Workplace reviews and discussion: 巨鷗科技股份有限公司

Since the company's project deputy manager posted under their real name, I thought I'd follow suit.

My position at the company is Senior Programmer, and I have been here for four years. I have about ten years of work experience.

Although these comments concern the company, some matters are decided primarily by the heads of the respective departments, so some of the pros and cons may contradict the comments below. However, the main policies are still based on company regulations (e.g., overtime pay).

Pros:

1. Most colleagues are easy to get along with and willing to spend time mentoring others:

Regarding colleagues being easy to get along with, newcomers may think this is simply how things should be; but in my personal career experience, there really are quite a few companies with internal backstabbing and infighting. As for being willing to spend time mentoring others, setting aside the coaches assigned by the company, if you humbly ask colleagues from other departments for advice, they will basically teach you what you want to know without holding anything back—as long as they have the time. Of course, the premise is that you are willing to ask and are serious about learning.

2. Lots of activities:

Let me clarify something that some people deliberately leave out: The company has four departments, and each department holds three department activities; the large-scale events organized by the company are usually one or two per year, while the small-scale activities (held for various holidays, depending on how proactive the cultural ambassadors are that year—first day of work after the New Year, Valentine's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas, etc.) are held separately. In addition, the various clubs hold activities from time to time [there are currently two clubs]. Altogether, that comes to (4*3) + (1 or 2) + x + (2*n) = 14 + x + 2*n events.

At first glance, that's indeed a lot. Except for the small-scale activities organized by the company (these are held during working hours, and you might not be able to get out of attending even if you wanted to), “none of the above is mandatory”! But think about it: when your manager tells you that department activities are optional, would you actually go? I’ll confess first: I definitely wouldn’t, because when I’m off work I just want to stay home and play video games. But ever since I had children, I’ve actually been quite grateful that the company/department plans these kinds of activities, because I don’t have to worry about where to take the kids on weekends. I can even scout out future sons-in-law or daughters-in-law for them in advance (lol~).

3. Plenty of learning opportunities, strong domain knowledge, with each of the four major departments having its own expertise:

The strongest domain knowledge in my department is GIS. As soon as it comes up, we basically leave the other departments in the dust. Of course, our department also covers management technology and marketing technology, but since I belong to the GIS Team, naturally I have to promote our own group.

I’ll only talk about my own experience here: Before joining the company, I knew absolutely nothing about GIS. But one day, my highly capable colleague resigned, and I was pushed into learning GIS-related knowledge (the emotional journey here would be enough for me to write another long section, but in short, I hate trouble yet wanted to learn, so I gritted my teeth and took it on). Thanks to the guidance of Joe, Manager Bai, and Ken (the colleague who resigned), within three months I gained some GIS-related knowledge and project experience. I want to emphasize one point here: When it comes to implementation, anything you can look up online is a minor matter. But without someone to guide you through the relevant knowledge, it can take a very long time to understand even a simple question, such as the difference between TWD67 and TWD97. So this brings me back to “Pro 1: Colleagues are willing to spend time teaching you.”

I almost forgot: Someone mentioned that there are lunchtime discussion sessions. I’ll talk about both the pros and cons of that, but first, the pro:

We have a departmental technical exchange session on Wednesdays. It was originally started when a technical manager wanted everyone to set aside some time to discuss and review problems encountered during a project, as well as exchange technical knowledge. It was initially planned for after work, but it was moved to lunchtime because some people had families, and the colleagues attending accepted this. There is also a technical lunch gathering every other Friday. The first time it was held, they even ordered pizza (and applied to the company for special funding). Everyone in the technical staff was told that participation was not compulsory, but because attendance was sometimes inconsistent, people were asked to report when they needed to go out, which led to the complaints that came later.

4. Clear working hours:

The official flexible start time is between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., and the end time is between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. (depending on what time you arrive in the morning, the system shows what time you can leave), with a 1.5-hour break in between. For programmers in our department: as long as you are right on schedule and haven’t caused any problems, and no emergencies occur (for example, the website goes down after an update, or a database update breaks the database), you can leave and arrive on time. Of course, some people complain that a PL assigns work right before the end of the day and expects it the next day, but honestly, that isn’t really the company’s fault, is it?

5. Salary growth based on performance reviews and seniority, plus various minor benefits:

This is truly a double-edged sword. Your salary is based on what you negotiated initially. Other than the “benefit fund (200),” labor and health insurance, personal and sick leave, and course fees advanced by the company on your behalf, there are no other unexplained deductions. We do not have so-called “three-festival bonuses.” Instead, we have “159 bonuses”: a year-end bonus and two performance bonuses. There’s no need to explain the year-end bonus; during the interview, they clearly tell you that it is one month’s salary. To quote a comment from another post, “Whether you’ve been here five years or ten years, it’s still one month.” If you don’t like it, you can simply leave. The two performance bonuses are settled based on both individual and departmental performance. Anyone interested can ask the Administration Department after joining.

Although we do not have “three-festival bonuses,” the cultural ambassadors organize holiday-themed programs on a workday before each holiday and stuff you full of treats. In addition, during your birthday month, the company gives you a birthday gift through the Giant Eagle People Assembly. It may not be anything expensive, but “it’s the thought that counts.”

So, I listed five pros above. I’m sure some people wouldn’t even bother reading them, but the cons below should give you plenty to criticize, right?

1. There are lots of activities:

Yes, it’s both a pro and a con. I forget which post analyzed this, but department performance is apparently scored based on participation in department activities. Honestly, I don’t understand this. As for people being relentlessly questioned if they don’t attend, I personally haven’t been questioned by my manager, but I have been relentlessly questioned by the secretary and the person next door. Naturally, managers hope you can participate, but if you genuinely can’t go, they generally won’t make things difficult for you. [Yes, I emphasize again: this is my personal experience. Maybe I’m just a marginal person, so even my manager thinks it makes no difference whether I’m there (LOL~).] Someone else said that having to arrange your own transportation is a con, which leaves me speechless. I’m speechless to the point of exploding over this viewpoint. When you go out for fun on your own, don’t you have to ride a scooter, drive, or take public transportation? Don’t accidents happen when you go out for fun on your own? Fine, when we participate in company activities, the company doesn’t provide domestic travel insurance. I’ll remember to bring that up. Though, I don’t buy domestic travel insurance when I go out for fun on my own either.

Also, department activities all take place outside working hours, so if you insist on picking faults, that does count as a con. But please look back at the number of activities in [Pro 2]. What company could handle having at least an entire department’s employees away from home for so many time slots? Someone also mentioned being forced to participate in company activities on Labor Day. That is undeniably true, but it didn’t happen this year. Former colleagues, please update your information; if it happens again next year, then come back and complain about it not being held.

2. Learning time takes up personal time:

Honestly, this really shouldn’t count as a con. Take our lecturers from the IT field, for example: they all have their own jobs, and lecturing is simply something they do in their personal time to earn extra money. Since the instructor’s time has already been scheduled, complaining afterward that the courses are held on weekends is really rather inconsiderate. As for meetings during lunch breaks, in my personal experience, doing so occasionally is harmless. This year, there really was a week or two when the entire lunch break was packed with meetings, but adjustments were made after people raised the issue. I think it was fine overall; I just lost the pleasure of catching up on my shows during lunch for a week or two.

3. Salary:

The salary adjustment is really very small. If you expect annual increases of 10–15% or more, I recommend not joining.

4. Overtime pay:

Finally, we’ve reached the issue of overtime pay. The company indeed does not pay overtime, and its weekend overtime pay also does not comply with the Labor Standards Act. Personally, I’m not particularly concerned about this, so I never considered reporting the company. First, most of my overtime was to make up for falling behind during regular working hours. Second, late at night, when everything is quiet, is usually when inspiration strikes, and at those times I wasn’t thinking about overtime pay at all—I just wanted to do a good job. Recently, the company has been preparing to implement an overtime-pay system, so once the system is announced, I’ll decide whether this belongs under the pros or cons. (I wonder if someone is going to criticize me for having too much of a slave mentality.)

5. Other shortcomings:

For example, someone mentioned the calculation of story points in Scrum (our department uses the Kanban method) and quantifying engineers’ performance. I’ve raised this with my manager several times. The manager isn’t completely unwilling to listen to our opinions; it’s just that, after weighing the options, they chose the solution that was more beneficial to the company. At the same time, they have been trying to improve the issues we complain about. Although the methods and process have not been ideal, if it were me, I would probably do an even worse job.

There is also the fact that the “benefit fund” is really not very transparent. The company could be encouraged to improve this.

A little murmur: Next time, I should probably start with the cons. After spending an hour writing the pros, only to see that the cons were the same few points repeatedly attacked by several people, I really didn’t feel motivated to spend another hour writing them properly.