Workplace reviews and discussion: 好好投資科技有限公司

The phone interview and the first interview felt fairly normal. There was only a slight delay and a vague sense of impatience, but the CEO began to show their true colors during the second interview.

When discussing the salary and job responsibilities, it was very clear that the CEO expected you to take on multiple roles, and tried to tell you that all the employees there wear multiple hats because it gives them a more comprehensive perspective—for example, marketing combined with project management... However, the salary and benefits offered were quite ordinary, and the salary structure had serious problems.

1. First, they keep your fixed salary low, telling you that as long as you perform well, you will definitely be able to receive performance bonuses and an annual bonus, and that you can definitely earn more if you perform well.

2. The annual bonus is considered a “gratuitous benefit” and is not something the company is obligated to provide.

3. Performance bonuses and annual bonuses are not fixed and are not guaranteed, but as long as your performance is not outrageously bad, you will basically receive something (and what “basic” means is also not fixed...)

4. The performance bonus is scored by your supervisor.

5. Therefore, you need to maintain a good relationship with your supervisor (with no objective evaluation criteria whatsoever).

6. They then try to convince you that if you work overtime a certain number of days per week and perform “above standard,” your annual salary will be very substantial.

After hearing the explanation above, there was absolutely no way I could be convinced. The basic salary should be enough to make a job acceptable, rather than first suppressing your salary and telling you, “If you don’t perform well, your performance bonus will be deducted. That’s the company’s protection.” There is also the issue of needing to work overtime to reach a certain level of pay. How is anyone supposed to know whether, when evaluating employees, you will use how often they work overtime as a basis for determining their score?

It is hard to believe that the employees of this company could be persuaded by this kind of rhetoric—unless their fixed salaries are very high, so they can accept not receiving the performance bonus or annual bonus, or unless every one of them is highly capable or very skilled at ensuring they meet the boss’s expectations every time.

What made me angry was that when discussing the salary, the CEO opened by citing the recent pandemic (COVID-19) and poor economic conditions, as if other people had no choice but to choose their company.

I don’t mind taking on multiple roles, but the explanation has to be convincing, or the salary should be correspondingly higher. If you want to offer someone a lower salary, just be honest and say that the company’s current situation does not allow it to offer a high salary, or that you think their education and experience only qualify them for this amount. I could accept that. What I cannot accept is replacing it with a strange, opaque process and a nontransparent salary structure. Most people should regard performance bonuses and annual bonuses as tangible rewards for working hard, rather than seeing them as gratuitous benefits from the company. Although the way performance evaluations are conducted at every company can also be quite opaque, it is still better than constantly saying that your bonus will be deducted as long as you work hard but are not “good enough.” Who wants to go to work every day feeling threatened?

In short, this was a terrible interview experience. However, after reading what other people had shared, I also felt relieved, because their accounts helped me realize that this is a very problematic company and gave me insight into what a deeply problematic CEO is like. Thanks to them, I also found out that I absolutely must not join this company. Therefore, I hope that people who receive a phone interview invitation from this company will only go for an interview if they have plenty of time.

Even after being hired, you will discover even more astonishing things. The documents you are required to submit include: salary details from the previous year, labor insurance records for the past ten years, a certificate of good conduct...