微碧愛普科技有限公司

Free Chinese lunch boxes

To cut to the chase, the CEO takes pride in the company culture of eliminating people who are deemed unsuitable. If you do not fit the CEO’s way of doing things, you will be pressured to resign or be directly terminated.

The work environment and relationships with colleagues are fairly acceptable, but as mentioned above, the company seems to like terminating people, so the pressure at work is quite high at all times.

Cross-departmental collaboration is relatively complicated. Some engineers have bad tempers, and the CEO and managers choose to cover for them, leading workplace PUA tactics from the top.

As previous online commenters have said, do not work in a department under the direct boss’s supervision, or you will be scapegoated and have trouble caused for you.

All laptops in the office are Macs, but the open-plan seating offers no privacy.

Salary and bonuses depend on performance. Although they said during the interview that the year-end bonus was three months’ salary, in practice, performance evaluations and bonuses depend on how much the boss subjectively decides to give you.

The benefits match those described in the job description. Providing lunch is a fairly good benefit, but the entire company is forced to eat lunch together every day.

There are also Team Building activities almost every month, which is somewhat stressful.

A company that looks like a startup on the outside but is a traditional industry company at heart.

Free lunch, nothing else.

To cut to the chase: this is a company destined to be mediocre.

#Industry

1. The iPad POS market is already a red ocean. Compared with its competitors, the company has no advantages and is stuck in a zero-sum market.

2. The other product lines have made little progress despite being worked on for several years.

#Internal Culture

1. RD receives no training, product logic is chaotic, and only a few RDs are genuinely familiar with their own products.

2. Avoid joining any team that the boss personally directs. The management team's only area of expertise is micromanagement; if they get involved, you will either die or be seriously hurt. If you don't know which teams will be micromanaged, you'd better not join and bring suffering upon yourself.

3. The claim that there is no overtime really just means that overtime cannot be reported. When schedules are recklessly compressed, you can only swallow your frustration and take the work home. If you cannot finish it, it means there is something wrong with your abilities, and you can expect to be highlighted in a meeting or laid off.

4. People are frequently laid off, so everyone focuses only on self-preservation and shifting the blame. On top of that, management does not understand management at all; as long as you speak loudly enough, you will have a place at the table.

5. Team growth and mutual support can wait until tomorrow. For newcomers, it is acceptable as a place to gain some experience, but if you stay for a long time, you are on your own.

#Office Environment

It is an open-plan office. Anyone who dislikes noise will definitely break down if there are talkative colleagues nearby or if someone codes on a keyboard with clicky blue switches.

None

Run for your life~

None

Run away quickly~

Just like an ordinary startup company.

The office is very run-down, but everything is Apple-branded, which makes it feel high-end. In reality, though, both the people and the systems are terrible.

At lunchtime, employees have to split into groups. If you’re grouped with the boss, you’ll be asked all sorts of questions. That would be fine if it were just conversation, but the boss loves making sarcastic remarks about people, which is genuinely uncomfortable. They treat other people’s irritation as entertainment. They claim that the company pays for lunch so employees can interact, but this kind of interaction—where people get mocked—would honestly be better avoided. As for what you hear before joining, it’s all just grand promises. Don’t worry: as a junior employee, you definitely won’t get any of it after you join. As for what former employees said about the sales department, all you can really do is laugh. No wonder the company has been stuck in the middle and is even getting worse. The company was an early entrant in this industry. Although it has survived until now, it has really been outperformed by later entrants. It thinks far too highly of itself and doesn’t value its employees (despite claiming that it does). After joining, you’ll definitely understand what it means to say one thing and do another. In any case, the credit goes to the old-timers, while newcomers are disposable chopsticks. Anyone considering joining should think twice!

The company as a whole feels young and energetic, and the boss is very approachable toward employees.

The sales manager is truly a disaster. The boss only trusts these old-timers; even if they deceive or placate him, he believes them, so new employees are simply left to fend for themselves.

If you have any good ideas, discuss them with the sales manager first. After the discussion, all those good suggestions become ideas proposed by the manager, while the person who came up with them is treated as having made no contribution. My advice for joining this company: do not report everything to the manager, or you will be extremely frustrated.

There are problems with the company’s systems, but the manager only tells customer service to handle them and has no interest in dealing with them himself—even when customers contact him directly. The sales manager spends every day putting on an act for the boss. There is no overtime pay, but you are expected to put on a show. Even when it is already time to leave and the manager is looking at mobile games, he still refuses to leave. If you leave before him, you will be given a hard time. The whole situation is simply awful.

The salary is somewhat higher than that of traditional industries in Taichung—really, only somewhat—but the internal competition is even more severe than in traditional industries. I really do not understand what the boss is thinking. The boss always says that of the original sales staff, only this manager stayed. One can only imagine how many behind-the-scenes schemes he has pulled. The company clearly has a promising future and plenty of potential, yet it has been ruined by this kind of misconduct, while the boss fails to see the problem or deal with it, leaving everything stuck in limbo. What former employees said was actually rather polite. If you really join this company, you need to be more calculating than anyone else and put on a more convincing act than anyone else; otherwise, you can easily be forced out!

Do not expect anyone to teach you—rely on yourself. Most importantly, really do not report to the sales manager, or you will learn about the darkness of society!! ^_^

The engineering department is genuinely fairly standard. If you are not going into sales, I still recommend this company, since the boss has an engineering background and there are many things you can ask him about. However, as soon as sales is involved, you are on your own, because the boss will not believe you! This leaves the engineering and customer service departments treated as if they are the ones at fault!

Overall, apart from engineering being a place to gain experience, people in other departments really have to fend for themselves. Since the company is not large, customer service is also closely tied to sales. Although the other manager is a nice person, they will not do anything to help you. In short, if you really get the opportunity to join this company, beware of the sales manager! This is the experience of someone who has been there; I hope it is useful for everyone’s reference!

No time clock; working hours are relatively flexible.

Complies with the Labor Standards Act because it has been reported.

The company presents itself as young and energetic when you join, but in reality it is not. During lunch, you are forced to chat; if the boss sees you using your phone, you will get chewed out. The company subsidizes lunch not so that you can eat and use your phone, but so that you can chat with your colleagues. When you run out of things to talk about, the boss will force you to share your hobbies and then make fun of you.

Although you do not actually have to clock in and out, what time you leave still depends on your department. The managers of two departments are good at pretending to be busy: although the scheduled end time is 6 p.m., they will always drag things out until 7 p.m. before leaving. Do you really dare leave as soon as your working hours are over?

When you join, they will definitely tell you that employees previously received three or five months’ worth of year-end bonuses. In reality, there is much more to it than that. Whether the year-end bonus is paid before the Lunar New Year is also a matter of mood. If you ask the boss why it is not paid before the New Year, he will suggest that if you have no money, you should ask your dad for some ^0^

Survival guide by department:

Marketing: The manager is very good at appearances. Do your assigned work until 7 p.m.; do not expect to learn much—just obediently be the company’s social media editor.

Sales: The manager came here after changing careers from acting. Many of the phone calls are actually just for the boss’s benefit. He does not have much ability himself, so he will keep asking for your ideas, package them up, and report them to the boss. Anyone who has watched *The Advisors Alliance* will understand. The company’s strategy is to treat sales staff as disposable. If you cannot keep going, the clients still belong to the company. Most of the people who cannot take it end up in this department.

Software: The boss comes from an engineering background. This department is slightly better than the others, with more flexible working hours, and the manager interferes less. However, be careful that the projects you are responsible for are not related to the boss’s or manager’s projects; otherwise, no matter whose fault it is, it will all be your fault.

Salaries are deliberately set slightly higher than those at traditional manufacturing companies in Taichung. Recently, they have deliberately given first-year employees a little extra, but after that, they slowly boil you like a frog. If you are young, I do not recommend coming here: you will not learn much. Every department needs people who can perform immediately; if you cannot do it, they will say goodbye and ask you to leave. When you leave, they will still make sure you know that he is a good boss before he lets you go ^^

If you are good at acting and maintaining appearances, this company is actually quite suitable.

P.S. The boss is a Carnegie philosopher who is good at the law of attraction. At lunch, he always shares how, whenever the sales team had no money, they would somehow bring a sum of money back. It is really great!

It has been two months since I left this company. It was what is known as an involuntary departure, and I stayed for only 23 days from joining to leaving. The impact on me was truly significant, and I even questioned my own abilities. After two months of adjusting, I have decided to make public what happened while I was at this company, so that people who plan to join it in the future can avoid experiencing the same things. I am willing to take responsibility for everything I say below, and I also welcome anyone to confront me about it in person.

The advantages are as follows:

1. Most of the company’s employees are very young.

2. There is no need to clock in or out.

3. The boss is very willing to communicate and discuss matters with employees.

4. Free snacks, drinks, and lunch.

5. Most employees are very friendly.

All I can say is that I was made a manager upon joining, which was probably unfair to the original employees. The following are the things I felt I was most obviously set up by.

1. Training: The scheduled course was supposed to last approximately 2.5–3 hours, but the manager conducting it only spoke for about 30 minutes. The rest of the time, they were outside making phone calls. Before going out to make a call, they would always say, “Try it out yourself. I’ll come back and give you a test later.” In the afternoon, they simply handed me a client’s menu without any explanation, only telling me to set up the system menu before coming to work the next day. When it was checked the next morning, they only said it was not good. I had to repeatedly ask before they were willing to tell me what was wrong and what needed to be changed. Later, it was only after another manager explained it to me that I learned I could use a computer to modify the menu through the backend and enter items in batches, rather than entering and setting them one by one on an iPad. After I corrected the parts that needed improvement, I was not given any evaluation or suggestions; I was only told that there was no absolute right or wrong way to set up a menu, and that it was fine as long as I thought it was acceptable.

At the time, I naively thought this was normal—that perhaps the manager simply did not know how to teach, or was too busy to do so.

2. After my first meeting with the boss, the manager suggested that, in order to achieve the boss’s goals, I should ask the boss for approval to arrange meetings with competitors and pretend to be a customer so I could understand how they operated. After I told the boss about this idea, the boss said that this was not his philosophy and not what the company wanted, and also asked why I had come up with such an idea. When I responded that it was an approach the manager and I had discussed together, it was obvious that the boss did not believe me and simply told me not to continue talking about it.

That was the first time I wondered whether I was being set up. But I still told myself that perhaps the manager simply did not understand what the boss wanted...

3. I asked at least five times if I could learn, from beginning to end, by observing how negotiations with clients were conducted and how discussions were handled. There were two opportunities to travel for work. On one occasion, I was called aside to help install equipment and configure the menu while the manager discussed details with the client elsewhere. The only time I was able to hear how things were explained was during the second trip, but even then it was only the final stage, when the product’s operation was explained to the client. I never had the opportunity to learn the initial product introduction or how to interact with clients before I was dismissed.

4. Two days before I was dismissed, I happened to need to travel to another county. In the car, I told the manager my current thoughts and the plan and approach I believed the boss might want to pursue: work similar to that of a restaurant-management consultant, assisting clients by providing development advice and planning. The manager replied that this was not what the company wanted, much less the direction or work the company planned to pursue in the future. I was told not to mention these things again. The manager also told me that the company was very willing to give me opportunities, that it was okay to make mistakes, and that I would always have opportunities to correct them.

Looking back now, I cannot believe I was foolish enough to trust them and give up on the plan I had originally envisioned.

5. Two days after I was told that the proposal I had made was not acceptable, following my second meeting with the boss, I was told that I was not suitable for the company and was not the type of talent the company needed. After the boss asked the two managers to leave, I asked what kind of proposal the boss actually wanted. The boss’s answer was the proposal I had previously put forward.

At that point, it was very clear that I had been deliberately pushed out.

6. The boss asked why, when I encountered problems, I did not proactively ask other colleagues. I do not deny that this may have been one of my problems. I prefer to record my questions and ask them all at once. Seeing that my colleagues were constantly busy and answering calls, I knew they were willing to answer, but I personally could not accept repeatedly interrupting them. This was my issue, and I admit it. However, whenever I asked the manager all my questions at once, the answer I most often received was: “Because your position is somewhere between sales and customer service, you don’t need to understand that much. You only need to know the basics.”

After all, the boss had said from the beginning that this manager was one of the three people who had been with him from the very start, and the only one who had remained until now. I believed that asking the most senior person, who knew the full background of the matters, would be the simplest and clearest approach, rather than asking or interrupting other colleagues while they were working and then having to ask the manager for the details again.

7. On the day I was dismissed, there was training for a new employee in the customer service department. I noticed that the training situation was clearly different from mine. I only noticed that the manager spent much, much, much less time outside making phone calls and was basically in the meeting room, unlike during my training. In the afternoon, I knocked on the door and entered the meeting room to ask whether I could sit in. Only then did I discover that the amount of content on the whiteboard, what was covered in the training, and the equipment placed on the table were all vastly different from what I had experienced.

Before the boss told me that I was not suitable for the company, while the boss and the two managers were still in the meeting room, I said that there were many things I did not understand about the training. The response I received was that everyone’s training was the same and that the content was also the same. At the time, I did not argue further, because I felt that there was no point in saying anything else, and I could not provide evidence.

I am willing to take responsibility for everything stated above, and I am also willing to confront anyone about it in person. Although this is anonymous, I have written it so explicitly that I believe it makes no difference whether my name is attached or not. All I can say is that anyone choosing this job and company should be especially cautious. I was interested in this industry and the job itself, so in addition to leaving a company where I had a higher salary, I also turned down another offer that paid more than my previous job. In the end, I became unemployed in less than a month. I do not believe anyone could calmly accept that, especially after experiencing these things. During the interview and when I ultimately decided to choose this company, it was because of something the boss said: “I will provide a stage for you to perform to your full potential.” All I can say is that I had not even climbed onto this stage before someone pulled me back down.

I will not deny that perhaps I did not meet the company’s expectations, that my abilities did not meet the required standard, or that there were things I was not proactive enough about or did not do well enough. I admit that I certainly had shortcomings, and I would not claim to be perfect. But the situations described above were not caused by me, were they? They were created and brought about by the company. If the company’s manager did not want to delegate their original responsibilities or authority, or simply did not want to employ someone like me, then please think carefully and consider the consequences. Being dismissed after just over 20 days inevitably leaves a negative mark on one’s résumé. Besides, did I really make a mistake? Or did I simply perform poorly? Is this the opportunity the company initially said it was willing to give me? To dismiss someone after merely saying they were unsuitable is something I believe most people cannot accept.

In the short 23 days I spent here, I truly learned and saw a great deal. At the same time, I reminded myself that my past work experiences had gone too smoothly. Whether overseas or domestically, I had never encountered a workplace where I was so obviously set up and given no opportunity to appeal or raise concerns—just dismissed directly. I am leaving this post not only to express my feelings, but also as a record for myself, and in the hope that those who come after me will not experience the same things. I can only say that encountering people like this should serve as a warning to anyone considering joining the company!