Workplace reviews and discussion: 巨馬開發實業有限公司

No, a very poor company. I 100% do not recommend joining this company.

(1) The company is located at No. 202, Section 1, Liming Road, Nantun District (a row house). The office is on the second floor. The company's computers are old, all manufactured between 2010 and 2012, and are very slow and struggle with current computer software and web browsing. This is especially noticeable for graphic design or industrial design drafting positions.

(2) One of the internal employees (the boss's relative) pays attention to when the air conditioning is turned on. The air conditioning can only be turned on when the temperature reaches 30°C.

If you cannot accept working in summer without air conditioning before noon, it is recommended that you skip this company.

(What can the company do with saving 3.4 hours of electricity costs per day...? But there is no way around it—the boss's relative keeps an eye on the air-conditioning temperature.)

(3) There is a restroom at the back of the second floor and a water dispenser (bottled water) by the staircase on the first floor (personally, I would not dare use it). There is no microwave, coffee machine, snack cabinet, refrigerator, or other such equipment.

(4) Working hours are from 8:30 to 18:00, with a one-hour lunch break (12:00–13:00), so the actual working time is 8.5 hours. (The additional 0.5 hour is not counted for overtime pay. If there are 22 working days in a month, this is equivalent to working 11 overtime hours at the company every month without overtime pay or compensatory leave.)

All positions at the company require clocking in when starting work and operate under a “responsibility-based system” when leaving work.

If you clock out at 19:00, the one hour between 18:00 and 19:00 is not paid as overtime and there is no compensatory leave.

The time clock is 3–4 minutes faster than the actual time. If you are concerned about future labor disputes over working hours, overtime hours, and so on, it is recommended that you arrive at the office 5–7 minutes early to clock in.

(5) The company's warehouse is in Wuri District. It should take a little over 10 minutes to get there by scooter. It is a corrugated-metal building, next to the warehouse of the boss's other business group, which deals in “fruit.” (Besides operating a bicycle-component business, the boss also sells fruit, though it is unclear whether this is fruit trading or a self-operated fruit store.)

(6) When the boss wants employees to have a meeting, he does not use the meeting room at the front of the third floor. Instead, he asks employees to go to his office at the back of the third floor. The space is very small, and there are sofas, which are not conducive to writing. Paper is used throughout the meeting, without laptops or projectors for assistance. Sometimes meetings are announced close to 18:00, the end of the workday, causing them to extend past quitting time.

(7) The company has no supervisors. Employees report directly to the boss. He is a classic old-school boss: self-righteous and convinced that his own ideas and methods are always correct. He only gives orders and expects employees to produce the results, or interferes with employees’ designs and ideas by telling them what to do, resulting in work that is not what the client wants.

(8) Many things at the company have no established procedures. There is no basis for administrative processes, work distribution, or business hierarchy. Everyone reports directly to the boss, so all procedures, assignments, and hierarchy are determined by him. Although the company once had ISO certification, making it appear to have some structure, it has now been abandoned and ISO certification is no longer followed; everything is decided by the boss.

(9) All positions may involve being suddenly called by the boss in the middle of a task to go support the company's warehouse by “packaging fruit,” or being instructed by the boss to find ways to help sell fruit (including proposing ideas and figuring out how to do it).

(10) The company makes high-priced, premium-grade bicycle components, most of which are exported, with almost no domestic sales in Taiwan. (The boss chooses to export, so there is little discussion of the company's AEROZINE brand in Taiwan.)

The brand has some discussion and recognition overseas, but not much. Compared with FSA, a brand of Tien Hsin Industries, there is still a very, very large amount of room for improvement. If you believe you are highly capable at developing overseas business, you may thrive at this company—but only if you can tolerate the boss's various issues.

(11) Many years ago, the company had a peak period (2012–2014), with nearly 20 employees. It applied for ISO certification and had its own CNC turning machines, meaning that it had somewhat more structure during its peak period.

However, since then, the business appears to have been downsized. The company now consists only of an office and a warehouse; product manufacturing and CNC machining are outsourced or handled by partner factories, and the number of employees had fallen to fewer than five (in 2018 and 2019). The company is in a period of decline. (Unless a highly capable employee can increase revenue or the boss is willing to change, the company will continue to downsize and decline in this way.)