Workplace reviews and discussion: 桃園病媒防治專員

The job basically involves riding a company scooter or car to various restaurants or locations to control cockroaches and rats.

Working hours are 8:30 to 17:00, with a 1.5-hour lunch break. You clock in and out at the company office.

You generally visit around 5–8 clients a day. For people with pest-control experience, this is not difficult, but because employee turnover is so rapid,

you often end up inheriting a mess—severe cockroach infestations or serious rodent problems. If the previous person’s pest control was ineffective, the successor

may be blamed and harshly criticized for problems left behind. Reporting the issue to management often gets you a response along the lines of, “You should figure out how to solve it yourself,”

or they assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you. However, even senior managers are usually just going through the motions and do not genuinely invest the effort needed to help resolve the problem.

“Night work” is defined as work after 5 p.m. For example, leaving at 5 p.m. to perform pest control until 8 p.m. counts as overtime.

After finishing at 5 p.m., you may rest for 2–3 hours and then return to the company to carry out pesticide spraying at 10 p.m.; this is considered a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days depends on your luck. When the company is short-staffed, many people work more than ten night shifts.

After working at night, you must take compensatory leave the following morning, meaning you only need to report to work at noon the next day.

At present, the company generally implements a two-day weekly rest system (public holidays marked in red on the calendar are also days off), with flexible scheduling.

In other words, you may be given two or three days off in a week (three if there happens to be a public holiday), but you cannot be scheduled for three consecutive days off.

Overtime is currently calculated according to the Labor Standards Act, but only based on the insured base salary for labor insurance.

For example, if your insured base salary is 22,500, the calculation is 22,500 ÷ 240 × 1.33 or 1.66 (after the first two hours).

Because the one-fixed-day-off-and-one-flexible-rest-day system and public holidays are shifted, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to claim.

Days off are still scheduled according to the work at hand—in other words, they must accommodate clients, coworkers, and the company’s operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly tell you that you cannot take the day off, a client may suddenly ask to change the appointment time,

or a team leader or coworker may ask you to swap shifts. Often, if you do not show up, the work simply goes uncovered.

Pay consists of the basic salary + meal allowance + unexplained bonuses + overtime pay (if applicable; I heard they may change to a responsibility-based system),

minus your personal contributions to labor and health insurance. Since the insured salary is kept low, the deductions are generally a little over 1,000.

The actual calculation is 22,500 + 1,500 + 8,000 + 1,236 − 800 = 32,436 (for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a few people earn more than 40,000; you only get additional pay after being promoted or taking on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, management appointments, or pay raises; everything depends on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, they will say that there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance ratio (which is also determined solely by the boss, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus is approximately 11,250–22,500 (based on a basic salary of 22,500). If you have worked for less than a year, it is prorated by month.

Bonuses for the three major holidays are not guaranteed. They might be a box of cookies for everyone to share, or cash of 600–1,000.

Company trips essentially do not exist. If it is impossible to take even three consecutive days off, how could there be a company trip?

Department dinners only happen occasionally, and if people eat too much, the boss may complain again, so some employees do not attend.

What I find most ridiculous about this company is that it claims on 104 that it provides comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means joining the company and being casually handed over to a senior employee or a coworker who is about to leave,

who trains you for 3–5 days before sending you out to deal with clients and perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, there is no one to take over the territory).

The company then claims externally that employees have three years of experience. Does three days equal three years of experience? Did you enter a time chamber?

In my view, pest-control work may seem easy to enter, but without one or two years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.