悅笙企業有限公司

The salary is decent, and it’s close to the MRT station, so transportation is fairly convenient.

Starting work at 10 a.m. also helps avoid some of the crowds.

Everything the previous disgruntled employees said is true. My only regret is not seeing it sooner.

The company has been open for nearly 10 years, yet it still has fewer than five people, including her. You should be able to figure out why, right?

1. The boss thinks the sales staff are not proactive and work too slowly. After being there for just a few days, they ask why you still can’t find the products (it really is only because you’ve just started and have no idea how messy the store is). From the moment you arrive, they evaluate you by the strict standards applied to someone who has worked there for three months, and think that being busy and overwhelmed by the company’s workload is slowing down her progress.

However, they won’t let you know how dissatisfied they actually are, because they only criticize you privately: “So-and-so at another company is so capable and lively. Their salespeople can handle incoming stock, respond to customers, and do other tasks, too. If they can do it, why can’t you? People nowadays have such poor quality and problematic personalities.”

(I heard the above at least three times within just three months.)

It also feels like the sales staff turnover is very high.

2. As soon as you leave, they immediately criticize you to the handbag designer. They love making snide remarks, and if some minor incident unfortunately displeases them, they can talk about it for a long time. Even when they are scolding someone else, listening to it all day affects your mood.

3. The office environment inside the store is extremely quiet, making work boring, and it is poorly ventilated. On top of that, the office space is very small, and there is hardly any place in the store that isn’t crammed with things. Even the restroom and the tiny pantry are packed with clutter, making it unpleasant to look at. The lighting is very yellow, so your eyes feel uncomfortable all day. I really don’t know how they expect the designer to edit images and work with photographs; the colors they produce probably aren’t accurate.

4. The company’s files are extremely disorganized, and nothing can be found. Images of the same product are stored in three or four different places, and usually there is no source file to edit. There is no way to know which version is correct. It is probably because no one knows how many designers have been replaced (I really want to know).

5. When you are asked to create design materials, nothing is explained clearly. Only after you finish do they say what needs to be changed or added. Their sense of aesthetics is poor, yet they still think your work is not good enough. They like listening to the handbag designer’s opinions and will discuss things with her first, then ask you to revise the work over and over, or have her explain it to you. (There are only three people—why is this necessary?)

6. As a one-person team, you have to handle many tasks. Handover processes are unclear, and you often have to figure things out and find solutions on your own.

X

Work environment: Like a warehouse

Company size: Fewer than 3 people

Employee benefits: None. The boss decides on a whim whether to give a year-end bonus, and will deliberately put on a show by giving year-end bonuses to others but not to you!

Work experience:

The boss has absolutely no planning and does things based on feelings, completely failing to understand that e-commerce requires a team to handle it! In addition, because she cannot find store employees, she has to cover shifts herself and handle labeling and inventory intake, which she finds unfair (she has a princess mentality and does not realize that the company is her own). She is extremely unhappy that employees can leave and arrive on time, believing they should voluntarily work overtime to help her. She expects a great deal of dedication to the company but cannot afford it, and is unwilling to invest or hire more people. She dreams of doing cross-border and international sales while using the methods of a small studio~

I was clearly hired as a graphic designer, but I ended up being blamed for e-commerce performance as well as the performance of promotional events at the physical store. She said sales were poor because the advertisements I designed were ugly. It makes no sense to place all the blame on a graphic designer's advertising for a so-called promotional campaign that was not even really an event—an offer of NT$200 off a purchase of NT$3,000. There is also a bag designer who is very good at agreeing with the boss. The company is tiny and has no benefits at all. Whenever the year-end bonus is about to be paid, they make all kinds of unreasonable demands and nitpick to pressure you into voluntarily resigning. They use school-based moral education to pressure you, while also saying that their attitude is only natural because their company is small! The boss lives in her own world and only makes decisions based on what the bag designer says. The two of them comment on everything with “I think, I think...” and have no basis whatsoever. How good could their sense of aesthetics possibly be? You are a visual designer in name but a production artist in reality. The total number of employees, including the boss, cannot be counted on one hand. Think twice before joining.

Nothing. The salary is okay.

Pros

I can't think of any. The salary is okay.

Cons

1. The boss is difficult to communicate with. If you need to discuss something with her, she gets upset and is very sarcastic. She seems to think you should be able to read her mind.

2. When it comes to judging work progress, the boss relies primarily on her own feelings. She doesn't care how many steps the process requires or how much work there is; everything is based on what she imagines and feels.

3. She thinks she is very capable and often says things like, “Otherwise, I can do it myself,” or “A part-time student could do it, too.” Yet the company is constantly short-staffed and unable to find people, leaving the office practically empty. Many people can't stand it and want to leave after working there for only a short time.

4. She thinks she is an open-minded boss who gives employees room to develop and wants them to take charge, but she is actually very autocratic and has strong opinions of her own. It is normal for a boss to have her own ideas; the problem is that she is autocratic while pretending to be democratic. Asking her about design details leads to sarcastic remarks, which is truly exhausting—and you also have to do her homework for her. (The work isn't yours; don't you need to discuss it?)

5. She loves badmouthing employees. As soon as she enters the office, she criticizes one person or another with the leather-goods designer, and when she criticizes you, she may even do it loudly enough for you to hear.

6. The office is very small, cramped, and uncomfortable.

7. She thinks all employees are enemies who have come to drag down her business.

8. She is extremely confident in her own aesthetic sense, but the design results are always ugly.

9. Everything is someone else's fault; she is always the victim.

10. Nothing is handed over properly, and the information is incomplete, but she thinks you should be able to figure everything out by casually looking through it. The company's photos are categorized chaotically. Ten years' worth of product photos are organized by shooting date rather than by model number. If a product is missing, you have to search for it one folder at a time among thousands of folders.

11. When you ask her questions or discuss work with her, if she doesn't know how to answer or doesn't understand, she says, “That's your job. Why are you bothering me? Do you expect me to do it for you?” (Does that mean I can just do it however I want? Isn't this your company—or has it become my company?)

Lots of bags

1. The company has an extremely high turnover rate (5.6 people left during the three months I was there)

2. Does the boss know what employees chat about at work?!

(There are surveillance cameras installed in the office)

3. The work is very monotonous, and the company’s promotional materials and website are not aesthetically pleasing

4. One person is expected to do the work of three, and often has to perform tasks outside their job duties

5. Internal employees have no rapport at all (because everyone is new), the work atmosphere is very indifferent, and the work environment is similar to a warehouse

Can gain exposure to leather goods and handbags

Small company; frequent and severe employee turnover; no overtime pay; a heavy workload for each person