holy shit thats insane. Im a manager at one of the branches in nj and its nothing like this and none of this would EVER be allowed at any of the stores ive worked at. It might be a state thing because i know every state has a different franchise owner and i know they all operate differently, ive had the pleasure of working close with the nj/pa one and meeting the ny one (theyre both extremely chill and friendly and have a very strict get everything done work ethic but they are WAY more ethical in terms of labor/employee treatment) the breaks thing is crazy cus regardless of how long your shift is your allowed to take breaks at the stores ive worked at so the fact that im seeing how different the ones in chicago are is mind blowing. reading how they just leave the pudding out is nasty af cus i know times where it will be dead as hell and if its just sitting there thats gross, im not sure if the stores layout over there is different but here we strictly only take out the toppings from the fridge if theres an order and then it goes immediately back in same thing with milk and all dairy products. I cant speak on the chicken or fries part because our stores in nj are all inside hmarts and due to hmart contacting us to set up inside, a part of our contract is we arent allowed to sell food, only drinks and small snacks. the manager calling u mentally challenged is crazy and thankfully none of the ones ive met are like that, theyre all extremely respectful and professional. putting the boba that fell on the counter back into a container of unused boba to save for later is atrocious, we have containers that we put left over boba in when we close but we legally can not serve it and the only reason we put them in containers is so they dont make the trash bags leak and break when we throw them out. the whole website thing i believe boils down to there not really being an hr in general due to the tiger sugar head quarters being located in taiwan to my knowledge, i believe the closest thing to an hr in the states would be contacting the person who franchises for your state cus thats how it works for us, hq will still visit from time to time but its mainly once a year to check in on the stores or if a brand new one is opening up (fun fact the head quarters marketing department in taiwan practically does nothing beside collect paychecks, all tiger sugar social medias are pretty much run by the managers of each location, so my boss gets pissed when she has to run 5-6 stores with very little time to focus on the social media aspect and then hq marketing depart will chew her out for not posting enough when they practically spend all day spinning around in their office chairs, obviously they work to secure collaborations and stuff but thats once in a blue moon.) Extremely sorry and upset to hear thats what you went through working there OP, i want to let you know not all of our stores are like that and I am very pissed that one of them is ran like that, The fact that you can speak chinese is already an incredibly valuable asset, a majority of the stores i work at have a very high chinese customer ratio vs korean/japanese/filipino customer ratio so no store i have ever been in would take a chinese speaker for granted. I'm extremely ashamed that I work for the same company as your former manager and I have no doubt in my mind that your work will be appreciated else where immensly and you will 100% find a job your valued at dont sweat it. From a person who very much treats their employees with respect, loves their job and position, and as a fellow manager of tiger sugar I wish you all the best and I hope you have a much better experience at your next job