New Job Offer

I actually went for a second round of interview today at a furniture shop for an Interior Stylist position and was pretty much offered the position, but there are a few things that I am really concerned with and I feel like it is seriously affecting my decision to accept the offer or not.

Prior to this second round interview, I did not tell anyone in my company that I had gone for the first interview because I feel like every time I share that out loud, it jinxes, so I kept this interview to myself and maybe told one of my colleagues about it, and despite telling the furniture company that I will have a relatively long notice period, they were actually willing to wait, which was great.  

They said they didn't mind waiting, but a part of me also felt like my chances were definitely lowered because if they found another candidate with the same level of experience and had a similar set of skills as me with a shorter notice period, they will pick him or her over me for sure, so I wasn't really expecting to be called up for a second round until I was reached out by the HR to actually meet the Hiring Manager in person. The first meeting was via Zoom, not a fan of that, didn't think I did very well, thus the surprise when I was contacted about moving to the next round.

I had spoken to the Team Manager via the Zoom interview before, and  I didn't have a very good impression of him, I felt like he was very cold, he looked quite fierce and the fact that I will have to report to him when I do get hired was a bit of a bummer, but then meeting him today in person, he was actually not at all like who I thought he was during his Zoom meeting, he was friendly and personable, smiled a lot as well, which instantly made me feel a lot more relaxed.

We had a good chat, he asked me about my notice period again and I shared with him that the notice period might extend because of the MCO in Malaysia that has resulted in delays for my projects. After a while, the Company Manager sits in, he was a bit more reserved, didn't really give a lot of eye contact, but I thought we had a good chat nonetheless. After that quick chat with the two managers, I was tested on how I would style a space, so they gave showed me a space in the store and asked me how I would go about designing a living room in that space.

The basic stuff is finding a sofa, coffee table and console, so I did that, pointed out the furniture that I thought would work well together and then they asked me about what kinds of lighting I would choose, if I would use mirrors to decorate a space, and just a bunch of styling question that I think I was able to answer with my Interior Designer experience, the Team Manager nodded his head in approval so I guess I passed.

We go back to the table we were at and continued our conversation, and the Company Manager asked me why I wanted to work in the retail industry because he feels like I was downgrading, and honestly speaking, this is a downgrade but the truth is, at the end of the day, being an Interior Designer is barely making me any money, the job is stressful, the commission I get for the amount of work that I have to put into managing a project is not good, in fact, last year, when my company prepared a pay slip that reflected our annual income, I had only earned a measly $4000 for that entire year. 

So yes, in terms of job responsibilities and title, to go from an Interior Designer to an Interior Stylist, it is a huge downgrade, but if my income is peanuts, then there is no point sticking to that job just for that title.

Anyways, the Company Manager leaves shortly after and directed me back to my Team Manager, who then asked me if I had any questions related to the job and this was when things kinda went a bit downhill because of the tea he was spilling about the company.

First thing I asked was how long he has been working in the company, being the Team Manager and all, I thought maybe 2 to 3 years is a good estimate, but then he tells me he had only recently joined not too long ago, so I ask him how long and he said about 1 month and prior to that, he was working in a high end fashion retail store. 

Hmmm. It's really difficult not to question his experience as an Interior Stylist because I was really hoping he had a lot of interior styling background and knowledge that he could pass on to me, but turns out, I have so much more experience than him in the industry and his experience actually lies in retail sales. 

As someone who is joining the company to focus more on the Interior Stylist side of things than the Retail Sales side of things, I was very concern that the Team Manager doesn't have the proper experience to actually properly guide me, but I figured since he is a manager, the company probably saw something in him, that's why they hired him in the first place, so he then starts sharing with me even more things and this is when the red flags just started popping out.

A bit of background. The store that I visited today is not the actual store that I will be working at, but the sister company. I was told via the email that because the Team Manager was going to be at this outlet today instead of the other one, the interview will be held here.

So, I brought up some of the negative reviews I had read about the company on Google Reviews, because there were quite a few who were complaining about the service being really bad, just to get a gauge on what he thinks about the reviews and this was the catalyst for the tea spillage.

Turns out, the company has plans to fire a majority of the existing interior stylist and sales staff in that high end furniture store, this includes the existing Team Manager there, and the Team Manager I am speaking to has been hired to be the replacement. Existing  Team Manager has no idea she is going to be let go, and the company has no plans to actually fire her, instead, they are planning to wait for her Work Pass to expire and not renew it, so she will have no choice but quit because she is not local.

What the fuck? 

And then a bunch of the other people will also get fired because apparently they also suck at their job, the manager words being...

"They have gotten arrogant."

.... because it is a luxury furniture store and they actually judge the walk-ins based on what they wear and whether they can actually afford the furniture before deciding if they are worth going up to and speaking to them. So let's say a customer walks in wearing a bunch of luxury item or is dressed to the nines, then he or she will be served because he or she can clearly afford the items, but if a customer comes in wearing slippers and short shorts with a Giordano T-Shirt, the sales team won't even bother entertaining the customer.

The fucked up thing is that that is also what I will probably do because once you experience the customers telling you that their budget is way below what you are selling, multiple times on a daily basis, it just becomes tiresome to deal with the same type of customers over and over again knowing what the end result will be, so why bother actually taking time talking to such customers when you can spend your time elsewhere doing something else.

But I can also understand why the company feels that this is unacceptable and plans to fire a majority of the existing workers there because they are ultimately being paid a monthly salary and if your service is tarnishing the company's reputation, then you are definitely not worth the company's money. 

What I am worried about is how negatively this will actually impact the rest of the current group who will not get fired in the end, because a bunch of their colleagues will get axed and be replaced by a new group, there will definitely be some level of disdain towards the new group, especially to the new Team Manager, who will be attempting to change the culture of the company.

The team manager warned me that the work environment will be hostile because of the takeover and I am just extremely uncomfortable knowing that these new positions that the new group will be taking over was only made available because others were fired and not because they left the company on their own accord to explore other career options.

This also brings me to my next concern, if the company is so willing to fire a bunch of the current workers, then what's to say they won't do that to me a few years down the line, when I have my own apartment and have loans that I will have to pay on a monthly basis, it's so dangerous.

Anyways, the interview ends with the manager asking me when I can start work and what my expected salary is, so I told him ideally, mid August would be the best, that would give me time to really complete all my projects and I can come into this new job with a clean slate with no baggage from my current job. He then ask me if I can start in July for a month of training, and I didn't really give him an answer but I know for sure right now that I can't start in July because it is going to be impossible to actually juggle between that work and my current work simultaneously. 

Another thing to note is that the salary in the past used to be Basic + Commission, but the company decided to take away the Commission and make it a fixed salary job instead. 

After the interview, I went back to my Office to enjoy some air-conditioning and shared with my Manager that I had gone for a job interview just now and was pretty much offered the job. He knows I have been looking for a new job for a while now so I can confide this kinds of things to him and his response was to essentially be very careful of the company because it seems like what the company is trying to do is get rid of all the workers that are still being paid the Basic + Commission scheme and they are now being vilified by the higher ups so the new hires won't question the decision to the termination of a bunch of old employees.

This then brings me to my next concern, if the company can fire a bunch of workers at one go, what is to say they won't do that to me and my new group in the future. If the company chose to split the existing employees up and put them into the other companies under them to try and correct their "bad working attitude", I would at least feel safer knowing that the company actually cares about their employees livelihood, but there is that, so I am honestly a little torn about how to go about with this position, I feel like there is a lot of  office politics happening even before I am officially part of the company, I can only imagine how horrible it will really be once I am actually part of it.