Workplace reviews and discussion: 宏遠興業股份有限公司

I’m the representative of the Taipei office 😜

1. Salaries are paid on time.

2. Free boxed meals are provided for overtime. The menu is fixed each month, but each meal is worth at least NT$100.

3. The company pantry has a Nescafé coffee machine, as well as various tea bags for brewing.

1. The turnover rate is high—really, really high, far beyond what you would expect from a publicly listed company. Every time the person on duty posts the seating chart, it feels like playing a puzzle game.

2. Starting in the second half of 2021, the general manager prohibited employees from wearing masks at work. One colleague was even fired for wearing a mask to work. The general manager was diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2022.

He once asked a colleague: “Why aren’t you wearing a mask? Aren’t you afraid of dying?”

The colleague replied: “The pandemic is stable.”

(At the time, it was November 2021.)

3. The general manager is a sexual predator; some colleagues have been touched by him.

4. The company’s computer network is terrible—absolutely terrible—and frequently disconnects.

5. Because there are no partitions between the office desks, when the general manager makes his rounds, even if he is standing right next to you, you are not allowed to make eye contact with him. If you do, he will ask you questions like the one in point 2.

6. You have to take turns being the person on duty; once a month, it is your turn to distribute the work bags.

7. Overtime is routine—there is really a lot of it. Overtime is exchanged for compensatory leave.

8. The Taipei office does have air conditioning, but turning it on is practically the same as not turning it on. Employees therefore bring their own electric fans, and in summer it is easy to develop heat rash all over your buttocks.

9. There are involuntary dismissals, violations of the Labor Standards Act, violations of the Gender Equality in Employment Act’s workplace sexual-harassment-prevention provisions, and employees are frequently fined for any little thing.

10. Department managers control you and demand that you meet their expectations, so you end up having to work overtime.