Workplace reviews and discussion: 誠品股份有限公司

To clarify first, I worked there approximately from 2016 to 2018.

I got along well with colleagues in the same group and at the same level. We shared similar tastes and interests, paid attention to certain details, and held ourselves to a certain standard while working with a degree of autonomy.

During the first year, my supervisor patiently guided me as I learned unfamiliar things. However, in reality, you mainly had to rely on your own ability to get up to speed quickly, and were expected to independently plan and execute projects almost immediately.

At a large company, responsibilities are clearly and precisely divided, so situations where mistakes go unnoticed or people shirk their responsibilities are less likely to occur.

Because the shopping mall outside had a pleasant atmosphere, I generally felt pretty good after leaving the office.

Being able to borrow books from the well-stocked inventory to read at home was a nice benefit.

I had the opportunity to interact with contacts at multiple publishers, music companies, and local businesses, which was valuable for broadening my horizons and gaining communication experience.

The company treats employees from outside northern Taiwan as complete outsiders, so to speak. Apart from the three seasonal bonuses—which were all provided as Eslite gift vouchers—and the spring banquet and year-end party, only employees in northern Taiwan received the occasional employee benefits.

Veteran employees were often rather self-important, believing that being a manager at Eslite was something remarkable. Their attitudes were extremely poor: they got angry easily and were unwilling to explain or communicate. In their view, every mistake was someone else’s fault, so supervisors would often lead the team in offending external partners, leaving subordinates extremely awkward and troubled.

The offices were usually located in the worst corners of department stores, with the poorest layouts and environments. There was no dedicated restroom or kitchen, nor any meeting space. Store employees could only take breaks in the stockroom, where it was so cramped that even walking was difficult.

Computers had to be completely unusable before they could be retired, and the replacement was another old computer. Even opening ordinary office applications carried a risk of crashing. There were also cases of colleagues’ computers overheating and emitting smoke—and the computer in question still was not replaced.

Besides the low pay, there was no overtime pay or compensatory leave, because Eslite Spectrum Corporation (the department-store business) was the one making money, so all costs on the Eslite bookstore side had to be minimized. Even though they were part of the same business group, resources were not shared between them; people even had to negotiate or exchange equivalent resources. They never seemed to consider that people visited Eslite Spectrum department stores partly because of the culture originally established by the bookstore. Otherwise, Eslite Spectrum would simply be a department store indistinguishable from any other.

Store managers’ pay was extraordinarily low. Every colleague seemed to devote themselves to the bookstore as if they had married it, asking for nothing in return. Staffing was severely inadequate, yet vacancies were left unfilled for long periods, which was genuinely heartbreaking to witness. Over time, there was even a running curse that if you joined Eslite while single, you would remain single for life.

It was a large company, and the leaders at the top were also getting older, making innovation very difficult. The company would typically take three to six months longer than others to begin implementing anything new.

After the founder’s daughter took over, the company increasingly emphasized commerce and profit. There is nothing inherently wrong with that—after all, a company needs to pursue profit—but not a single cent of that profit was returned to employees. Instead, the money was spent expanding and opening stores in other cities around the world. Because of the social climate of people being reluctant to buy books, the bookstore lost money every year. As a result, everyone can now see that the area dedicated to selling books is getting smaller and smaller, gradually being replaced by department-store concessions and restaurants, which are more profitable through commissions and rent than book sales. The original intention of participating in and even innovating within culture has gradually been erased.

In short, after joining, you will discover that this company, which appears from the outside to place the greatest emphasis on culture and people, actually treats its employees extremely poorly.