四星國際股份有限公司

A company that had been established for a long time—gone.

A family business with severe bureaucracy; best avoided.

This company really isn’t worth going to. It has no advantages; the detailed reasons are written in the cons.

There’s no point even discussing career development—you don’t need to go there even to gain experience, because you won’t practice or learn anything.

A very old-fashioned and hypocritical family/company.

The boss’s office is decorated like a nouveau riche’s mansion, with gold embellishments everywhere and even a self-portrait of the boss hanging on the wall.

The employees’ area has terrible desks and chairs, as well as a foul-smelling steam-heating food cabinet. The pantry is dilapidated, with a waterlogged and moldy sink, and the toilets are full of huge cockroaches.

I worked as a secretary. I’m specifically leaving a review after leaving because it was truly so awful. The entire company basically treats you as the boss’s domestic servant. You’re responsible for everything from minor repairs at home and purchasing furniture or consumables, to managing domestic helpers and drivers, and even recruiting and managing tutors for the grandchildren’s various classes. Needless to say, it isn’t just secretarial work—even the design department is expected to produce things needed by the chairman’s grandchildren’s school. It’s completely outrageous.

At first, the boss and the second-generation family members—especially the wife of the second-generation executive director—made themselves sound very open-minded and respectful of employees. In reality, they became increasingly unreasonable over time. Several times, I was scolded simply because I happened to miss a call while going to the restroom (I was extremely nervous and rushed; it took less than three minutes). Even explaining that I had gone to the restroom was not understood. As for taking leave, they said you could take it whenever you wanted, but in reality, they would keep contacting you to work even after you had taken leave. If something could not be completed because you were away from the company, then once you returned to work, they would start making sarcastic remarks and deliberately giving you a hard time.

I worked there for two years and was genuinely very cooperative. Many people came and went during that time—eight out of ten people ran away within a week. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try it yourself.

The company has a financially strong parent company. Colleagues in other departments are all easy to get along with, and the company has a strong sense of cohesion. You can learn many new things across different fields, making it suitable for young people who are willing to work hard and actively pursue career advancement.

I worked for a subsidiary under Four-Star. The brand is very new, and it was founded by the chairman’s son.

You can form your own assessment of the department during the interview. First, regarding the interview: it initially began with an interview conducted by the director. The director was someone who really did not know how to communicate; the way he spoke made it difficult to focus. He suddenly left halfway through the interview because of a meeting, which was very baffling. His time management needs improvement. Next, colleagues and the department manager conducted the interview, roughly getting to know each other’s working styles. This stage also made the job responsibilities clearer. After gaining a full understanding of the organizational structure, I learned that most work would be coordinated with the manager, and there would not be many opportunities to work directly with the director. My internal thought at the time was: the director speaks illogically, but since I probably would not interact with him much in the future, it should not have much impact on my work. After all, that is how startups are—everyone has to do everything. The salary was also good, so after considering everything, I decided to join.

You would usually receive the hiring notification in about three days. Since it was a startup, there were no established procedures. After sending the hiring notification, HR would actively try to arrange a salary-negotiation interview, even requesting interviews on weekends. HR handled the relevant procedures proactively, perhaps because they were short-staffed or because startups move at a faster pace. But haste makes waste: the hiring notification was full of errors. First, the information on the hiring notification was incorrect—the start date was wrong. Previously, other colleagues had also received incorrect hiring notifications from HR: one person’s offer letter was sent to another person, and the email contained personal information and salary details. Absolutely outrageous, absolutely outrageous, absolutely outrageous.

The nightmare began as soon as I started. All my work was coordinated directly with the director. One thing after another kept coming up, yet I could not understand what he was saying. Since I had just joined and had not yet grasped the team’s way of working, I could only forge ahead through trial and error. The company moved extremely fast: basically, anything assigned today had to show results the next day. On top of that, the director had the title but not the substance. He only wanted to build good relationships with senior management to prove himself, while the people below handled all the projects. When something went wrong, the people below took the blame; when there was credit, he took it for himself. Even if none of that mattered, that is just how the workplace is, right? As long as the salary is good, what does it matter if you put up with a little unfairness? But do not forget what I mentioned earlier: the director’s way of speaking makes it difficult to focus, and it is hard to figure out what direction he wants in project execution. You also have to watch out for his skill of forgetting whatever he says: he brings something up today, forgets it tomorrow, and then the project has to start over. Congratulations! But here is a little tip: send him the discussion materials before discussing them, so he will not forget. If he blames you later, you can still pull up the chat history as proof.

Later, I realized that the other colleagues in the department were also very similar to the director—people who did not speak very logically. Do you remember the manager mentioned earlier? I later found that he was very much like the director too. When asked about project details, he gave random answers. One spoke without logic; the other failed to grasp the main point of the question and gave random answers as well. To add one more thing, the director really liked sleeping during department meetings or meetings with vendors. After the meeting ended, he would ask you again about what had been discussed. Even when you explained it to him, he would repeatedly challenge what you said because he had been sleeping and had not listened carefully, but did not want to admit it. He could only use questioning to prove himself—haha. Whenever senior management was absent, he would start slacking off; when senior management was present, he would pretend to work hard and act like a good manager. In reality, he did not execute the projects himself. Before meetings, you would repeatedly discuss the presentation content with him, but if something in the presentation was wrong during the meeting, he would immediately distance himself from it. He did not take responsibility when he should have, and whenever problems arose, he talked loudly and at length, when in reality he simply lacked the ability. He also loved showing off his past achievements. But with trends changing so quickly, are projects completed four or five years ago still applicable today? He should reflect on that himself.

When I resigned, colleagues from other departments were all very surprised. Some managers from other departments even secretly asked whether I had resigned because of the manager—haha. Think carefully before the interview, and think it over several more times before joining. The above is a situation I dreamed about. If the dream happened in real life, would that count as a prophetic dream?

The company’s senior executives are all idle people who wield unchecked power. They lack the ability to assist their subordinates, obey the boss’s every command, and dump assigned tasks on you. They put on Oscar-worthy performances in meetings, then leave you to fend for yourself afterward. Managers may also engage in PUA (Google it yourself to find out what it means) or verbally humiliate you… It is an extremely bureaucratic corporate culture; once you join, you can train your mental resilience, so there are many advantages.

The chairman’s office is lavishly decorated, while the employee pantry does not even have a microwave—only a foul-smelling steam-heating cabinet that is 30 years old. Every office chair provided is broken; sitting in them causes lower-back pain, and you are not allowed to replace them at your own expense.