Workplace reviews and discussion: 品元實業股份有限公司

Generally, the company follows Labor Standards Act requirements, and the owner and his wife are nice people.

To put it nicely, the company is going through the growing pains of institutionalization—but those growing pains seem like they will never end. Senior executives do not get along with one another; whenever something goes wrong, they compete to pass the buck. Managers are afraid to take responsibility and may even shift it to their subordinates. If the people at the top cannot get along, how can staff from different departments below establish connections and collaborate?

The company and factory are separated by the Tamsui River, creating conditions where the factory is effectively beyond the head office’s direct oversight. In recent years, the factory has parachuted in managers from outside the industry whose poor leadership has led to mass departures among quality control, plant operations, and human resources staff. This is because the factory managers want obedient followers, not talented people; even the foreign workers are constantly complaining.

The company imposes numerous restrictions on business quotations, making it difficult for newcomers to get up to speed. The company’s ERP system is old and complicated, while the newly introduced system is incompatible in format and may not even be able to connect to the internet!? The number of plant administration assistants keeps increasing, but efficiency has regressed to the paper-based era.

Revenue has also declined year after year. The company’s former sales flagship, Korean bread, has fallen out of fashion. In an attempt to find a way forward, it has taken on a haphazard assortment of unfamiliar products and resorted to makeshift production methods despite lacking sufficient experience, equipment, facilities, and staff. As a result, the risk of workplace injuries in the production environment is extremely high. Minor dust storms and burns or scalds have become routine.

To work at this company, what matters is not job competence but whether you are related to or friends with the owner, followed by whether you have mastered the arts of flattery and avoiding trouble. Professional skills are not important, because even someone with no relevant experience can become a food quality-control specialist as long as the supervisor takes a liking to them.