Workplace reviews and discussion: 欣巴巴事業股份有限公司

I’d like to share some rules for surviving at this company. Of course, this only applies as of July 2025; what happens afterward depends on the company’s fortunes.

Surviving at this company really isn’t difficult. It comes down to just a few sayings:

Go along with the crowd and you’ll sail smoothly; work hard and do things properly, and you’ll be dismissed and investigated (because many managers don’t know how to manage people).

Getting promoted and becoming wealthy depends on acting skills; raises and bonuses depend on flattery (this is true, because many managers fall for this, especially those with “general manager” in their titles).

As for how to survive here, that’s up to you.

Next, I’d like to share the reality of the company’s various departments, which may be useful for anyone considering an interview.

Construction Site Office: If you’re going to a construction site office, congratulations—you’re going to build houses. But you don’t build them with cement; you build them with yourself. Put simply, from the beginning to the completion of a building, the engineers, site managers, supervisors, assistants, customer-service staff, and other company employees assigned to the project are replaced so often that, if you pile up everyone who has resigned, there would be enough people to build two buildings. That’s why I say houses aren’t built with cement; they’re built with “people.” New employees in this position have to take over the problems left by the previous employee, many of which are caused by company policies. For example:

Boss: Why is the construction schedule delayed?

You: Because the work hasn’t been subcontracted.

Boss: Why hasn’t it been subcontracted? Didn’t you submit the procurement request?

You: I did.

Boss: Call Procurement in.

Procurement: Reporting to you, Boss, the procurement request was submitted.

Boss: Then why are there no materials on site?

Procurement: It’s currently awaiting the supervisor’s approval.

Boss: It’s been waiting that long, and you didn’t say anything? There’s no work and no materials on site, and you didn’t report it. You’re done here today.

Congratulations—you’ve just added a little more progress to the construction of this building.

Sales: If you’re applying for a position in Sales, this section may help you. In principle, Sales is divided into two major units: external sales, which primarily handles selling, and the customer-service and administration unit.

These two units report to different managers, so there is a cultural gap between them. They need to be discussed separately.

The colleagues in Sales are quite nice, but the department is extremely lax. I’ve never seen a company’s sales department have it so easy. However, these people aren’t enjoying themselves because they’re highly capable; rather, the policies imposed from above are so absurd that they’ve given up. Whatever they do, they get scolded, so they might as well do nothing—or do things casually—because they’ll be scolded anyway. The Sales department also frequently receives demands from supervisors to attend meetings, prepare large numbers of reports, share local social trends, and so on. A great deal of time is spent handling these trivial matters, leaving insufficient time to visit customers or make phone calls. Policies from above also change constantly. For example:

Supervisor: There aren’t many visitors at the project site right now, so there isn’t much need for outbound calls. Phone charges are too expensive—remove the phone.

Three days later

Supervisor: Why doesn’t the project site have a phone? People can’t call in.

Sales: Because you said to remove it.

Supervisor: xxx, I told you to remove it, not all of them. You should have asked for clarification. Apply to have it restored immediately.

And so, to save less than a few thousand dollars, several days of work were spent dealing with this insignificant matter.

As for the other unit, Customer Service and Administration—that’s a whole different story.

The senior manager and the third-in-command are very close and are the souls of these two units. As for their abilities… I’ll leave that unsaid.

Surviving in this unit is actually simple: you must constantly “care” about what these managers need, satisfy them at all times, and say what they want to hear. If you fail to please them, one phrase sums it up: you’ll be doomed.

There was one case involving a junior employee who took her husband on an employee trip.

Simply because she didn’t stay by the third-in-command’s side and attend to them constantly during the trip, she was targeted by that person after returning. Faults were picked constantly, and minor mistakes were magnified to an outrageous degree. When the matter reached the senior manager, the issue itself was minor, but her performance rating was given a direct failing grade. As far as I know, since the company was founded, aside from people who were fired, no one has received a failing performance rating.

So if you want to work in this unit, it’s simple: choose the right side, keep these two people happy, and the work itself won’t be difficult.

Administration: This is the most stable department in the company, and also the worst. It mainly consists of three sections responsible for general affairs, human resources, and information technology.

Staff turnover in this department is usually low, making it the most stable department. But the reason it is considered the worst is that it has long been without a manager, because the manager position is the worst job in the entire company and most people don’t stay long.

Because there has been no manager for a long time, and because other departments have become accustomed to the idea that “if there’s a problem, call Administration,” almost everything ends up being handled by Administration. The boss treats Administration as an inner palace office—an inner palace office with no authority. Other managers also push things onto it whenever they can, and some even deliberately step on it to demonstrate their own value. Administration can therefore be said to be constantly suppressed. In the end, the entire department is treated like a “child bride.”

In my view, the company’s three worst positions are all in this department: 1. Administration manager; 2. IT; 3. Human Resources.

Why? If there’s a computer problem, it’s IT’s fault. Put simply, if it has a power connection, IT manages it, and any problem is IT’s problem. The computer crashes? Call IT. Don’t know how to use Excel? Call IT. The network is down? Call IT. Your personal phone can’t access the internet? Call IT. A video is lagging? Call IT. Don’t know how to operate software? Call IT. Even if you want to move a seat, call IT.

As for Human Resources, anything involving people is HR’s responsibility. Many of the matters they have to handle are raised by managers. For example, under company rules, within three instances of lateness, employees may apply to have a missed clock-in/out record corrected; each person gets three chances per month. Sometimes a manager will ask: Why only three? Why not five? Why give three chances? Strange questions like these arise frequently.

As for the department manager, there’s no need to say much. They are often summoned by the boss, and if something doesn’t go well, they face an overwhelming barrage. Sometimes they also have to receive “guidance” from managers of other departments about how things should be done, whether to report something to the boss, or whether to raise employees’ needs with the company. Otherwise, they have to step in and face work-related issues on behalf of their subordinates. Under these conditions, it’s difficult not to have a shortened lifespan.

The professional requirements for IT and HR are not particularly high. The company is always looking for professionals, but professionals usually don’t last long. The company doesn’t want your expertise; it only wants you to obey.

Marketing: This is a newly established department, created as part of an organizational adjustment to support online marketing. The manager of this department can be described as the model of promotion and prosperity within the company. As mentioned in the sayings above, they have done it all—and done it very well. Whenever they have time, they send the manager a message to say hello and thank them; they can even write a note and attach it to an official document submitted for approval. When the manager gives instructions, all you need to do is nod in agreement and finish with, “Thank you for XX’s guidance; I’ve found it very useful.” If you can do this, you can rise from assistant to associate manager within five years. As for ability, that isn’t important. Once you become a manager, just distribute the work. When your manager asks about something, say who is responsible, say that you’ll look into it, and return immediately with a report. That will be quite sufficient.

As for everything else, frankly, I won’t comment further.

Finance and Cashier: This is a relatively stable department. In principle, the supervisor above them does not have any major problems, so they can simply carry out the accounting work properly. The only thing worth mentioning is that their male manager is somewhat bureaucratic. But honestly, compared with the other managers, he is a normal person. The only drawback is that there is never-ending work, and they often have to take work home to finish after hours.

Land Development: This is the most comfortable department because the boss is highly ambitious and always wants to expand, so they are constantly trying to buy land. The young master is also in this department, and since there aren’t many people in it, the department receives relatively special attention. But openings are rare—who would leave such a good position without a reason?

Planning: If you’re coming to this department, congratulations—you haven’t fallen into the wrong pit. Although the department manager is not especially strong professionally, the boss is willing to listen to them and take what they say seriously. They also look after their subordinates and fight for their rights externally. So if you join this department, you can peacefully “spend the rest of your career” there. As for gaining experience and growing in this department, that may be difficult. The only advantage is that it can enhance your résumé.

Also, when negotiating your salary for this department, don’t be shy about naming your price, because this is the only department considered to require professional expertise.

Procurement: This is a department going through troubled times. It is a section under the Construction Department. Why give it special mention?

Because this department is the junior boss’s testing ground, and the junior boss is also the future heir to the group. So the boss places great importance on it.

But being important doesn’t mean being free of problems. The boss often presses for progress on projects, but many matters get stuck at this stage. This isn’t because the procurement staff are careless; many problems come from their supervisor. The supervisor either produces strange arguments to refute things or uses strange reasoning to demand that staff carry things out. After they actually follow those instructions, the documents are submitted and then get stuck there again. Approval is extremely slow; taking three to five days counts as fast, while being held up for one or two months is normal. Other departments can only chase Procurement, so Procurement has to face a great deal of external pressure. They are also often suspected by the boss of having accepted some improper benefit. Therefore, when this department has an opening, it can be said to be open year-round.

As for how to get by in this department, the requirements are: be a young woman, be attractive, and have a coquettish voice. If you meet these conditions, things will be much easier.

Legal: This department is also, to put it mildly, “difficult to put into words.” Employees joining this department are, in principle, expected to have substantial professional expertise. But their expertise will be rejected when it reaches the boss. As a result, you are often stuck internally, constantly struggling. You have to choose between accommodating the boss and carrying out your professional duties. So you often do work for nothing, get scolded, revise it, get scolded again, and revise it again—repeating the cycle until the boss compromises or your execution according to the boss’s method succeeds.

Either way, it is no benefit to you, because the credit all goes to the boss. You are merely the person carrying it out.

A special note about the department manager: except during the tenure of a previously strong-willed female manager, the department has been unstable. She was able to hold the boss in check. After she left, this department could only be described as weathering storm after storm. Why? There are many reasons, and the boss, manager, and employees all have problems; the proportions differ from case to case. It is therefore difficult to assign responsibility. The Legal manager position has consequently remained open, because no manager has been what the boss wants, and no manager has produced results the boss wants, so consensus has never been reached.

That is roughly the situation in these departments. I’ll leave the rest for others to add.

This was shared by an employee who has worked at the company for more than five years. I can’t say whether the content will meet everyone’s expectations, but writing it truthfully also takes some courage.

Here are a few points of clarification, in the hope that they will help employees considering joining the company prepare themselves mentally.

1. The company’s boss enjoys socializing and also takes on many positions in social organizations, so giving and returning gifts is very common. When the three major holidays arrive, the company receives many gifts. If there are too many, they are distributed among colleagues. Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, for example, you’ll have more pomelos than you can eat. Of course, they’ll only be ordinary pomelos; the premium red-fleshed ones still won’t be your share.

2. You will often have to support social-organization activities. The boss holds many positions in such organizations, and every appearance is an occasion for generous spending: 100,000, 150,000, or 200,000, and amounts in the millions are not unusual. So you need to adjust your mindset. Those who understand will know what I mean.

3. Employee turnover is extremely high. The company has approximately 150 employees in total, but each year the employee numbers increase by roughly 200–250, so sometimes a newcomer disappears before you have even had time to get to know them.

4. Don’t expect the company to provide much help to departing employees. “As long as people remain, relationships remain” is the flattering version. More directly: once you’re leaving, you no longer have any value to the company, so why would it give you a pleasant farewell? Every departing employee leaves in a hurry and is not very happy. So if you expect an amicable parting, that is impossible. That is simply the company culture. The more conscientious you are toward the company, the more disappointed you will usually be. It is common to see employees receive disciplinary action even after they have resigned. Managers who were usually very friendly to you may do the same when you resign, in order to protect themselves.

The only disadvantage is that there are no disadvantages. The company must really like that wording, right?