Workplace reviews and discussion: 地球村出版有限公司

The head office has no performance pressure, and the work is fairly stable (depending on the position). The average monthly salary is also several thousand dollars higher than the industry average.

There are too many issues to list; it is difficult to put them all into words.

The main cause of many of the problems is the strange boss, and I believe all the employees share this consensus.

Many company owners in Taiwan are crazy, but the owners of Global Village are particularly outstanding in this regard. The owners are a very fake couple, yet they have a rather high opinion of themselves. Although the general manager's office is held by the husband, the real power lies with the wife. The wife, who serves as a manager, is extremely afraid of playing the villain, so she uses various indirect methods to mentally abuse and force out employees she dislikes.

She governs the company like an ancient Chinese court, so many employees privately call her the Empress. If an employee does not have a smile on their face when looking at her, she can interpret it as the employee looking sour or putting on airs. She will deliberately transfer the employee to a strange department unrelated to their expertise, causing them to be unable to withstand the mental pressure and resign voluntarily, so that she does not have to pay severance. One employee also suffered after chewing gum when entering her office. When speaking with her, employees bow and scrape, and their voices must be made to sound extremely lively and cheerful; otherwise, she becomes unhappy.

The Empress herself is highly suspicious and has paranoid delusions. She always uses strange reasons to discredit loyal employees who offer good suggestions and genuinely want to help the company. Therefore, anyone who tries to help the company will suffer misfortune. Over the years, many disappointed employees have resigned one after another, but the boss has never reflected on her conduct. As a result, all current employees protect themselves, daring to be angry but not to speak, and no one dares to make suggestions. Everyone keeps their heads down and silently follows methods that should have been updated 800 years ago. Global Village has still not kept up with the times. It does not actively operate a Facebook fan page, either because no employee has ever suggested it or because the boss is suspicious and paranoid. In addition, this nearly 60-year-old couple is not good with technology and unwilling to listen to younger employees' suggestions, so all of the company's policies are rigidly stuck in the past. This includes the textbooks, which have not been updated for more than 20 years; some of their content even still discusses storing data on floppy disks and using videotapes. When a teacher writes to point out that the books are too outdated, the teacher will be discredited, blacklisted, and have their classes taken away. This is a company that does not know how to improve.

Then there is the legal aspect. Global Village uses accountants to manipulate the books so that many practices violating the Labor Standards Act become legal. For example, all head-office employees' salaries are officially underreported. Our fixed monthly salaries are divided into five or six different categories, such as living allowances, special-duty allowances, long-service bonuses, supervisory allowances, mobile-phone subsidies, and so on. But we do not actually receive these allowances or subsidies. These are categories they invented and write on the pay slips every month, blatantly lying to employees. Although they are all fixed monthly wages for employees' positions, they are split into several items, often making the basic salary only 50–80% of the actual fixed monthly salary. If you ask the company's HR manager, they will tell you, “The company wants you to pay a little less labor insurance each month, reducing your burden.” Is this lie treating employees as idiots? The company is supposed to bear 70% of employees' labor insurance costs. They are clearly trying to reduce their own burden, yet they pretend to be doing it for your benefit. There are far too many unlawful aspects of Global Village; the above is just one example of their practices over the years.

Global Village's management seemed somewhat better in the past, but since 2012 it has deteriorated every year. The boss has also entered menopause, becoming increasingly emotional and irrational. Because she has devoted most of her time over the years to the company, her health has worsened, which has affected her mood and patience. She is now almost unfit and unsuitable to run a company.

Now, in 2018, this is a completely awful, utterly terrible hellhole of a company. If you are a recent graduate, you can come here for two years to gain experience. Everyone else should stay away from this hellish place. This company does not care about customers at all; it only cares about profits. It also does not care about the quality of its teaching materials or instructors.

Students are nothing more than fat sheep to them, and employees are nothing more than their tools.