This company is a combo of "Office Space,""Battle Royale" and "Mean Girls" in one toxic stew. The Beijing office is delusional (and makes up "facts" whenever it suits them), and the American HQ is a pile of suck-ups, egomaniacs and bullies with outdated playbooks and lame tactics to con clueless execs.
Some people do have talent and mean well. Sadly, they've got to fight incompetence, egomania and scape-goating, a way of life for a lot of upper management (and their lackeys). Value isn't based on work performance, but how fast and hard you can kiss the butts of top brass. Phrases like "cover your butt," "plausible deniability" and "throw people under the bus" were invented for work cultures like this.
Feel bad for the decent, hard-working or talented, because they're exploited. Employees are often forced to do stuff they're not comfortable with. Meanwhile, lame or even unhinged managers avoid consequences, despite mountains of complaints filed against them. But this is just business as usual for a company that sees workers as disposable.
If you love long (long) hours, unreasonable workloads, irrational (and often sociopathic) bosses (both Western and Chinese), and acts of intimidation meant to deflect blame and silence naysayers, then look no further. Others should move on, including freelancers and vendors, because the company's track record for payments is the worst.
Know the truth before signing up for this mess. It says a lot that the company's legal chief from Google, which they made a big deal about last year, bolted out the door last summer. Its high-profile CMO from Samsung didn't even bother coming to the U.S. launch. Right after that, he quit too, which is weird because he brought in his cronies and then stranded them here. Then after almost a year of insane recruiting goals of 100 new hires (PER MONTH!) for a single office, laid people off right before the holidays.
If you think you can overlook all that because of the company's prospects, don't kid yourself. There's so many red flags. Here's some stuff you should Google. (Seriously, do it.) • The company's "ecosystem" and the tons of unhappy eui (software) users in India and other places. • Its connection to Faraday Future and its exodus of execs. • The big $2 billion acquisition of Vizio and silly promises of a super campus (Yahoo land), before the CEO admitted to money problems due to over-reaching. There's so much more. The only thing this buzzword-loving company "disrupts" is a rational person's sanity.
This organization rewards despicable behavior, turns motivated employees into beat-down drones, and challenges workers not to turn into a boiling pot of outrage. Every. Single. Day. Anyone who manages to get through this with any spirit left should get a medal, because they are a survivor of trauma.
