Pros
They occasionally come through on snacks.
Cons
TLDR: Only work here if you need a job/money (desperately). Per my experience: THE COMPANY: They mainly sell light switches and the frames that go over them on Amazon. It’s important to note this is a Chinese company so structurally it operates differently than an American one, beyond a language barrier, so researching the difference is encouraged. They also have other companies so expect to work for those ones too. While most people here are quite genial, they do a lot of ‘corporate theater’ meaning they tend to create fabricated tension to generate productivity. They say things for the sake of saying them, not really knowing what they are talking about, usually coming from management. There’s no real planning here so you’re constantly swinging in the dark. The owners want everything their way and it’s nearly impossible to get them to accept modern practices. You could be 20 yrs into your field and your input will fall on deaf ears - the most knowledgeable staff have their input dismissed constantly. They like to attempt to mimic ‘competitors’ (usually a large, more established enterprise). They will have meetings for the sake of having meetings as if it's all just for show. Once I asked a manager who our target market was and they basically said ‘people with money’ (canned answers are very common). They tend to favor nepotism over meritocracy; your loyalty to the owner/company is valued more than your actual expertise and work ethic (hence the 5 star reviews). They frown on assertiveness and believe in ‘saving face’ even when they folly. Chinese staff have it a bit better - interviews are merely a formality as most seem to already know the owner or get hired by recommendation, regardless of their actual ability. Most managers don’t seem very experienced and just follow whatever the owner says. I’m not too confident they could hold their titles at other companies. Morale is not high at all here and turn around is common. The office is small and talking is discouraged. Bathrooms were pretty gross, some staff don’t consider hygiene a priority and concerns to HR are not taken seriously. STAFF: The owner prefers not to speak English although he can, which is speculated to maintain distance from staff. We’ve been told he wants to interact but he tends to initiate only with head nods and one-word phrases. He doesn’t get involved in a project until it’s near completion and will make requests for significant revisions, wasting weeks/months of work. Human Resources is not on your side - they tend to act sycophantic to the owners and primarily act as an overseer for the company rather than an administrator. Multiple complaints have been made about them over micro-managing in different departments frequently. If they see something they don’t like they will administer a new arbitrary rule against it via passive-aggressive emails. They can be prone to having tantrums and harshly criticize staff in front of others. They seem more lenient towards the Chinese employees though; known for engaging in lunch and events outside work which may or may not be a conflict of interest. They're like obsessed with timekeeping and will make you fill forms for every shift that is not perfectly 8 hrs, even if it’s off by 1 minute. Breaks are 15 minutes, lunch is 30, both are heavily monitored. They once requested staff to ‘make up time’ because they were locked out of the building and physically couldn’t clock in to work. COMPENSATION: The wages/benefits package are not exciting. Bonuses can be heavily impacted based on attitude, product knowledge, and random/unreasonable expectations. We once hit our goal for the year and they made us take a product test after the fact and deducted 1% from our bonus for each question we got wrong. During an evaluation, I was told I hit my targets but my manager said he was ‘required’ to dock me so I got hit for not accomplishing next year’s goals. That’s right, I got penalized for not being psychic. PERKS: Nothing good worth mentioning. They had some fun staff parties but those quickly shifted to these ‘fun-datory’ events that were basically forced arts and crafts; one could technically define them as work (they had a contest for assembling shipping boxes). We are expected to participate in some events, even if they happen outside normal work hours, or risk hindering our standing. Any sign of discontent was seen as being ungrateful and the reason why they didn’t have more elaborate events. Be wary of using your time-off as well. We had a meeting where one of the owners told staff they risk losing their jobs if they go over taking 2 weeks off and have been known to deny requests made 6+ months in advance and important life events like weddings.
