Workplace reviews and discussion: 開物國科技文化事業有限公司

Annual salary: 26,000/month

Working hours: Approximately 08:00–17:00 + unlimited-duty-hour system

Year-end bonus: None

Stock options: None

Bonuses: None

Job duties: Researching information, contacting vendors, handling and organizing cultural artifacts, copywriting, financial management, and various miscellaneous tasks

Thoughts:

Please be careful with this company!

(1) Burning through employees

There are often full-time job openings here (the purpose is probably to make you commit wholeheartedly), but the turnover rate is very high.

What does this look like in practice? In one curatorial project I worked on, within two months, one copywriter and two designers had already been fired. One of the designers had more than ten years of experience and was fired anyway. As for the reason, of course the boss never stated it clearly, and we cannot definitively accuse them of misunderstanding others—but the timing of the dismissals was always when the work had come to an end. What a coincidence.

This is truly a very upsetting situation. Many employees moved house or resigned from their previous jobs for this position, only to be given the expectation of a permanent role by the boss and then suddenly told to leave without warning. I advise you to think twice!

(2) Unlimited working hours under the duty-hour system

The company belongs to the “cultural knowledge services industry,” which is not itself covered by Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Act (the duty-hour system). However, the boss will tell you that the company is under the duty-hour system (using “that’s what the lawyer said” as a shield, but if you check, you will find that it actually is not). When you join, you will immediately be asked to sign a contract stating: seven working hours per day, with the one missing hour counted toward a monthly allowance of 24 duty-system hours. This is where the blind spots appear:

Blind spot one: Explicitly stating seven hours in the office does not mean you do not have to work at home (wink).

Blind spot two: Those 24 hours are not actually calculated clearly; it often exceeds 24 hours (but they also will not let you keep records proving how many hours have passed).

Over the past month, working overtime from 00:00 to 02:00 has been common (screenshots serve as evidence).

According to the designer who was dismissed for having “no further value,” they could not get even three days off in an entire month.

(3) 24-hour Line standby duty

The boss assigns work via Line during all kinds of off-hours, and it must be completed within the time limit (the deadlines are often set right at the end of the workday). Screenshots of the Line messages serve as evidence.

(4) Arbitrary overtime pay

After making you work long hours of overtime, the boss will make a token payment of overtime pay—but do not get too excited, because the overtime pay is not calculated according to the Labor Standards Act at all. Since this company has no time clock or any clock-in mechanism, overtime pay is given according to the boss’s mood, and the boss cannot calculate how much overtime you actually worked (emails and pay slips serve as evidence).

In short, think twice about this company~

I forgot to mention: the salary is very low. For people with two or three years of work experience, the starting salary is around 25,000–26,000. For people with more than ten years of work experience, the salary is 28,000. For everyone’s reference.