寬淂有限公司

1. Colleagues get along well, and departments can support one another.

2. The supervisor and boss often travel abroad and bring back interesting experiences. Their trips are long (approximately 10–20 days per month), and when they are away, the office feels like paradise.

1. There is no overtime pay and, of course, no compensatory leave either. On average, employees work 1–2 hours of overtime per day. Some people take unfinished work home, so the actual hours are even longer. When employees ask the boss for overtime pay, the boss only says that their efficiency is poor and that they would not need to work overtime if they improved their efficiency. In reality, the company has a high turnover rate and has long been understaffed. Once, the company posted more than a dozen vacancies on a job bank all at once but did not hire anyone.

2. The turnover rate is high. Sales staff stay for less than three months on average, while other administrative staff generally leave after about one to three years.

3. The office environment is poor. Because the warehouse and office are combined, items in the warehouse often spill over into the office area, making it difficult to walk around. The warehouse contains many defective or unsold products that have been stacked there for years, as well as the boss’s personal belongings, making it extremely dirty and disorderly (there are mice, cockroaches, and insect eggs). Promotional materials used by sales staff are also stored in the warehouse, so every time you retrieve something, you have to navigate around piles of items and avoid the mess. The warehouse is almost entirely filled with unsold inventory, leaving nowhere to store regular products, which then spill over into the office area.

4. The boss and supervisor are rather emotional, and decisions often change. However, they will tell employees, “Our goal is still the same,” “The situation is different now,” and “You need to keep up on your own,” without leaving employees any buffer time to adjust to the changes.

5. The boss and supervisor like to schedule activities outside working hours, with some being somewhat semi-compulsory, such as running competitions and marathons. They also like to organize activities unrelated to the main business or rent out the office space, requiring employees to provide support outside working hours. A few activities pay overtime, but it is calculated using the basic hourly wage for part-time workers and is not multiplied by 1.33. Some office-rental events do not pay at all and require employees to stay for free until the event ends and lock up afterward (even though the venue rental is charged).

6. The company culture and the boss’s values are very strongly expressed in this company. To stay for the long term, you need to be aligned with the boss’s values.

7. The hardware and equipment are poor. The company has no network administrator, and equipment such as the servers has not been replaced for seven or eight years. The network frequently goes down, reducing work efficiency. An outsourced contractor warned early on that the equipment should be replaced, but the boss insisted on keeping it until the boss was personally affected by a hardware failure and finally agreed to replace it. Some computers are old, and there have been cases where they could not be used for an entire month. Various desks and chairs are on the verge of falling apart, but because they were expensive when purchased, they must continue to be used. The boss emphasizes flexible use of space and had all the furniture fitted with wheels for easy movement. As a result, half a workday is often spent moving furniture. If you care about comfort and efficiency, you need to seriously consider whether you can adapt to the boss’s values.

8. Because of the high turnover rate, the company has not developed middle managers. No one can help interpret upper management’s intentions, mediate between people, or coordinate matters. The company also likes hiring newcomers, so there is no one to train you either. A group of inexperienced employees has to interact directly with the boss, so the intensity and frequency of conflicts are predictable. However, if you are ambitious enough, it is easy to get noticed.

9. Money may be deducted from your pay. You can be fined for being late, for a meeting not starting on time, and sales staff may also have their bonuses deducted for mistakes. The bonus system is unclear, so employees often do not receive bonuses at all.

10. You often have to support the work of various departments, in addition to handling all kinds of activities and cleaning. After a while, you may suddenly wonder, “What am I actually doing?” You will find that there is a gap between the position you applied for and the actual work, and it is nearly impossible to deepen your professional expertise. However, the boss is very good at encouraging people and will say that building breadth of experience is the trend of the future, so many people still believe it and obediently carry on.

11. In short, this company is suitable for newcomers: it is easy to get noticed, and there are some opportunities for hands-on practice (because there is no one more senior than you anyway). Sales professionals with many years of experience may not be a good fit, as adapting to the company’s values may be more difficult.

1. The company’s performance is growing.

2. Other than the managers, the relationships among the other colleagues are very good.

1. The company’s systems are very chaotic, and the turnover rate is extremely high. In a small company of around twelve people, six employees left within three months. Almost no one stays for more than a year. There are probably one or two salespeople who stayed relatively longer, but they also left after between six months and a year; most others did not stay for more than three months.

2. The sales manager and chairman are often away on business trips and not in the office, which means many decisions cannot be carried out. Yet they constantly rush subordinates. If you respond to a customer first because of time pressure, you are likely to be harshly reprimanded afterward. It makes you want to roll your eyes.

3. Sales staff handle everything. Needless to say, quoting prices and processing orders are included, but following up with the factory, arranging shipments, preparing shipping documents, and so on are also all part of the job. Anyone accustomed to having a sales assistant should think carefully. The manager would even say, “Last year, that salesperson always packed up and left on time. Why can’t you finish everything?” (Because sales grew to twice the previous year’s level, for goodness’ sake.) Moreover, the chairman wants to do many things, and the directions are scattered, sometimes leaving employees unclear about what the company’s actual positioning and purpose are.

4. Everyone takes turns doing cleaning duties every week, including cleaning the toilets and taking out the trash. During the year-end deep cleaning, you may also have to scrub the floors. Consider whether you can accept this. Sometimes, while you are working, you hear the garbage truck and have to rush outside to take out the trash. You really do not know whether you came to work as a salesperson or as a cleaning lady.

5. In the past, each department had to work one weekend day every month. During interviews, they said it would simply involve casually organizing documents and so on, but in reality it meant continuing to work. This also applied when there were consecutive holidays. However, with the current one fixed day off and one flexible rest day system, the company probably would not dare make this demand anymore.

6. There were instances when the company was unwilling to grant all the days off during consecutive holidays (the red-letter holidays announced by the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration). Everyone had to strongly insist before the holidays were approved.

(It was only granting the red-letter holidays announced by the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration, with no additional days off.)

7. Employees must work entirely according to the manager’s work habits. You cannot have your own way of doing things. For example, the company does not provide cabinets or drawers and also prohibits you from keeping many things on your desk; otherwise, they will think you are unprofessional and lack an effective, organized way of working. This company culture is more suitable for fresh graduates and not for salespeople who have already worked for many years.

8. The company has many activities, and they are often held on holidays. Because the managers love running marathons and participating in triathlons, they often invite everyone to join. If you are not interested or decline to participate, they may think you do not fit in with the team. Besides, work is already exhausting enough, and on weekends you just want to rest rather than exercise.

9. The chairman is very good at encouraging people, but after a while, it feels like he is just making empty promises. The sales manager is capable but has little time and is not very good at managing people, which leads to frequent resignations among the sales staff.

10. Since the company is a factory converted into an office rather than a conventional office, even when the air conditioning is on, it often does not feel cool in summer, while it is extremely cold in winter. The environment is not very good. Also, because the space was converted from a factory, the lighting is rather dim. The desks and chairs were purchased according to the chairman’s preferences rather than being standard ergonomic office furniture. Therefore, the office space is not very comfortable.

11. You cannot leave freely during working hours. If you are accustomed to a free and flexible office culture, this place may not be suitable for you.