UIUX_Cafe_碩太網路有限公司

Benefits & Company Environment


1. The company environment is comfortable, with beanbag chairs where we can watch TV shows together at noon.

2. Snacks are provided.

3. Fruit and a $200 Uber Eats allowance are provided every week.

4. There is Team Building (in principle, once every quarter).

5. The lunch break is one and a half hours.

6. Flexible start and end times with a 45-minute window, as long as you complete 7.5 hours of work.




Work

1. The colleagues are very capable and easy to get along with. There are many young women, making it very suitable for those of you who have just graduated.

2. It is reasonably suitable as a first job, and you can learn things.

3. Since it is a project-based company, you can work on many different projects.

4. The company has a flat structure, so there are no superior-subordinate issues.

First of all, a large part of the previous comments still applies today.



Benefits & Company Environment



1. Although there is supposedly one iMac per person, the computers are actually quite old, so do not expect them to run very fast.



2. As for software, although everything is currently purchased, some accounts may be deactivated from time to time (because subscriptions cost money), and you will suddenly find yourself wondering: “Huh? Why can’t I use it anymore?!”



3. The boss changes permissions from time to time without notifying anyone in advance, and you may suddenly find yourself wondering: “Huh? Why can’t I find it?”



4. Instant noodles cannot be ordered as snacks because the boss thinks that would amount to providing another meal.



5. Products from the Want Want Group cannot be ordered as snacks because of the boss’s personal political stance.



6. When a new employee joins, a Welcome Lunch is held. The allowance is also $200, and there will be no Uber Eats that week.



7. Although Team Building is supposedly held every quarter, it is often postponed and skipped entirely (held less frequently).



8. Holiday bonuses: $1,000 after completing one year, $500 if employed for less than one year. The internship period does not count, but there is a $600 Lunar New Year red envelope!



9. The year-end bonus is calculated proportionally. The red envelopes at the year-end party are only a few hundred dollars each, so the total usually comes to around $1,000–3,000.



10. Whenever there is a group meal, you have to play strange games instead of simply eating, chatting, and resting.



11. There is no overtime pay or compensatory leave for overtime. The only benefit is that you can arrive 45 minutes late the next day—and only 45 minutes—so remember not to work more than 45 minutes of overtime.




Salary



1. After the internship ends, there is also a three-month probationary period, meaning you receive a lower salary during your first three months.



2. Be careful when negotiating your salary. If you ask for an amount the boss considers too high, he will immediately pull a sour face and start criticizing you as if you were worthless, saying you are not worth that salary—even though he had previously praised and flattered you in every possible way.



3. Check whether your labor and health insurance salary bracket matches your salary. There have been cases where interns paid labor and health insurance premiums but discovered that they were not insured at all, as well as cases where full-time employees’ salaries were underreported. Employees reminded the boss multiple times, but the situation was not improved, and they instead received various absurd explanations and excuses (e.g., “The Ministry of Labor stipulates that adjustments can only be made once every six months, so we follow the same schedule for salary adjustments,” or “Actually, an incorrect bracket will not affect you in the future at all; everything is based on the salary of your last job”).



4. The boss evaluates employees based on personal preferences, directly affecting the size of your raise.



5. The boss promises salary adjustments but delays them whenever possible. The salary adjustment system changes according to whatever he says, and he seems to think employees are asking him for money (e.g., “Do you really think I can give you a raise?” / “But I don’t think you’re at the point where you can get a raise yet” / “Actually, I think even this salary adjustment is already too much for you”).




Work



1. The company places very little importance on UX. Projects are rushed, and you often have to start work directly without even having time to conduct competitor analysis.



2. Sometimes the client’s requirements are not even clear, yet you are expected to immediately provide several pages of wireframes.



3. The inevitable problems at a project-based company: rushed schedules and compressed budgets. As a result, it is impossible to focus on improving the user experience or doing more optimization, and after a project ends, you basically receive no user feedback.



4. There is no promotion system, and career development prospects are limited.



5. Employees are all former interns who became full-time employees, so they still lack experience. There is only so much you can learn at the company, and there is no other industry experience, resulting in a one-person-show situation. The boss is also unwilling to spend money hiring experienced staff (new graduates are cheaper and more obedient).



6. Much of the time, whatever the client says has to be changed for them directly. In addition, the boss has strange, inflexible convictions about his own designs, making communication more difficult.




The Boss’s Issues



1. The boss took some “magical” courses and is working hard to promote and implement them throughout the company. The company feels like one large laboratory, creating a chaotic atmosphere. Stay firm in your own convictions and do not let yourself be brainwashed.



2. The boss used to obey clients’ demands unquestioningly, but after taking the course, he sometimes inexplicably picks fights with clients. This is often because the boss makes promises casually or fails to raise issues at the beginning (even though employees repeatedly point them out to him). He also tells employees that the clients are asking us for help (?), and then ends up making the clients unhappy.



3. Several projects that were completed under extreme time pressure but had exceptionally high levels of completion have also died before launch because the boss picked a fight with the client.



4. He does not like employees discussing work. Whenever he sees employees discussing something, he comes over to “check in,” but if it is an employee he does not want to provoke, he simply ignores them.



5. When team members give off a gloomy atmosphere due to work pressure, the boss privately approaches other employees to express his dissatisfaction, believing that it affects team morale.

6. The boss’s current favorite employees often have to go downstairs to listen to him lecture (vent and talk about the “magical” courses).



7. He frequently changes how the project management tools are used, causing confusion for users.

8. For employees he dislikes, he may suddenly try to make them leave.



9. He says he will train new hires, but then leaves them to fend for themselves. Later, if he discovers that a new hire does not understand something, he blames the senior employees for not teaching them.



10. He makes unbelievably tone-deaf statements, e.g., “I used to give designers very high salaries, starting at 40,000. I was very willing to pay that, but I discovered that high salaries are actually meaningless...” (You can understand how low the current salaries are.)

11. The boss does not like male employees and considers appearance when hiring.

There are too many other issues to list... Many of the previous comments still apply today. People do not change that easily.

Colleagues are easy to get along with

The only advantage is that colleagues are easy to get along with

Young, attractive, and easygoing colleagues

Free snacks and drinks

What the other reviewers said is all true, but I’d like to add three more points:

1. The boss fired Employee A before the Lunar New Year for a strange reason. After promising to give Employee A a year-end bonus, the boss ultimately went back on that promise.

2. Employee B submitted their resignation within the period stipulated by the Labor Standards Act, but the shareholders were dissatisfied and demanded compensation from Employee B. More than half of that month’s salary was withheld.

3. Poor management, constantly changing decisions, and low morale.

1. The company encourages employees to purchase books related to design, and all such purchases can be reimbursed.

2. Flexible working hours and flexible lunch breaks; there is no specifically designated break time, so you can take a break when you get tired. (See item 4 below for the drawbacks this brings.)

3. All necessary software is provided, and each person has an iMac in terms of hardware.

4. Everyone is a designer, so our ideas are similar and we can quickly reach agreement; almost everyone is also female.

5. The boss has their own firm principles regarding design. For newcomers, having a system to follow is helpful and makes it possible to get up to speed quickly. However, if you start to have different ideas, or if you already have experience, you will need to adapt to that system.

1. Limited scope and limited growth

Everyone is a designer, so there are no opportunities to interact with people in other positions. Communication with the client contact is limited, and because that person is a client rather than one's own colleague, things are almost always done however the other party says. This hinders growth. Also, because communication is inconvenient, it is not possible to discuss the product with engineers or learn how to improve one's designs from a development perspective. You can only learn business-oriented or design-oriented perspectives.

2. The boss evaluates employees based on personal preferences

The boss's preferences are obvious and are reflected in their attitude toward work. The entire company can tell whom the boss currently likes and dislikes, and the differences in how employees are treated are quite large. Those the boss likes can joke around with them and take on important positions; those they dislike are subjected to nitpicking and being ignored, or even dismissed.

The boss often invites employees to talk negatively about other employees: saying they are not serious, inefficient, or incapable at their work. However, when asked about the specific reasons they are not doing well, the answers become vague and the topic is hastily ended, seriously affecting employees' emotions.

The reasons for losing points or becoming disliked that I have heard include: liking video games too much; not obediently following the boss's design instructions (this is somewhat backwards in terms of cause and effect, because once the boss starts disliking someone, if that employee has doubts about a design proposal from the boss and hopes to discuss it, the boss considers it opposition or defiance and dislikes the employee even more); doing an assigned task poorly (the person in question was a woman who had only been there a few days and had little work experience; she was later dismissed); and having overly dirty fingernails.

It is unavoidable for people to have preferences, and there may not be many supervisors who can completely set aside preferences and biases. However, the situation here is too serious, ranging from being scolded a few times, to affecting the work atmosphere, to being dismissed.

3. Nothing is explained clearly

Although the boss says verbally that employees can request any benefits they want, that all government-designated holidays will be given, that employees can start work at any time, and that lunch hours are not regulated, the reality is that if you actually do these things or request the benefits you want, the boss will think you are lacking common sense and having it too easy. After that, they will start criticizing you for not being serious enough or not improving quickly enough, saying that a startup is not just about benefits and that everyone needs to work hard together, and so on. Your original requests will sink without a trace, and you will lose many points in the boss's impression of you.

I feel that if the boss wants employees to act according to their expectations, they should set out rules and limitations. Those who stay will naturally follow them, rather than having everyone constantly guess each other's intentions, accidentally stepping on a landmine, and then being criticized behind their back or even fired. This was truly the most exhausting thing for me during my time there.

I once proposed my ideas but was rejected. The boss said that they simply did not want to establish explicit rules. When I pressed for the reason, the topic was hastily ended, and no specific reason was explained. I guess that it looks better on the surface this way: they can say that their company is very free and does not restrict employees, or something like that. That is just my observation.

If a newcomer proactively brings up salary before joining, the boss will think, “Why is this person only thinking about money instead of focusing on ideal things such as their ideas about the work and their future outlook?” and deduct points from their first impression.

4. No standard for raises; everything depends on subjective impressions

As mentioned above, the extent to which points are deducted affects the size of your raise. There is no standardized scale explaining why an employee is paid a particular salary; everything is decided according to the boss's mood and preferences.

5. So much pressure; employees are seen as useless

When the boss's work pressure becomes increasingly intense, they spread that negative energy to employees. They feel that they are working so hard for the employees, but that the employees do not know it, have things too easy, and only think about benefits (as mentioned above). Without realizing it, they expect employees to do things outside their actual work and spend time outside working hours helping the company.

6. Looking at messages while acting as if it is completely justified

The boss has looked at employees' private Facebook messages, and not just once. Although they apologized verbally afterward, their actions showed no sign of genuine remorse. They even complained to others that being a boss is pitiful: despite working so hard, they still have to read employees' complaints about them in Facebook messages. (If they really thought invading someone else's privacy was wrong, they probably would not proactively tell others that they had done it.)

7. Motivational speeches

The boss constantly says, “You need to try harder” and “You need to grow faster,” but does not offer any concrete plan for how to improve quickly. Moreover, this improvement only counts if the boss can see it—for example, staying at the company a little longer after work or writing more articles for the company to publish. In short, the boss needs to feel that you are helping the company before they recognize it.

The colleagues are easy to get along with

The company environment is quite good

The salary is also pretty good for a designer

The company takes on major projects, which can help you gain work experience

(Basically, it’s just like what you saw in the recruitment information—it all seems pretty good.)

But.......

The company’s employees are all very young (just out of school), and there is no professional PM, yet the company takes on very large projects. As a result, this causes major problems with both time management and communication with clients.

Ah!! Correction: Communication with clients is very smooth and there are no problems, because the client is king. Even unreasonable requests are accepted in full, and then employees have to find a way to clean up the mess—and are not allowed to have any complaints (not even joking complaints in private). There is only one correct answer: “Okay, no problem (smile).” If you give the wrong answer, or if they find out that you complained privately, you will be called in for a talk and told: “Don’t treat clients as enemies. Your complaints will affect the team atmosphere,” (and then you’ll be labeled as someone who doesn’t fit in). Although I can understand that clients are important, I really don’t understand why we have to be so servile! In the end, even if you grit your teeth and finish the work, it is treated as something you should have done. Not only will you not be encouraged, you’ll be criticized for it and told that you could have worked faster.

Because of this, a very strange atmosphere takes shape in the office during work. Everyone seems friendly, but also very fake and tense. The boss also loves asking whether you have any problems, or telling you to let him know if you do—but the standard answer is still: “No problem (smile).” If you offer any suggestions, you’ll be called in for a talk and told: “You’ll affect the team atmosphere like this,” (and then you’ll be labeled as someone who doesn’t fit in). So what is it really—just asking to feel reassured?!

Speaking of affecting the team atmosphere, the person who affects it the most is actually the boss himself, because he really, really loves calling people in for talks. Whether it’s something big or small, or asking one person about another behind their back, it causes everyone in this company of only around 10 people to constantly be suspicious of one another. When we genuinely encounter problems at work, no one can properly raise them or improve things, because as soon as you express an opinion, you’ll again be labeled as someone who doesn’t fit in (and you may lose your position). Moreover, these opinions cannot be expressed to anyone, because whether there is a human surveillance device, a listening device in the office, or, as others say, the boss secretly looks at people’s computers, in any case, whatever you say will reach the boss’s ears. (The ears of God~~~

Next, I want to talk about professionalism!! I feel that the boss does not value professionalism at all. He believes that designers learn quickly, and that if you are willing to take on challenges and dare to do and say things, then the project is yours. Just like taking on the major projects mentioned earlier: if you dare to accept one, it’s yours. Even if you don’t have the ability, it doesn’t matter—just figure it out as you go. If there isn’t enough time, just do a sloppy job (the client won’t understand anyway). If things really don’t work out, just do whatever the client says. This attitude may be correct in some respects, but what difference is there between this and shoddy workmanship? (Ah! The company can make a lot of money.) And to be honest, by the end you’ll feel very uneasy. Put bluntly, it’s deceiving people; put bluntly, it’s deceiving people; put bluntly, it’s deceiving people—and also deceiving yourself. (Could “There’s no success in business without being unscrupulous” really be the path to success?

Finally, I really don’t understand what the boss is thinking. He is very unfaithful to his own principles, for example:

He wants to create a comfortable and free working environment, but if you are not dutifully sitting at your desk with your head down working, he thinks you are slacking off.

He hopes designers can be recognized and respected by society, but he always takes the client’s side and treats designers like laborers.

He hopes everyone can come to work happily, but if you frequently maintain a smile, he thinks you are not serious or are not worrying about the company together with everyone else.

He hopes to increase the company’s overall level of professionalism, but refuses to hire professionals.

He hopes everyone will have professional judgment, but does not believe what employees say.

He hopes everyone will be partners in the company and asks us to think from the company’s perspective and the boss’s perspective, and to share hardships together, but if you report company problems to him, you may very well be put on a blacklist.

...There are many other contradictions as well.

Conclusion: If you lack experience with large projects, it may be worth coming here to add something to your résumé, but remember to prepare yourself mentally and memorize the phrase “Okay, no problem (smile).” If you are already very experienced, think it over carefully!

1. Excellent colleagues: The colleagues are easy to get along and communicate with. In addition, almost everyone is a designer, so we can learn from one another and share experiences and new knowledge related to design.

2. Comfortable company environment: There is a kitchen where you can cook, a lounge filled with beanbag chairs, and a foosball table. After work, you can play with your colleagues. In addition, everyone is provided with a 27-inch Mac, which makes arranging designs on a large screen excellent and efficient.

3. Well-known design products: The projects the company takes on are well-known and sufficiently challenging. Seeing the completed designs used by many people gives you a strong sense of accomplishment.

4. Experience with collaborative design: Multiple people collaborate on the same project here, so you develop many approaches to file management and division of work. This helps improve your collaboration skills.

5. Fast pace: Due to the influence of the company culture, you can experience highly efficient design methods and refine your proficiency with design software.

In terms of design

(These are probably issues commonly faced by companies that take on outsourced projects.)

1. Limited growth: The company is currently a start-up outsourcing design company. The primary goal here is to “finish projects on time,” rather than to improve the product user experience. Toward the later stages, the company basically adopts whatever changes the client says they want.

2. The company does not value UX: The relationship with clients is more like that of an outsourced provider producing screens and prototypes. Neither we nor the client contact has decision-making authority, so we often receive change requests from within the client’s company, most of which leave no room for discussion.

In terms of company management

1. No organizational structure: There are only employees and the boss (who is also the manager of all projects). It sounds equal and positive, but when the manager is also the boss... you will understand why this is not necessarily a good thing as you continue reading.

2. The boss is quite inexperienced at handling personnel matters, for example:

- Does not explain things clearly during interviews, saying to start working first and discuss things later; if you are deemed unsuitable, you are asked to leave.

- Promises a salary increase, then forgets about it and later denies having made the promise.

- Reassigns positions without warning; if displeased, immediately replaces someone without first discussing it with or informing the employee.

3. Underreporting salaries for labor and health insurance: From the company’s founding through August, salaries were consistently underreported for labor and health insurance purposes. This was raised once at the end of June, and the company said it would make an adjustment. The employment contract also clearly stated that insurance would be provided at the legally required level. However, it was later discovered that the insured salary level for July had not been adjusted as stipulated in the contract. The explanation given was an accounting error.

Manager (who is also the boss)

1. No management experience: Before founding the company, the boss had no prior experience as a manager.

2. Poor emotional management: The pressure of taking on outsourced projects is intense. Unable to process their emotions, the boss starts feeling that employees have it too easy and becomes trapped in various negative emotions.

3. Emotional standards for evaluating employee performance: The boss says that the standard for judging whether employees are good or bad is “a sense of trust”—in other words, it depends on their mood and has nothing to do with professional ability. This makes it difficult for employees to know what standards to follow. If the boss likes you, things can go very well for you (but they will not like you forever); if they do not like you, they freeze you out and privately complain about you to other employees.

4. No established policies; all standards depend on mood: The boss currently handles employees taking overly long breaks by verbally urging everyone to be more self-aware, proactive, and considerate of the company and the boss. When an employee proactively asked whether the company had rules specifying the length of the lunch break, the boss said they did not want to establish one.

5. Dislikes design discussions: When colleagues discuss design together, the boss becomes unhappy and hopes to reduce the discussion time or the number of participants. Discussions between employees and the boss can easily make the boss irritated, and the boss has repeatedly said they want employees simply to follow instructions.

6. Controls speech: When employees mention that the deadline is too tight or that a client’s demands are overwhelming, they are called in for a meeting and told not to affect the team’s atmosphere in this way. When the boss is under pressure, they seek emotional reassurance or call in employees they believe are slacking, seriously affecting everyone’s mood at work.

I have heard it said that a manager’s strengths and weaknesses account for more than half of your work quality. Personally, I believe the impact of this factor is extremely significant, so anyone considering working here should think carefully.

1. Flexible working hours: starting at 10 a.m. and leaving promptly at 6 p.m. is fine.

2. Colleagues are all willing to share their own experiences, and they are all designers, so everyone has many topics in common.

3. Comfortable company environment.

4.正版軟體 (sketch) is provided.

1. The boss is very emotional and decides how to treat employees based on their own mood and personal preferences toward employees. They also show their displeasure to everyone, which can easily affect employees’ emotions.

2. During the interview, they said the company’s design approach was an entirely new collaborative model, but it is actually a design agency that takes on client projects. Before the weekly meetings, employees responsible for projects would work overtime until very late. The boss would be extremely displeased, and many requirements were only raised the day before. There was no effective workflow. For a single page, you would need to produce many design options for the boss to choose from, and most screens had no UX framework or wireframe, as if the boss were the client.

3. During the interview, they do not discuss a specific salary or benefits. They first tell employees to work for a month so that both sides can observe each other. Then, within two weeks, they call the employee into a meeting room and say that they are not suitable for the position, and that they can leave after working that day.

4. The boss also serves as the PM, so the company has no PM. Although it is a client-project design agency, there was no UX designer when I worked there either, so designers had to figure things out themselves.

5. The boss secretly looks at employees’ Facebook messages. It is very frightening.

6. After reading the messages, the boss gets angry and may therefore try to fire you.

1. No need to clock in, and working hours are flexible

2. Almost everyone, including the boss, is a designer, so there are more shared topics of conversation

3. All the colleagues are very nice

= Introduction =

Before discussing the shortcomings, I’ll first describe my situation at this company at the time. This company was established around July 2016 (I’m not entirely sure, but it should be about right), and I joined in October, so I was one of the company’s very early employees. At that time, there were only four people in the entire company, including the boss.

At the time, the company’s primary business was taking on client projects, including website redesigns for traditional industries and product design for startups. The company was also a coworking space, holding reading groups on weekday evenings and various workshops on weekends.

Speaking of taking on client projects, it is necessary to mention the company’s early business model. The boss never told external parties or interviewees that the company was “taking on outsourced projects.” Instead, he came up with the term “deep outsourcing,” meaning: “You come here to work, but you are not an employee here. You are an employee of the client company who is simply stationed here. Therefore, you must think of yourself as an employee of the client company and work with the mindset that you are building your own product.”

It sounds quite extraordinary. The outsourcing fees were calculated per person. For example, if one project was assigned one designer, the client would provide a monthly budget of NT$50,000, and UIUX Cafe would pay the designer NT$30,000. The difference was the profit, although of course the boss would not tell you how much the client was actually paying.

Naive and inexperienced at the time, I simply continued working under this arrangement. However, it easily created a problem: clients who paid more (such as large traditional-industry companies) would be allocated more manpower, while the designer assigned to a startup project (me) was very unlucky. Because the budget was smaller, I had to do everything alone (UI, UX, and even front-end development). From a designer’s perspective, the allocation of resources was severely unequal.

= My personal experiences at the time =

1. The interview process was extremely casual. The boss would paint an overly rosy picture of the company’s future ambitions, such as creating a salary-transparent work environment and helping improve designers’ professional abilities. However, when asked about the specific job responsibilities, he was extremely vague. That said, I also have to take responsibility for not thinking things through clearly enough before agreeing to work there.

2. Although the boss himself came from a design background, he was extremely business-oriented. At first, he told employees that we were doing “deep outsourcing” and that everyone should treat the product as “their own product.” We were also supposedly allowed to communicate directly with the client’s team.

In reality, we were simply a typical outsourced-project company. We received UIUX Cafe’s salary, not the client company’s benefits. Even when clients made unreasonable requests or proposed bizarre schedules, the boss would not protect the employees at all. He agreed to every request and told us to do it first and worry about it later. If we tried to discuss the difficulty of carrying out the requirements during meetings, the boss would often stop us, saying: “We need to make the client feel that we are professional and can do anything.” He never assessed feasibility or available resources; he simply expected everyone to proceed, which ultimately left the projects in complete chaos.

3. The boss was simultaneously the salesperson and PM for multiple projects. However, because he was constantly attending meetings and handling other business, he hardly did any of the things a PM should do, such as project management or coordinating resources. He would only show up at meetings to make a last-minute intervention. When it came to the client’s requirements, he often knew nothing, so it was practically a case of leaving the designers to fend for themselves.

4. The boss did not value his commitments. After a month, he went back on the salary we had originally agreed upon and required employees to do more “extra work” before he was willing to pay the salary he had promised. He also advertised externally that everyone would receive a salary of NT$40,000, yet at the time, no employee in the entire company reached that figure.

5. Almost all the employees were inexperienced designers who had recently graduated or had about one year of work experience, yet they were responsible for relatively complex projects. As mentioned earlier, the boss was always busy (although I honestly did not know what he was busy with) and had even less time to train new employees. When they encountered problems, he did not teach them how to solve or think through them. He only told them to “look at more of other people’s work” and “prepare a few more styles to show the client” (which felt more like being a production artist).

6. The boss loved painting overly rosy pictures and talking about vague ideals. At the beginning, he said his mission was to improve designers’ working environment, introduce systematic design processes, and increase designers’ influence. He even said that the following year he would take everyone to Silicon Valley and give everyone salaries above market rates, among other promises.

In reality, after I joined, there was no such thing as a work process. Every so often, he would give motivational speeches urging everyone to work harder. He also told us that salaries would eventually become transparent for everyone and hoped that everyone could quickly reach a salary level of NT$80,000. (The boss used this slogan in his external promotion, but in practice he only paid employees a little over NT$30,000, and salaries were still extremely opaque.)

7. The boss loved playing office politics and frequently asked people to have private discussions with him. However, these conversations were often not about work. Either he would say that he hoped you would take on more responsibility and then he would give you a raise, or he would gossip about other employees, saying that someone was not working hard enough or that he wanted to fire someone. This seriously affected the working atmosphere. (In my opinion, if an employee has a problem, the boss should communicate directly with that employee rather than complain to other employees.)

8. The boss frequently required employees to use their off-hours to do many extra tasks, such as leading reading groups after work, writing articles under the company’s name, learning software independently, planning courses, and leading workshops. The compensation offered was extremely unreasonable.

9. The boss had strong personal biases but often did not explain his reasons. If he liked you, everything was fine; if he did not trust you, nothing was acceptable. Whether in design or hiring and personnel decisions, he made almost everything according to his personal preferences.

10. The boss’s behavior contradicted what he said. He often asked everyone for their opinions and told us to raise any problems. In reality, whenever someone actually made a suggestion or proposed improvements to the company’s systems, it was met with silence and never implemented. In the end, decisions were still made according to his personal preferences.

11. In the early days, there were few employees, and the boss liked everyone to go out for meals together. However, he thought eating was a waste of time and wanted everyone to finish quickly and return to work, so he always walked very fast. I personally consider meals a time to relax and walked slowly. He actually seriously told me to walk faster and not chat with the others, which was completely baffling.

12. The team was too homogeneous: everyone was a designer. This created certain blind spots in our thinking, and for designers who were new to the industry, it could also make it difficult to gain experience working with people in other technical roles.

13. The boss liked to pass negative energy on to employees. He often repeated things like, “Being a boss is very stressful. You need to work harder and become stronger quickly.” However, he did not hire senior designers to mentor newcomers or provide practical resources for employees to learn from.

14. The turnover rate was very high. Within a year of the company’s founding, many people had already left. In addition to voluntary resignations, the boss would even dismiss employees without warning. He promised someone a one-month probationary period, but then decided within two weeks that the person was unsuitable and sent them away without explaining a clear reason.

15. He once secretly looked at employees’ private messages, making the atmosphere in the office extremely strange.

16. The boss liked to promote the idea that everyone in the company was one team and that we were partners. However, other employees were completely unaware when he interviewed new hires. A new colleague would often suddenly appear the next day, and we would immediately be expected to work with them. In addition, during interviews, the boss did not explain things clearly. Many new employees did not even know their benefits (salary, or whether labor and health insurance were provided) before being asked to come in for a one-month trial.

17. The boss liked to promote the idea that “clients are not enemies and all of their needs should be met.” As a design services company, there was very little room for discussion, and he did not care whether resources were sufficient or whether something was practical to execute. If the client had a request, we were simply expected to do it.

There are many other things that I cannot list exhaustively. I’ll add more if I think of them.