Workplace reviews and discussion: 奧維企業股份有限公司

Although this concerns a previous work experience and things may have improved by now, I am describing my personal experience at the time for everyone’s reference. I have written it in great detail because it was so absurd that I find it difficult to forget. Since everything is factual, I am not afraid that they will figure out who I am. Of course, it would be best if the company has already made improvements—then everyone can be happy.

1. The division of responsibilities and authority between the supervisors was unclear. I was told that my direct supervisor, Supervisor A, could approve the final drafts, but Supervisor B kept voicing objections. The two supervisors seemed like business partners running the company together, so although their duties were divided, this created confusion in many decisions and made the workplace feel quite emotional. (See the section at the end about my dismissal.)

2. Regularly working overtime to perform duties outside my own role (packing shipments), without compensatory leave or overtime pay. (However, I did not clarify this before joining. During the interview, the supervisor described it rather casually, saying things like everyone might stay until around seven o’clock before leaving. Since the interview atmosphere was good and I liked the company’s products, I did not ask further. In practice, I often had to stay to help pack goods for shipment. My position was graphic designer, but I would stay for several hours at a time. I was not the only one staying; everyone in the office did.)

3. The versions of the design software used by the company were very outdated, and the computer hardware was also inadequate, making it difficult to work on files. (So anyone interested should remember to check the current situation during the interview; perhaps they have replaced the computers.)

4. Although the company was a fairly sizable distributor, almost all the materials used in the advertising images it created for e-commerce platforms were downloaded from Pinterest, collaged, and edited. That should be illegal, shouldn’t it? (The previous designs were all made this way, so the supervisor also required me to work this way, and there were no other image libraries available.)

5. At the time, the company had a migrant domestic worker responsible for cleaning and miscellaneous tasks. I am not sure whether she was the supervisor’s private domestic worker, but the supervisor really treated her like a dog, ordering her around in a very unpleasant tone and even laughing at her (the woman was not good at Chinese). She was verbally abused whenever she did something slightly wrong, and when we worked overtime packing shipments, she also had to stay and pack with us. If she was a private domestic worker, that should also have been illegal.

6. About a week after I started working, I woke up one morning with severe menstrual pain and called to take menstrual leave. Another colleague answered and said it was OK. Less than 10 minutes later, I received a furious phone call from Supervisor B (who was neither my direct supervisor nor the person directly responsible for the company’s personnel management). As soon as I answered, they said: “Yesterday was your last day!” At the time, I felt it was absurd that, even though the supervisors were women, I was fired for taking menstrual leave—and they apparently did not even want to pay me for the day I took menstrual leave. Therefore, I carefully listed my overtime hours and calculated the overtime pay according to the Labor Standards Act, added my originally owed wages, and wrote it all on a note, asking the company to pay me legally when I completed the departure procedures. (Before going to complete the departure procedures, I messaged the supervisor to ask how the overtime hours would be handled. Although I had only worked there for about a week, I remembered working more than ten hours of overtime, including overtime hours that, under the Labor Standards Act, should be paid at double time. At the time, the supervisor replied that the company operated under a responsibility-based system. I directly replied that the company’s industry was not covered by the legally defined responsibility-based system, and that if they could not accept calculating wages according to the law, we could go to the labor authorities for mediation. They then stopped responding and quietly accepted it. My wages were calculated through the day I took menstrual leave.)

When I went through the departure procedures, Supervisor A explained that Supervisor B had seen that I was not at my desk that morning and assumed I was lazy and late. (In reality, during the week I worked there, I was late by at most about five minutes. Usually, it was simply that I took slightly longer waiting for the elevator in the building and entered the company one minute late—not every day, either.) Moreover, Supervisor B was usually out conducting business and did not even come into the office every day. The fact that an employee could be evaluated based on such an emotional impression, to the point that they could call and say I was being fired immediately, shows how strange the division of authority and responsibility in this company was. Even though they were so angry at the time, they did not ask anyone else (the office was very small) whether I had taken leave; they simply called to berate me. As for why they did not know I had taken menstrual leave: they were not my direct supervisor and did not manage the company’s personnel, so it was quite normal that they did not know. But then why could they directly decide to fire me? This is the part I have always found most absurd.

That is all.

The products represented by the company are actually quite good. I hope the company can uphold a spirit of compliance with the law, whether regarding intellectual property, the treatment of employees, or working hours.