Workplace reviews and discussion: 彭家貿易有限公司

1. Year-end bonus (senior employees receive very large year-end bonuses~~starting at several months’ salary)—but the prerequisite is that you must actually be able to receive it or endure working there for more than ten years

2. During the years I worked there, there were salary increases—NT$1,000–3,000 per year—but since I have already left, I do not know whether annual raises will continue in the future

3. High-end trips—you can bring your husband or wife + children

4. Frequent afternoon tea (coffee or drinks)

5. The company also holds prize drawings

6. No need to clock in or out

7. Very well-established systems

8. Business is extremely good—there is absolutely no need to develop new customers; you only need to maintain existing customers

9. No performance pressure

10. Regular group dinners

11. Gifts

12. After working here, everywhere else feels very relaxed, happy, and free—this is also an advantage.

(I have already left, and things really are much freer and more relaxed outside.)

Cons:

1. Overtime is unpaid—senior colleagues often do not leave after working hours; leaving on time becomes an invisible source of pressure.

2. A strong sense of authority + an extremely centralized company

3. Instructions from the boss and the junior boss must be followed exactly as they intend—having your own ideas is absolutely not allowed.

4. Every email must be printed out—and then answered according to the instructions given by the boss (you must reply exactly as he intends).

5. A company that changes its attitude faster than turning a page: when business is good, the company treats employees one way; when business is bad, it treats them another way. For example, because of the pandemic, the company unilaterally announced a 10% pay cut for the four months from May through August 2020. It is understandable that the company wanted to cut pay because of the pandemic. But! Shouldn’t a pay cut also mean reduced working hours?! Why did we still have to work normal hours every day during the pay-cut period? Or, since senior colleagues had worked there for more than ten years, if pay was going to be cut, shouldn’t they have been allowed to use up their annual leave as a deduction? But they did not do that. They cut everyone’s pay directly without negotiating with the employees at all. It was truly disrespectful to the employees. Everything depended entirely on the boss’s mood.

6. Almost none of the senior colleagues take leave (unused leave is not exchanged for money, so I do not understand this culture of not taking leave)—although taking leave does not result in a pay deduction, you still feel invisible pressure when you take time off. Because leave is paid, colleagues who do not take leave feel it is unfair—there was even a new employee who was called in for a meeting because they kept taking leave.

7. The interpersonal relationships there seem complicated—calm on the surface, but turbulent underneath.

8. If a senior manager calls you in for a meeting, the senior manager will always say: “A lot of people at the company have reported this.” In reality, every time they say “a lot of people have reported this,” they mean only a few specific senior employees. Some colleagues have been called in for taking too much leave or not sweeping carefully enough; they were reported by senior colleagues acting like self-righteous enforcers. In fact, it is understandable to be called in for taking too much leave or not sweeping carefully enough! But the senior manager insists on using the phrase “a lot of people have reported this” in these meetings, which is highly questionable—it causes colleagues to suspect and distrust one another.

9. The boss does fire people—I feel this makes the job rather insecure (for example, I heard that someone in sales was fired for making a quotation error, or for poor performance, etc.—I do not know the exact reasons; in any case, people do get fired here).

10. Senior colleagues are all very good with words (people who know how to please the boss are highly favored).

11. When the factory is too busy, you sometimes have to go help at the factory for an entire day—it is extremely exhausting.

12. The boss once told a newly hired employee: “Everyone starts at NT$33,000.” (Regardless of who they are or how much experience they have.) But this is actually not true at all. Every month, everyone at the company has to take cash to the personnel department to pay their labor and health insurance fees. The paper lists the amount each colleague has to pay, and from that amount, you can determine the insured salary bracket and estimate their approximate salary.

13. Being assigned cases for major customers is very unlucky—major customers often want to contact the boss or the junior boss at the slightest issue. Not only do you have to report to both sides, but naturally they also pay very close attention to emails from major customers. If there is even the slightest error in a quotation, or if the boss’s intended meaning is not clearly expressed in the email, the boss can identify what you wrote or did wrong from the customer’s reply—and you will be loudly berated in front of all the employees. (Of course, being scolded for making a mistake is normal, and we are willing to accept reasonable criticism humbly.) But sometimes, is a small mistake really worth having to endure this kind of verbal abuse?

a. An employee once went to report to the junior boss—the junior boss said at the time: “Fuck, this product should be handled this way or that way,” or “Fuck, this should be done this way or that way.” Perhaps “fuck” was merely a verbal filler for him at that moment, but I genuinely felt it was extremely inappropriate. (Couldn’t he just speak properly? Does he not know how to respect employees?)

b. An employee once transferred a customer’s call directly to the senior boss (the employee had first asked the senior boss whether to screen the call; the senior boss said it was fine and that the junior boss could take the call directly). Later, after lunch, the junior boss loudly raged, shouted, and cursed at the employee in the office (he could not accept the employee transferring the customer’s call directly to him)—and humiliated the employee in front of the entire office, showing no consideration for their dignity.

Perhaps the employee really did mishandle this matter—but was the mistake they made truly worth being yelled and shouted at like that? Even if the junior boss was right, that does not mean he could lecture the employee as though he were entitled to do so. This is a form of psychological attack. Even if what he said was true, that cannot be used as a reason to rationalize attacking an employee.

14. “The capable do more” is a bad habit here. If you are capable, you will only keep being assigned more work and cases. The sales manager does not dare let less capable salespeople handle difficult customers; they are given only simple cases. The sales manager will even divide up cases for less capable salespeople and assign them to more capable employees. (Doesn’t that turn being less capable into a kind of benefit?) They will also ask capable salespeople to help the less capable salespeople process orders. That is why I came to realize: Why force yourself every day to finish today’s work today? Oh~ so people with less ability can handle low-pressure cases at the company. Oh~ so if you are less capable, the manager will cover for you in all kinds of ways. Oh~ so being less capable is actually a benefit~~