So frustrating it’ll make you furious.

If you’re planning to interview or work there, please evaluate carefully~

I recently concluded a baffling labor-management negotiation.

Actually, I resigned myself, so why was there still a dispute?

Let me share this absurd workplace adventure: 7.5 days of crossing the line between life and death through blue hell~

Because the pandemic was severe at the time, I took the Brown Line + Blue Line of the Taipei Metro every day between Taipei and Tucheng.

Character descriptions:

The boss 『🐷』—responsible for running their mouth

The “slanted one” 『🐸』—responsible for managing money and personnel

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1. The company deliberately did not set up a clock-in system for employees (it was only provided on the day I resigned)

『🐸』never seemed to be busy with anything every day, just listening to music and chatting on the phone; yet kept telling you: “I’m good at handling this. The company just moved recently, so it’s a mess.” (?! It clearly wasn’t.)

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2. New employees’ labor and health insurance enrollment and withdrawal were extremely abnormal (not a single employee was enrolled or withdrawn normally)

The junior manager reminded 『🐸』every day, but there was never any follow-up. She only kept repeatedly asking employees for their personal information (even though it had already been submitted to the company).

《Enrollment》: No one’s labor and health insurance was enrolled on their start date, and the enrollment times were different for everyone.

《Withdrawal》: Even after people had left for three and a half months, they were not proactively withdrawn. 『🐷 & 🐸』completely ignored Line messages and emails. I even had to call politely to remind them, but 『🐷』said, “I don’t know anything about this. Go find 『🐸』.” They wouldn’t transfer the call and told me to call again. When I finally reached 『🐸』, she was extremely arrogant and told me to contact her in writing because she was very busy. (Even though you didn’t reply to the Line messages, emails, or texts, and then didn’t update me on the progress; when I called again, you even had an employee answer the phone and tell me.)

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3. No staggered shifts during the pandemic; 『🐷 & 🐸』did not like wearing masks at the company.

4. 『🐷』liked employees to arrive early and leave extremely late, and also required employees to take turns doing duty shifts with an emphasis on cleaning.

5. 『🐷』liked contacting you after work for inefficient, content-free conversations without overtime pay until eight or nine at night.

6. After I had already been employed for 2–3 days, 『🐷』finally took my résumé and asked to speak with me. They said, “Since you weren’t someone I recruited, there’s no position that fits your qualifications. Is there anything you want to do? Oh, I’m not trying to fire you. If you like going to mainland China, you have to promise to work hard at this company for two years, and I can recommend you there—I have a lot of connections.”

Additional note: 『🐷』liked showing every employee business magazines, outdated mail-order catalogs, and the like, proclaiming that they were an incredibly capable, experienced, self-made boss.

7. After the employment contract was signed and given to the company, it was never stamped and returned to me. This meant the salary promised by the company was merely a verbal promise with no proof!

8. Everyone’s insured salary bracket was wrong too!

9. After the negotiation, they asked me to send in the service certificate and salary certificate again. They treated the perfect-attendance bonus of 2,000 as base salary, and calculated the additional 6% contribution by deducting labor and health insurance from the entire salary after subtracting the agreed-upon base salary. (Reasonable?!)

10. I kindly asked 『🐸』what exactly was preventing my health insurance withdrawal. She neither read nor replied. When she finally responded, she said she would ask because it wasn’t her work—“someone else” had handled it—and then I had no idea where the matter went again.

You had been given chances but still did not handle it, so I decided to call the National Health Insurance Administration myself to ask how to resolve it. The NHI officer was also puzzled: this was something that could be handled quickly and easily by clicking a few things in the system or submitting the data. What was wrong with them? The officer was very helpful and said, “I’ll call them for you and ask them to provide the information; then you can be withdrawn.”

Less than five minutes later... the officer quickly called me back and said: “Wow, their attitude was really terrible! It’s okay, I’ll process a self-initiated withdrawal for you. Fill out the withdrawal information and I’ll take care of it right away; it’ll be transferred out in the system tomorrow.”

(I ended up resolving everything in less than half an hour.)

《Additional note》:

This 『🐸』woman later replied on Line:

“Actually, this war of words is quite unhelpful.

As stated at the mediation meeting, you actually suffered no loss; rather, we paid extra. Indeed, failing to complete this action properly was an oversight, but what exactly was your loss?

😊 Thank you again for your guidance.”

I replied:

I have never argued with you.

The only issue I have had all along was the insurance withdrawal.

From the time I called myself until now, I have only been discussing the facts of the matter.

You were the one who never read, replied, or paid any attention to me.

I simply wanted to withdraw from the insurance. You were the one being rude for no reason.

Even when the officer proactively called you to ask whether something had not been checked, since many companies’ HR departments make the same mistake, you were still rude.

I never mentioned any loss~

Which of your eyes or ears heard that?!

If you paid extra, the NHI Administration would refund you, because I filled in May 24 as my resignation date and insurance withdrawal date.

It was actually you who enrolled me late.

Who exactly took advantage of whom?!

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As for the negotiation, all I can say is that it was very pro-employer.

Because psychological aspects and things that cannot be seen or presented numerically—the negotiator impatiently told me, “Today, we’re only going to discuss those figures.”

For everything else, they just relied on the Ministry of Labor’s penalties to punish the company.

No wonder so many companies aren’t afraid of being fined: they provide whatever documents they can and refuse inspections whenever they can. The fines aren’t large enough to bring them down.

(On the day of the negotiation, they even lied to the negotiator, saying that because they were working from home in staggered shifts, they had not received the labor inspection notice. The labor inspectors had clearly contacted them; they were the ones who refused the inspection, yet they brazenly denied it.)