Workplace reviews and discussion: QNAP_威聯通科技股份有限公司

After reading senior colleague TonyQ’s account, and given that TonyQ has been gone for a while while I have been here for about two years, I’d like to supplement the current situation based on what I have personally seen and heard.

Pros:

1. The company gives newcomers a fair amount of time and room to learn. After all, the threshold for NAS is not low, and few people have a foundation in NAS when they first join.

2. Compared with ordinary system manufacturers, the number of months of annual compensation is above average. During the interview, HR said 16 months were guaranteed; in practice, it is 18–20 months for non-managerial positions. However, after taking into account the lack of overtime pay, it is only barely acceptable—enough to get by, but not enough to live comfortably.

3. Items in the vending machines on the company’s third floor are uniformly NT$10 cheaper than market prices (although the selection is repetitive).

4. The overall quality of the employees is quite good. Everyone seems to have an impressive background and is not just some random hire.

5. The general manager, Ming-Chih, whose office is filled with machines, is sensible and came from a software R&D background. This is a company that places relatively strong emphasis on R&D.

Cons:

1. There is little room for raises—almost none. If you do not bring it up or say that you are planning to leave, the company simply pretends nothing is happening.

2. Salaries are preset to be divided into three categories. HR claims this is to help everyone save on taxes. If your base salary is NT$30,000, the payslip will list a basic salary of NT$24,000, with overtime pay and meal allowance totaling NT$6,000.

3. Office workers do not receive overtime pay, and in principle no one applies for compensatory leave either. However, because the annual compensation is fairly decent, and because “overtime pay” is indeed listed as an item on the payslip, everyone is temporarily too lazy to report it.

4. HR secretly cuts salaries. When I initially received the offer, it was NT$8,000 less than what HR had verbally promised. A manager in another department once had everything agreed upon, only for HR to pull the same trick, upsetting the person enough to go to MediaTek instead. For the sake of a few thousand dollars, the company had to recruit again. Teddy seems like a generous person, but HR is completely different.

5. Before onboarding, you must submit a guarantee letter and find two friends to sign and act as guarantors (relatives do not count). The default assumption is that employees are thieves.

6. Assets of all sizes—including hard drives, SSDs, and network cards—will be assigned to individuals, and there is no exit procedure. The items under your name will only keep accumulating, and if something cannot be found before you leave, you really have to pay for it. Be especially careful if you apply to the testing department; it is very easy to end up liable for tens of millions of dollars’ worth of assets.

7. The benefits are pitifully sparse. This year, the basketball club nearly collapsed several times because the subsidy was far below expectations. The only benefit worth mentioning is the travel subsidy, but you can receive it only if you join a trip organized by the company’s partner travel agency. The group-tour fee is several thousand dollars more expensive than the going rate outside, so junior employees with smaller subsidies can only be the lambs to the slaughter here.

8. The amenities around the Xizhi headquarters are unbelievably terrible. The frustration starts with the inevitable traffic jam on Datong Road during the morning commute, and lunchtime brings another problem: the nearby restaurants are all either bad or unhealthy. Don’t like that? Then drive or ride a scooter farther out to look for food. If you cannot find parking or come back soaked in the rain, that’s your problem.

9. Personnel management still follows old-fashioned Taiwanese management standards, with a huge number of rules. Compared with some newer software companies, it is not very free.

Regarding Teddy:

(I will set aside the negative media coverage and talk only about what I have personally experienced.)

He has a distinctive charm and is genuine. Anyone who has heard Teddy speak will feel that he was born to be a boss. His willingness to invest and spend money at least puts him ahead of most stereotypical exploitative Taiwanese bosses. He has a reasonably good grasp of the company’s overall direction, and at least the company as a whole is still quite profitable (setting aside the bonuses paid to employees below him). However, as senior colleague TonyQ mentioned, Teddy’s ideas about certain details are somewhat detached from reality. He exercises too much micromanagement over the entire company. Many minor matters and small meetings should really be handled by the heads of the respective business units, or at most by General Manager Ming-Chih, yet the old man still comes down and handles them personally. He may not be tired, but everyone else is.

Summary:

I will leave aside the kind of bad managers that can be encountered at any company. The atmosphere throughout the company is quite subtle. It feels as though many people have been placed in positions they are not good at and forced to do things they dislike. However, because the employees are generally competent, the overall output is still acceptable. This makes it feel as though the company’s progress comes from traditional high-pressure management rather than employees’ voluntary pursuit of their passion for technology.

If you are a newcomer who wants to build up your skills, plans to leave after practicing for a year or two, wants to meet all kinds of talented people, and does not want the pay to be too miserly—and you do not mind the shortcomings listed above—QNAP should still be a fairly suitable company for you. PMs at this company will directly bear Teddy’s pressure; if you can endure it for a while, it is to your advantage. PMs who have survived at QNAP are highly sought-after when they leave.