Workplace reviews and discussion: 鼎恒有限公司

No overtime (they will force you to leave work on time)

The company’s core team: the boss + the boss’s wife + the accountant (during the initial interview, they said the accountant was a relative of the boss; later, I heard from another colleague that this was not the case, so it remains a mystery)

【Pricing Everything at Retail】

At the end of every month, the entire warehouse is inventoried. If even one item is missing—even a small promotional freebie—employees have to compensate the company. Oh, right! Company policy is to charge employees the market price, not the cost price!

(This is merely describing compensation at the retail price during inventory checks; it does not mean that this company is the retailer “Original Price House.”)

【Ignoring the Labor Standards Act—If You Want to Stay, Just Admit It】

The salary received differs from what was discussed in the interview. Attendance bonuses are set at NT$3,000. After resignation, the attendance bonus is deducted in full. (This violates the Labor Standards Act and can be reported to the local competent authority.) In other words, even if you work an entire month before resigning, you still will not receive the NT$3,000 attendance bonus.

Even if you have relevant experience, the company only offers the minimum wage plus a NT$3,000 attendance bonus, and there will be no salary adjustment after three months. (This has been confirmed by multiple employees.) Sometimes, the salary received also differs from what is written on the payslip; only then do you discover that the accountant never updates the payslips—they are simply copied.

【Other People’s Matters Don’t Matter, but the Accountant’s Matters Do】

The accountant loves to pretend to be busy. Whenever you ask about something, she only talks about how busy she is and tells you to ask a supervisor or another colleague. However, if you do not ask the accountant first, she becomes unhappy.

If an employee does not prioritize and complete a task assigned by the accountant, the accountant will nag them and privately message the supervisor or other colleagues, exaggerating how outrageous the employee’s behavior is. She has a natural talent for [driving a wedge between people].

The microwave is restricted to heating lunch boxes only after 11:50. If you heat your lunch three to five minutes early, the accountant will rush out to lecture you and privately message the supervisor, asking the supervisor to deal with it properly. Yet at 11:50, the accountant is always the first person to use the microwave.

If a visitor rings the doorbell and no one greets them, or if the phone rings more than twice without being answered, the accountant will also rush out and start yelling.

【You Have to Do Everything, Big or Small—If You Don’t Do It, You’ll Be Replaced】

During the interview, they said the duties involved listing and delisting products, inventory management, banners, and checkout.

But there are an absurd number of platforms. Shopee alone has four stores, in addition to Yahoo Shopping order forwarding + store, momo order forwarding + store, PChome order forwarding + store, PChome Store Street, myfone, friDay, PayEasy, foodpanda, FamilyMart, 91APP’s official website, Man3de’s official website, and many more.

In particular, Store Street, foodpanda, FamilyMart, and 91APP receive almost no orders throughout the entire year, yet employees are still required to upload products frantically—wasting time on work that generates neither value nor efficiency.

The handover after starting work is also unclear. Tasks that were never mentioned somehow become things the employee supposedly failed to understand and complete. There are almost new products every week, an endless number of listings to create, and constant need to deal with sudden price adjustments and inventory-change notices from the boss or the boss’s wife. There is never enough time to finish everything each day, yet the boss’s wife always thinks employees are idle—even employees in the busiest positions are told they have nothing to do.

Often, a previous employee who resigned entered the wrong product name or item number, causing errors in subsequent procedures. However, the current employee is mistakenly blamed for being careless. If there were only a few products or platforms to manage, and enough time to check everything carefully, it might be possible to discover those small problems. But there is no such time, so current employees have to take the blame. You absolutely must not bring up the previous employee’s mistakes unless you want to be singled out.

The back-office platform assignments are often changed for no apparent reason. Employees never have enough time to become familiar with a platform, yet are expected to get up to speed immediately; even minor mistakes result in scolding. The boss’s wife’s classic line is: “I hired you because you are experienced people. I need you to help the company grow its performance, not come here to learn, so there is no adaptation period.”

【What Talent? We Want Servants!!】

The company places extremely little value on talent. Although it has been established for nearly 20 years, its longest-serving employee has worked there only a little over three years. Regardless of how many specialized skills your position requires, the company considers you replaceable by anyone. Once you submit your resignation or are dismissed, the company will make you leave as quickly as possible and will not let you return to the office. They will even pack up your personal belongings and tell you to come to the “Management Center” at a designated time to collect them. They show no respect for employees whatsoever. (I consulted a lawyer about this, and it is clearly illegal. I will subsequently file a complaint with the relevant authorities.)

【Not Seeing You Is My Final Act of Stubbornness】

Even when a resigning employee’s final day has not arrived, the company may suddenly notify them that they do not need to come to work the next day and call it “working from home.”

But this “working from home” does not mean that you can actually handle tasks remotely. You are expected to use your own computer to log in to the back ends of the platforms you manage, while the boss’s wife changes the passwords at lightning speed the night before and removes all the necessary permissions, instantly making it impossible for you to do anything. She simply says, “Just ask me for the information you need,” but the information provided is always wrong!

They will not even let employees delete their personal account passwords stored on the computer, saying only that they have asked someone else to delete them.

They also do not let employees responsibly complete the handover, leaving the remaining employees to clean up the mess and making them do the work of three people.

【Making You Rethink What Human Resources Does】

The company employs an HR person, but from joining the company to leaving it, I saw HR only twice. One of those times was to dismiss someone. I also never heard of any colleague having a meaningful conversation with HR. HR would even announce things that were completely unfounded, and colleagues who tried to verify them would be talked back to!

The following dialogue took place in my dream; any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.

◎HR: After receiving repeated reports from colleagues that certain people repeatedly eat in the meeting room during lunch breaks and make too much noise, and after the company asked them to lower their voices without seeing any improvement, effective immediately, eating and using the meeting room as a private resting area during lunch breaks is strictly prohibited except when the room is being used for meetings.

Colleague A: No one has ever reported that the meeting room was too loud. Where did these repeated reports come from?

◎HR: So what if no one reported it? Eating in the meeting room is prohibited, so it is prohibited. What does it matter to you who complained that eating was noisy? You disturb other people and still have the nerve to speak so loudly without feeling embarrassed?

Colleague B: We have never received any message or announcement saying that we need to be careful about or adjust the volume when eating in the meeting room, so can’t we verify the facts?

◎HR: So?

What incredible bureaucratic arrogance. I honestly no longer understand what the duties of an HR professional are supposed to be~

【One Country, Two Systems】

The boss will often say that an activity should follow Plan C, and then the boss’s wife will privately tell employees to change it to Plan D. The boss’s wife is also extremely changeable: she wants employees to propose ideas, but rejects them when they do. Or she will clearly approve Plan A, then suddenly demand a change to Plan B a few days later. Everything keeps changing back and forth.

Even if employees are extremely busy every day with the large volume of listing and delisting products, opening and closing inventory, and other miscellaneous tasks, the boss’s wife thinks they are doing nothing if they do not propose ideas to her. Even when employees do propose plans, they have to waste time explaining extremely basic matters because the boss’s wife is not familiar with how the platforms work.

Yet the boss’s wife monitors the platform’s images and text, checks whether prices are correct, and checks whether inventory is available every day. As soon as there is an error, she immediately asks the supervisor to scold the employee!

The boss’s wife does not praise good performance, but as soon as performance declines, she blames the employees.

★The company always believes that good business is solely due to the quality of the products it represents and has nothing to do with employees★

If the boss’s wife dislikes you or has any dissatisfaction with you, she will never tell you directly. She will only pretend to be nice, then ask the supervisor or accountant to deliberately find fault with you every day, creating a high-pressure atmosphere that makes every day extremely stressful.

The boss’s wife will also ask the supervisor to interview you and write an interview record that does not match the facts, then force you to sign it. They deliberately wait until just before the end of the workday to produce it and demand that you sign quickly, as if forcing an employee to confess to fabricated offenses!

【Special Uniforms】

From Monday to Thursday in summer, you have to wear a uniform; only Friday is casual-clothes day. The uniform is genuinely ugly—it looks like something worn on an assembly line or by construction workers. Once, I went to a 7-Eleven and ended up wearing the same thing as the construction workers outside.

【The Duty Roster: Reliving the Original Inspiration】

Every week, employees take turns being responsible for cleaning the toilets. Each week, 20 packs of toilet paper and five packs of paper towels must be placed in the restroom. Even if they sit there long enough to collect dust, they must be fully stocked; if they are not, you will be lectured.

If the spare individually wrapped toilet paper does not have the perforated opening torn open in advance, the accountant will privately message the supervisor to complain, as though failing to tear open the opening were an outrageous offense.

Only the accountant and sales staff do not have to clean the toilets. Also, if the boss drinks with friends on a holiday, employees have to clean the office for him on Monday. What wonderful personal servants.

【The Executive Summary】

1. The salary structure is base salary + attendance bonus (NT$3,000) + shipping bonus (some positions may not have one) + position allowance (usually when someone resigns, the company adds NT$3,000 and asks you to do NT$30,000 worth of work).

2. Eating breakfast after arriving at the company is prohibited.

3. There is absolutely no promotion system. Your salary will not be adjusted even after three months. If you want a raise, you must follow these two rules: NO. 1: Do not offend the accountant, or she will use her talent to make the boss’s wife target you. NO. 2: Try your hardest to please the boss’s wife; as long as she likes you, your raise can come as quickly as you want.

4. At the end of every month, the entire warehouse is inventoried. If even one item is missing—even a small promotional freebie—employees have to compensate the company. Oh, right! Company policy is to charge employees the market price, not the cost price!

5. The company ignores the Labor Standards Act. Previously, employees who resigned had their attendance bonuses deducted; in reality, they should be paid proportionally according to the number of days they worked during the month of resignation.

6. As soon as the company knows an employee plans to resign, it will very quickly find someone—anyone—to handle the handover. It will not let the employee responsibly complete the handover, leaving the remaining employees to clean up the mess and making them do the work of three people.

7. The actual responsibilities do not match the job description shown on the recruitment website. Anyone considering an interview or joining should first check online reviews and think very carefully before proceeding!