Byte Me: Surviving My First Year in the TikTok Hive as Engineering Manager (4)

Missed the earlier episodes of this workplace dramedy?

If this is your first time reading one of my TikTok tales, congratulations — you’ve just walked into the last episode. Catch up on earlier posts (part 1, part 2, part 3), where I:

• Tried to figure out which TikTok app is which (spoiler: we don’t know either)
• Survived meetings in three time zones with one soul
• Deciphered project priorities like ancient scrolls (“Is this P0 or P00?”)
• Accidentally witnessed a machine translation scandal that still haunts me

TikTok’s China Travel Policy: “Please, Take Your Laptop to the Motherland”

While most companies treat China trips like smuggling uranium (“NO COMPANY DEVICES!!”), TikTok basically hands you a parasol and a fan: “Go, my child. Explore the homeland.” Flights auto-approved, and though they won’t pay for business class, they’ll cover the economy fare so you can Venmo your way to legroom. Eager to fast-track my report-of-work and new project incubation, I booked a Shanghai trip by month three. Time to face the *real* culture shock — not the language, the *cafeteria*.

The ByteDance Badge: Tech’s Golden Ticket