Workplace reviews and discussion: 創億商模有限公司

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1. We work overtime without being paid overtime. The supervisor said that the standard practice has always been to record working hours as 9:00–19:00 (with a one-hour break), with the salary including the overtime pay that the supervisor personally deemed appropriate. Originally, there were no pay slips. When we asked the supervisor for them, he split the salary into base pay and one hour of overtime pay per day, making our base salary look absurdly low—for example, $23,405. The supervisor said that to apply for overtime pay after 7:00 p.m., we had to submit a written report recording how much time we spent on every task that day. Basically, no one applies because it is guaranteed to backfire: the supervisor always assumes that overtime was caused by us working too slowly.

2. During the interview, the director said that all the usual benefits were provided, but the explanation was extremely vague—especially regarding the perfect-attendance bonus. It is not paid monthly, nor is it automatically awarded if you do not take leave or arrive late or leave early. Instead, it is settled every six months, and whether it is paid depends on your KPI. The KPI also seems to focus more on mistakes than on performance or rewards. If an employee causes the company a loss, the amount is deducted proportionally, but there is no clear explanation of how the supervisor calculates the deduction. Basically, it appears to depend on his mood. Although they say the bonus is settled every six months, they always delay it; I have seen colleagues go nearly two years without a settlement. The 104 job posting makes it sound very appealing: “Our expectation is that employees can earn overseas salaries while working in Taiwan,” along with opportunities to be sent abroad for training. In reality, life on an overseas assignment is not the enriching experience people imagine; the working environment is essentially no different from that in Taiwan, and only employees in a particular position have opportunities to work abroad. They also claim to provide special bonuses, but I have never seen anyone receive one.

3. If a colleague is one minute late, they say the person has a bad attitude and want to fire them. When the colleague requested an involuntary separation application and severance pay, the supervisor asked the director to pass on the message that the colleague should think about what they had done wrong and what losses they had caused the company, and consider whether they were really worth that little bit of severance pay.

4. A colleague submitted their resignation more than a month in advance, but the company still demanded that they leave early. Another colleague resigned effective the end of February, but because the end of the month coincided with the February 28 holiday weekend, the supervisor required them to work only until February 24, deducting the four-day holiday from their pay. This was not the first case; basically, every colleague who resigns is required to finish on the preceding Friday. The supervisor simply wants to save the two days’ wages for Saturday and Sunday.

5. The turnover rate is extremely high, and the workload is correspondingly heavy. I applied for position A, but because they were short-staffed, I was pulled into doing position B instead. Not only was I not given a raise, but after just a few days they began saying that I had not done things properly. From a conversation with the director, I learned that the supervisor wanted to fire me. It was clearly just deliberate harassment.

6. The supervisor is always overseas and opens a video call every day to silently monitor us while we work. Employees wear short-sleeved uniforms, and in winter, even if we wear extra layers because of the cold, he checks via video to see whether we are wearing the uniform. We even have to lift our sweaters and coats so he can inspect us. I have no idea how many people have worn these uniforms; the logos are almost completely worn off. When the director gave me mine, she said it had been washed, but it actually smelled like other people. It was absolutely disgusting.

7. The supervisor judges our workload based on the number of orders and often assumes that employees have nothing to do, so he finds miscellaneous tasks for us to complete. When they return to Taiwan, there are even more odd jobs. They have even brought in quilts and curtains from home for employees to wash, and asked us to handle things such as the supervisor’s personal shopping errands and other private matters.

8. Whether we can take leave depends on how busy the company is. The rules even explicitly require personal leave to be requested one month in advance. The company rejects employees’ requests to use their annual leave because of staff shortages. If there is a shipment, leave is basically not allowed; employees can only take leave on days when there are no shipments. I have also seen a colleague request bereavement leave, but the supervisor was extremely unreasonable and even said, “Come to work tomorrow after you’ve gotten your emotions under control.”

9. There is no fixed payday, and payment is often delayed by several days. Once, I did not receive the previous month’s salary until the 10th.