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The interview with the boss was very relaxed and comfortable. In addition to learning about my work abilities, I also felt that the overall office environment was comfortable and had a people-oriented concept.

It wasn’t a cold interview or a mechanical conversation; it was respectful, and I felt honored to participate in the interview!

The office space isn’t particularly large, but it’s quite cozy.

The boss is very willing to provide support, but also needs to see results immediately.

I decided to write this post because I want the next person who applies not to end up like me—seeing the company’s image and job advertisement, investing myself because of overly high expectations, and then leaving after experiencing too much disappointment.

Self-introduction:

Born in 1991, I was halfway through graduate school at a national university. I had almost no work experience and no background in design-related fields,

but after encountering this company, which was close to my “ideal,” I resolutely submitted my résumé.

Because I recommended myself as having good adaptability and learning ability, making up for my lack of experience and relevant knowledge,

I was successfully hired as a store manager trainee.

My start date was 2017/08/14.

My experience:

At the time, the Pier-2 store had only one colleague, a senior employee who had already been working there for more than three years.

Although they were not particularly talkative or overly friendly with people, they were able to teach and explain the store’s operations in great detail,

and were also very willing to share what they knew with me at work.

I also worked very hard to learn the store’s operations, complete my work, and find ways to increase sales.

However, after two and a half months filled with dreams and enthusiasm, I submitted my resignation and left on 2017/10/30.

Working conditions:

At first, I accompanied the boss on business trips and went to the Taichung headquarters for training; I began working at the Kaohsiung store in mid-September.

In early October, the boss personally came to the store to demonstrate customer service, packaging, explanations, and many other matters requiring attention in the store.

From then on, I followed this approach.

My colleague submitted their resignation due to health issues and left at the end of October.

They frequently took sick leave beginning in October, so for most of that month I was taking care of the store alone.

Despite this, the store’s October sales reached their highest point in two years—more than three times the sales of the off-season months.

Now, let’s move on to the main topic and discuss some stories from the job:

(Because this is a small “startup company,” almost all of its rules center on the boss’s personal preferences. Therefore, nearly all of the issues mentioned below are discussed from the boss’s perspective.)

1. Working hours

The Kaohsiung Pier-2 store’s opening hours are 10:00 to 19:00, with a one-hour lunch break.

However, after the boss came to “demonstrate” in early October, they mentioned that when there were too many customers on holidays, they themselves would bring something and eat it during a lull at noon. As a result, during the days I ran the store alone afterward, I almost never had a lunch break (or time to eat), because there were customers at Pier-2 at all times.

The hours from 10:00 to 19:00 were also the business hours. Before 09:30, I needed to clean and start up the computers (the store’s Mac took more than 10 minutes to boot); after 19:00, I also had to count the money and record the products sold that day, as well as pick up supplies from the warehouse on the way the next morning. Therefore, the actual working hours were approximately 09:30 to 20:00.

This does not include work outside store operations. Because I was in a “management position,” I also had to plan marketing, apply for electronic invoices, and handle collaboration projects with Kaohsiung Pier-2. These tasks could only be continued after work.

2. Sense of responsibility

The company’s rules stated: “If a work item is not completed that day, be sure to finish it before leaving the company.”

So every day, I continued working overtime after clocking out.

But sometimes there were an unbelievably large number of tasks. For example:

Because my colleague was about to leave, the boss asked me to spend two weeks counting all the products in the store, checking them against the incoming and outgoing shipment records counted by my colleague.

In practice, the only time I could do this was during weekday lulls when there were fewer customers. But whenever customers came in, I also had to serve them and keep the products tidy. During free time, I still had projects and other store managers’ tasks to handle.

In the end, my girlfriend helped complete the final quarter of the inventory count. We returned to the store at 9 p.m. to work overtime on the count and did not leave until 4 a.m. (This workload could not be completed simply through efficiency, management, or time control.)

3. Overtime

As mentioned earlier, I continued working overtime after clocking out. In fact, when I first joined, there was no clock-in system.

The system was only introduced after a former employee requested a labor inspection, resulting in the company being fined NT$30,000, and the company was then supposed to begin having employees clock in and out.

At the same time, I continually saw the boss blame this “legal requirement” on the “monster employee” who requested the labor inspection, completely refusing to acknowledge that there was a problem with the company’s system. The boss also continued writing in recruitment posts that “because the boss is good at management, we rarely work overtime.”

Of course, none of this overtime was paid, because we always clocked in and out on time.

3. Stress tolerance

The sources of pressure were not limited to work performance and assignments; there was also the possibility of being reprimanded by the boss at any time.

I overheard many colleagues saying that they completed tasks simply to avoid being scolded (and sometimes they were scolded for no apparent reason). Although the content of these reprimands was often inconsistent or illogical.

For example, while running the store, we also had to record the number and categories of visitors (male/female/elderly/children/foreign). However, because the total number of visitors in a day could reach as many as 500, and because I also considered the original classification statistics ineffective for analysis, I decided to record only the total number. As a result, after being scolded by the boss for an entire day, I was told a few days later that they had bought an electronic counter and that from then on we only needed to record the total number and pay attention to the number of foreigners. I was left utterly baffled.

Also, a project in collaboration with Pier-2 was delayed by ten days because the boss forgot about their own responsibilities. In the end, they had other colleagues work overtime to handle it, citing my poor efficiency as the reason. Once again, I was utterly baffled.

4. Salary

The recruitment post said, “Even if you suggest a salary of 22K, we would feel embarrassed to offer you that little.”

In reality, I received 25K.

For a job involving frequent overtime, long working hours, a high-pressure environment, and serving simultaneously as store manager, store clerk, and project manager, they were perfectly comfortable paying me 25K.

I’ll just consider it the admission ticket to entering the workforce.

Knowing that after my colleague left in November I would be running the store completely alone, completing the assigned tasks would become even more difficult. The combination of mental pressure (deadlines for tasks and fear of being scolded) and physical strain (staying up late and having irregular meals over the long term) led me to submit my resignation.

If you want to challenge yourself while learning a great deal of relevant knowledge, this is a good opportunity. The company is also very willing to provide support and assistance behind the scenes. However, before submitting your résumé, perhaps you should ask more questions, take a closer look, and think it over carefully.