Where do i begin? My list goes on... 1. Horrible talent management, they copy western companies' OKR and 360 degree performance review system, but TikTok leaders manipulated it in a way that you have to please your leader huge in order to get a good bonus as your 360 rating determines how much your bonus will be. That of course leads to a very top-down Chinese imperial management style. 2. Salary. HRBP and the team leads will try to negotiate so hard with you on your salary by leveraging the name TikTok which many believes it's the next Meta, but let's be honest, how far can TikTok go if they have a top-down management culture and bring in talents who later realise they're all underpaid? 3. Team leaders. Many of them are young and incompetent, they're in the lead position either because they know how to please the management or they are the loyalist, therefore, the more experienced talents will suffer big from inexperienced leads and unprofessionalism, they will feel very little chance to exceed unless they become a loyalist too. The team leaders' goals are very much for 360 performance review NOT because they want to bring impact, build a strong team nor nice culture. 4. Benefit. Many thinks employee benefit is good here, well, it maybe the case when the company was small and new here, it has been reducing employee benefits since ever, starts from hard salary negotiation by count in every cent of your flexible benefit and 3 months bonus you may or may not get (depends on how much your leader wants to give you), cheap lunch and snacks that are in trend to become worse due to cut in operation expenditure. 5. Corrupted leaders. Sexual harassment and hostile working environment are quite common, as mentioned, the result of a leader-pleased culture. 6. Resignation. This is a funny one. Let's say if your notice period is one month from 1 Nov to 30 Nov, then you agreed with HRBP to have your last day on 15 Nov, but you do not get paid for 1 Nov to 15 Nov in the end, because you need to pay back to TikTok for the shortened notice period from 16 Nov to 30 Nov! This is the most ridiculous policy i have ever experienced in my life... 7. Future outlook of social media platforms. In overall, weak moat for social media platforms like TikTok, look what happened at Meta and Twitter... TikTok has been expanding in oversea without a concrete plan since 2019, they do not even have headcount projection for each year, which means they could over hire without control. TikTok as the very few APPs that generates revenue, in current economic downturn, ad revenue will shrink, and when a Chinese company cuts its headcount, it can be brutal without anything like Meta gives employees 16 weeks salary, refer to what happened in tech sector in China. 8. My final advise, choose western companies over Chinese companies, for your own value system and mental health. TikTok may try to build its branding, but not if they understand the value of human dignity and respect.
