Workplace reviews and discussion: 台灣新蛋股份有限公司

The two reviews differ quite a lot. I suspect they refer to two different entities.

There are currently two major entities in Taiwan:

one operates Taiwan Egg (newegg.com.tw), and the other operates US Egg (newegg.com).

Basically, they are two completely different teams, running completely different websites, with entirely separate databases.

I work for US Egg; I don't know much about the Taiwan Egg side.

When the first review talks about office politics, I guess it is referring to Taiwan Egg, right?

Because I have absolutely not experienced that on the US Egg side!

The only thing is that every now and then we receive an email notifying us that another senior executive in the US has changed,

or that the organization has changed again, but that has absolutely nothing to do with us (the frontline staff).

The frontline and middle-level managers are still the same few people, so how could there be any favor-seeking promotions?

Since the frontline and middle-level managers haven't changed, it is impossible for people to get promoted by flattering them!

Salary:

The year-end bonus is one month's salary, paid in January, so you receive double pay in January.

The performance bonus is 0–1 month's salary, paid in March or April. Very few people receive one full month; in a department, there may be only one person who does. Most people receive around half a month.

Other benefits have already been shared by someone else, so I won't elaborate.

Pros:

1. The hourly wage is relatively high.

Since there is almost no overtime, the company is empty by 7 p.m. every day. Overtime only happens when a project is approaching a deadline,

but overtime hours can also be exchanged for compensatory leave. In other words, if you work two hours of overtime today, you can use those two hours to take leave later. If you do take compensatory leave, your weekly working hours are a solid 40 hours. It is not like some companies where you work 12 or more hours a day—60 hours a week at minimum—without overtime pay or the ability to exchange overtime for compensatory leave.

2. Learning

You can definitely learn a lot. The previous review mentioned that university graduates can learn project processes here.

What I want to say is that even experienced employees can learn a lot. The US Egg website ranks in the 100s in the US by traffic and in the 600s globally. Its database contains tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, of product records. Even if you only work on one small subsystem, you can learn a great deal if you want to.

3. There are established procedures.

The company is fairly large, so unlike some small and medium-sized businesses, it cannot arbitrarily take advantage of employees. Once a large company is reported, it is in serious trouble, so it operates according to established procedures. The annual-leave policy is slightly better than what is required by the Labor Standards Act.

4. Management is relatively humane.

The first review said that “the company itself treats people as objects.” I have not felt that way at all.

I still want to ask: are you talking about Taiwan Egg?

5. Free health checkups

They are only basic checkups.

1. The company has a terrible reputation online.

This really needs no further explanation: one review on Pixnet from 2004 and another on PTT from 2011.

I didn't join Newegg that early, so I don't know about those ancient events. When I was initially invited to interview, I naturally found those two posts in my search. My attitude at the time was: well, just go take a look. I'm not making hundreds of thousands every second, so it wouldn't hurt to attend the interview and hear what they have to say. If it really seemed bad and I got an offer, I could simply decline. What, was I worried they would eat me or kidnap me for the organization? But many people don't think that way. They search online, see those posts, and don't even dare come to an interview. Why is this considered a disadvantage? Damn, the workforce is already tight! Although everyone can still come and go from work normally each day, a single project takes a long time to complete, which can make people impatient.

2. Salary

Salary has two aspects: starting salary and subsequent raises. The starting salary used to be lower than the industry average. Adjustments finally began over the past year or two, but it is probably still below the industry average. Very few people receive raises after joining, and even when they do, the increase is tiny.

Moreover, raises are unrelated to performance. You only have a chance of getting one if your manager puts your name forward to upper management; otherwise, there will be no raise.

The year-end bonus is only one month's salary.

3. You see the tree but not the forest.

Large companies are all like this. You may only work on one sub-feature of a large product. In other words, you could stay for four or five years and still not know how to build an e-commerce website from scratch.

4. You could be eliminated.

Competition in e-commerce is fierce, and Newegg is in an awkward middle position. Compared with Amazon and eBay, it falls far behind. In a mature industry, only one or two companies may ultimately survive. Just look at Taiwan's motherboard manufacturers: there were more than a dozen during their heyday!

5. There are organizational problems.

The work is assigned by the US side, but performance evaluations and salaries are determined by the Taiwan side.