肆意設計有限公司

1. A 2-minute walk to 7-Eleven

2. Easy to get time off

1. The boss has serious communication problems

2. The work environment is dirty

3. Design discussions are unproductive, the ideas are outdated, and the boss often contradicts themselves

4. No future

5. They often ask you personal questions, then pretend that it’s okay if you don’t want to answer—but still keep asking

6. There is basically no difference between assistants and designers, except that assistants have to deal with twice as much trouble from the boss

7. They mock you for not having learned certain technical terms in school, even though you joined the company with no prior experience

8. The boss also watches TV series during work hours

9. Poor lunch-break conditions; the boss snores too loudly

Also, there happened to be renovation work taking place downstairs, so throughout almost the entire period of my employment, there was construction noise during nearly all working hours. It was extremely loud and affected both work quality and morale.

None

I just resigned. I had only been there for less than six months before quitting. The senior colleague was right—I shouldn’t have come. After joining, I regretted it.

During the six months I was there, there wasn’t a single substantial design project. We were just designing things for our own amusement. The supervisor was also not very good at expressing his ideas; even my three-year-old brother can explain things more clearly than he can.

About once a month, a woman would come to a room in the company and stay there for several hours. She was probably a contract employee. She directly asked me, “Why did you come to work for this company? Don’t you think the atmosphere is strange? Didn’t you search online before coming here?”

The office was full of products supposedly meant as styling references. They were dusty, sticky, and dirty. To me, they were garbage—no, worse than garbage. Even the things in my cabinets at home were more worth referencing.

The boss sometimes went out to solicit business, but honestly, there was hardly any performance to speak of. It felt like he was just going out to loaf around. I might as well have sold insurance; at least I could have helped pay my own salary.

At work, what I hated most was discussing design with the boss. His design ideas were simply far too outdated. I wouldn’t say he had no brains, but he came close. When he had nothing to say, he would ask me, “What do you think?” I directly replied, “Can you be an employee?” He said, “I’m the boss,” leaving me speechless instead.

Through the cloud files, I saw the work of previous designers, and it was actually quite good. There had been at least five former colleagues, but I wondered why I had never met any of them—because they had all resigned. What a shame.

Recently, he asked me, “It’s almost the end of the year. Do you have any plans for the company next year?” I directly replied, “Are you the boss, or am I?” Is this something the boss should be asking an employee?

When I submitted my resignation, the boss said he would give me a raise. I told him, “It’s not about the money; it’s about you.” Then I decided to establish a design company and compete with him for clients. I could definitely take them, but I knew he didn’t have any clients.

So I want to urge everyone: before making any decision, be sure to think it through carefully three times.

No need to work overtime

Taking time off is very flexible

Quiet surroundings

Great location, inside Qingtian Street

One-and-a-half-hour lunch break (later changed to one hour)

Light workload, relatively easy

Most design projects are teamwork

Outdated: The boss’s design taste and methods are more or less the same as those of the design industry 20 years ago. Sometimes, the boss asks you to pay homage to elements from old design works (all designers know what “paying homage” means).

Poor quality of design discussions: The boss sometimes argues about design in a stubborn, bad-faith manner. Even when they have already lost the argument, they insist on arguing until they “win.”

Constantly changing decisions: The boss’s tendency to suddenly ask designers to modify designs that have already been finalized is considerably higher than average.

Bullies the meek and fears the strong: The boss treats relatively kind and relatively aggressive employees differently.

No prospects: Many industrial design companies have already transformed into multidisciplinary design firms, but Siyi remains unchanged, only doing industrial design, while its technology, capabilities, and ideas have all failed to keep up with the times.

Uses very outdated ways to push employees: Even when a task clearly requires N days to complete, the boss deliberately belittles you, saying that they could have finished this kind of design project in N/x days in the past, hoping to motivate employees. Little do they know that no one buys this lousy tactic anymore.

No design mentorship or legacy: All the senior employees have left, and the boss’s individual abilities and ideas are too outdated. Don’t expect to learn anything new here.

Located on Qingtian Street, near Shida; the location is fairly good.

It is inside an apartment building. The office area is immediately after entering the main entrance, and the interview begins in a conference room farther inside.

The floor was dirty and sticky.

Apart from the interviewer, there was no one else in the office area. I asked the interviewer, who said there was currently only one employee (~this really warrants careful consideration and questioning).

The interviewer was the owner. He had messy gray-and-white hair and wore slip-on shoes. He did not look like the owner of a design company, and he also lacked a sense of professionalism. (This did not feel very respectful toward people coming for interviews.)

Before the interview, I filled out some information. There were many potted plants in the conference room, but also quite a lot of mosquitoes and other insects.

After I finished writing, the interview began.

Basically, the questions were all standard. At the end, I asked about what products they design, the workload, and the company's revenue and future prospects. The interviewer's answers did not address my questions at all. I basically couldn't understand what he was saying; he did not explain things clearly and kept digressing. I felt too embarrassed to ask further questions, but at the time I thought this might become a problem at work later, so I brought the interview to a close.

No document forgery, no recording, no operating losses, no debts, nothing detrimental to employees, and no surveillance.

Filing a lawsuit requires some time and waiting.

1. There are two toilets, one of which has no door.

2. The colleagues got along very well, but they have all resigned, leaving only the boss.

3. Everything is handled strictly according to the Labor Standards Act. There is no need for it to be considerate or reasonable—if it is written in the Labor Standards Act, it will be followed; if it is not written there, the boss does not care.

1. The toilets are very dirty, and no one cleans them.

2. The boss did not pay the workers their full wages, violating the Labor Standards Act. Moreover, the boss said that the company has operated this way for more than 20 years, and it is unclear why this would be illegal.

3. A traditional time clock is used to record clock-in and clock-out times—a dated management method.

4. Leave requests must be filled out on paper—a dated management method.

5. I strongly recommend that, regardless of whether you have just graduated, have strong design skills, or otherwise, you absolutely should not come to this company, because I regret it and do not want you to regret it too.

6. A company without any employee colleagues.

7. They cannot even afford to pay employees their monthly salaries, so there is no need to mention year-end bonuses or benefits.

1. Pleasant relationships among colleagues and a good atmosphere.

2. The office is located in an older-style apartment with large windows and a good view, so it feels less like an office.

3. There are few dress-code requirements; you can wear shorts to work, and on rainy days you can wear flip-flops.

4. If you are less familiar with 3D software, you can develop your skills in this area.

5. Overtime is uncommon (and there is no overtime pay).

6. One of the few companies that still uses markers for preliminary sketches.

Regarding projects

1. Changes are always made at the last minute. (For example, changes may still be required 10 minutes before a meeting with a client.)

2. They like to prepare free projects in advance for clients who have no need for them. Since the clients have no need for these projects, they are not adopted. This is then used to criticize the designers’ abilities.

3. They are unable to provide clear project direction.

4. Their ideas about projects change every day; what was said yesterday does not count today.

5. They like to deliberately compress project timelines, believing that projects should be completed faster and faster.

6. Project information is not transparent. Employees may be given false deadlines to pressure them into finishing early.

7. The boss believes they are educating junior designers.

8. The company’s operating direction is to work quickly, produce good results, and keep prices low.

9. If you take leave during a project, no one will take over the work, and the schedule will not be adjusted accordingly.

Regarding benefits and policies

1. Year-end bonuses are not guaranteed.

2. The year-end banquet may not be held.

3. There are no bonuses for the three traditional festivals.

4. The company originally bought a cake to celebrate employees’ birthdays. One year, after the cake had been purchased, the boss decided to cancel the practice, and the employees paid for and divided the cake among themselves.

5. A pay raise is possible only when a large number of employees resign.

6. Every morning, employees must report what they did the previous day and what they plan to do that day.

Some unpleasant behaviors

1. They like to inspect employees’ screens without warning to see what they are doing; they also deliberately walk around as an excuse to observe employees’ screens.

2. They observe the items employees keep on their desks.

3. They may stand behind you and watch you work.

4. Since the employees and the boss sit in the same space, any conversations or project discussions are interrupted by the boss joining in.

5. Whenever you go out to buy coffee in the afternoon, you will usually be asked about your work progress immediately upon returning to the office.

None

A very strange company. The interview was arranged at a café, not at the company.

Before the interview, I asked why the company had arranged it at a café, and they replied that the address was confidential. (I thought, aren’t companies supposed to have a registered address?)

I reluctantly went to the café for the interview. The person who claimed to be the owner spoke like someone who had just entered the workforce and had no experience, unlike the owner of a design company.

1. Good location.

2. Small design studios generally have high turnover (many former colleagues worked there for only a year), so you can meet many people.

3. Equipment such as laptops and software is provided at no personal expense.

1. The Taipei-based Si Yi Design and Tainan-based Tangcao Design currently share a website, but the two companies do not exchange employees. Therefore, do not mistakenly assume that Tangcao Design is Si Yi Design. At present, there are no Si Yi projects shown on the website. During the interview, it is recommended that you clarify what projects the company has taken on recently and the types of projects it has handled in recent years.

2. The company is located in an apartment near the Taipower Building, so it has a residential layout. Employees must clean the office, restroom, and kitchen themselves. For a period of time, employees cleaned voluntarily; sometimes the restroom was simply dirty and messy, with no one taking care of it.

3. Designers do not have opportunities to meet clients. Many projects require the boss to interpret the clients’ intentions, so there is no opportunity to learn business knowledge or how to communicate with customers.

4. Each designer is responsible for what they say and for their sketches, which is reasonable. However, when anything you say may later become something the boss asks about—whether you gave that information at the time and caused the project to go in the wrong direction, making you bear responsibility for the project—it can seem better not to discuss anything. The more you say, the more mistakes you may make, and more misunderstandings may arise. As a result, during my time there, I saw many projects in which no one expressed the truth, because once your viewpoint differed from the boss’s, it would be questioned, and you had to stand behind every word you said. In an environment where people are afraid to speak, it is impossible to foster creativity or innovation.

5. Because the industrial design industry for physical products has moved to mainland China, Southeast Asia, and other regions, Taiwan’s traditional industries have decreasing demand for product styling. Many small design studios face the need to transform, whether by expanding across fields, focusing on digital design, or adopting currently popular consulting models centered on design thinking and user-centered thinking; these are all common directions for transformation. In this company, newer fields such as design thinking and co-creation design currently have no established management processes or culture. Resources and know-how for user research have also not yet been established.