"Our product is absolutely not what our colleagues in quality control call a hookup app. It's a social app for true love, committed to building intimate relationships rooted in deep emotional connections. Even if some bad users make unreasonable requests, other users will reject them and guide them in the right direction! Now, let me randomly select a user and give everyone a live demonstration."
A phone screen was projected onto the meeting room wall. Xiao Yutong opened a same-sex dating app. A red dot appeared in the Nearby section, and a black-and-white profile picture that looked almost asexual caught her attention.
"Wanna hook up?" Xiao Yutong tapped Send without the slightest hesitation.
Ten minutes later, a message appeared on the screen.
"Sure."
Flirtatious graduate of a second-tier college * Dark, highly educated product developer
In June 2016, Xiao Yutong returned from overseas with a master's degree and stumbled into the internet boom. In four years, she got promoted three times and became a product manager at a major tech company. By 2020, in this vast world, even PhDs from Tsinghua, Peking University, and the Ivy League were lining up to compete with her for jobs. What was she supposed to do if she couldn't just coast? She had to find someone powerful to lean on and save her lazy self!
In June 2020, a wave of layoffs swept through major internet companies in mainland China. Ke Jinlin was the last employee hired before Company T completely froze recruitment. She joined the enviable corporate rat race as a bona fide insider. But the person she was about to begin working closely with turned out to be a graduate of a second-tier college who had ridden the internet boom years ago.
As the online ecosystem and regulatory requirements continued to change, the two of them embarked on a shared mission to clean up the internet and make their products legal and compliant.
The author spent six years at two major tech companies and another three years in finance, for a total of nine years in the workplace. Eight of those years were spent in involuntary squabbles, and the other year was spent utterly bewildered. Read with confidence!
Theme: Everyone has a responsibility to set the workplace straight
