psychological resilience. After that, you could go to Foxconn or TSMC—you should be able to handle it. From what I’ve heard from friends around me who joined TSMC and Foxconn, their work environments aren’t as high-pressure as this one.

I was forced out after working there for four months.

In the first month, I wrote an Android app for new-hire training.

It had to retrieve and display data using four communication protocols.

In the second month, I was told to build a Sample App and then change its color. I was given two weeks to complete it, and the client’s deadline was non-negotiable.

Later, I finished ahead of schedule and showed it to the senior manager, who said, “What kind of crappy app is this? Go look at the screens and flow of a previously completed IoT app, and change it to be the same as that!”

However, the deadline remained the original two weeks. The original sample code had only two functions, while the app I was supposed to reference had more than ten, and the screens and flow were completely different. I had no choice but to put in 200% of my time and effort to heavily modify it. I finally showed it to the senior manager two days before the deadline!

Then, the next day, it was discovered that a certain previously written iOS app had supported functionality that could be used directly.

I was told to change the completed Android app so that its screens and flow were the same as that iOS app’s.

The deadline was the following day, and there was no way I could finish in time. The senior manager took me to a conference room and berated me:

“I brought you here because I thought you were a senior, yet you failed to finish it on time. Your abilities are far below what I thought during the interview. How can you be so incompetent?”

(I was genuinely dumbfounded! I was given two weeks just to change a color, but ended up implementing more than ten functions, while the UI was changed three times into completely different versions along the way. Who could possibly finish that!?)

Still, I tried to explain at the time by saying, “The senior manager threw three meteorites at us along the way, so that’s why it was delayed”—giving the senior manager an excuse to save face.

• For additional context: A few iOS engineers who had joined that month were forced out by the senior manager (he was berating people in the office almost every day), so another Android engineer was assigned to take over the iOS work, while I had to take over all the Android work. Those three “meteorites” were issues reported by clients from previous projects!

In the third month, I was told that the client wanted two SDKs and a new app, again with only two weeks to deliver them. The next day, I received the client’s specs, which consisted of only a few sentences, so I had no idea what actually needed to be done.

The following day, when I had to somehow estimate the schedule and report it to the senior manager, I said the SDKs would take three weeks to complete. The senior manager said, “The client wants the SDKs in two weeks, and you’re telling me they’ll take three weeks? Are you trying to leave me with an unfinished project? You also have a new app to make—what are you doing? You’ll deal with the consequences yourself later. Just try leaving me with an unfinished project!”

After that, I mostly ignored the senior manager and continued working on the SDKs. At the daily morning stand-up meetings, the senior manager kept taunting me, saying, “Just try leaving me with an unfinished project.” A few days later, when he saw that I still had not responded, he said, “Submit the two SDKs to me. Give the new app to the Android engineer who was reassigned to iOS.”

(For additional context: The client only requested an Android app; they did not request an iOS app.)

When the deadline arrived, I had also dealt with “meteorite” issues reported by two clients along the way, so I told the senior manager, “The SDK functionality is complete, but I still need one day to thoroughly test all the functionality.”

The senior manager said, “Okay.”

Then, the next morning, the senior manager called HR and the junior manager and summoned me to a conference room.

The senior manager then put on a display of workplace bullying—randomly berating me, attacking my character, throwing things, and so on—and even demanded that I answer private questions, such as whom I normally chatted with!

(I recorded the conversation to protect myself and planned to visit the labor department afterward!)

In the fourth month, there was basically no interaction. The senior manager only told me to work on new features related to expanding the app from the second month, and then stopped managing or communicating with me!

Luckily, I ended up resigning on my own. The physical and emotional damage was considerable!