Workplace reviews and discussion: 台灣朗峰國際企業有限公司

1. Fixed working hours (Don’t be late when clocking in, and don’t always clock out exactly on the hour. Even if coworkers arrive at the same time, don’t clock in together, as it can easily be mistaken for clocking in for someone else.)

2. A relaxed working environment in Taipei (You can listen to music at work, but remember to turn it off when the manager calls.)

3. Free snacks and drinks

The main duties involve handling the monthly petty-cash expense details for the office, as well as processing reimbursement claims for expenses paid to external immigration consultants. Although it looks simple, the problem is that the company requires you to review the expenses because it was established through a partnership among multiple people. The owner of the Taipei office, although he does not manage the business, frequently misappropriates public funds. This includes clients’ immigration visa fees and inflated translation expenses. It is said that the previously inflated translation fees amounted to several hundred thousand, and that he even had stamps carved in order to misappropriate public funds. Eventually, the owner of the Taichung headquarters came to audit the accounts. Since the others are employees, they generally do not dare to do such things. Therefore, as far as the accounts are concerned, you only need to make sure that the reimbursement documents and reports comply with the requirements of the chief accountant in Taichung.

The problem is that the company’s overall direction is unclear. Although it is a company with fewer than 20 people in total (Taichung and Taipei), and the Taipei office has only six people, including the Taipei owner, the Taichung owner manages it as if it were a publicly listed company. In addition to the existing employee rules, regulations, and reimbursement procedures, he also requires a new set to be drafted. The rules keep going back and forth, which would not be a major issue by itself, but many people do not follow them in practice. The consultants and the Taipei owner also have many differing opinions, which ultimately makes it very difficult to get things done.

Another responsibility during the initial period was handling the accounting-related sales transactions required for clients who had hired the company to establish businesses for their immigration process. I also had to find the items that needed to be purchased—including quantities and amounts—based on the sales figures required by the government and the products registered by the clients’ companies. Once the goods arrived, I had to find organizations to donate them to, have the recipient organizations issue donation certificates, and scan and send the certificates to the Taichung owner. Later, when the company was having operational difficulties, it stopped making donations and instead used the budget internally, including for snacks and drinks originally provided to employees, as well as stationery and toilet paper for internal use. I was also required to establish another set of rules and procedures, including application documents and registration forms for employees to use or request these items. The whole thing was absurdly complicated.

Later, because many people left the company at the end of the year, the company turned its attention to me. It actually wanted me to replace a colleague who was about to resign and go out to help clients retrieve documents from quarantine hotels or process documents at the National Immigration Agency. This was outside my original duties. Doing it once or twice would not have been a big deal, but it eventually became routine. Sometimes I had to travel back and forth between different hotels in Zhongshan, Daan, and Zhongzheng in a single day. The farthest I ever went was to a hotel near the border between the area beyond the Muzha Zoo and Shenkeng. The key point was that I still had to finish and submit the accounting documents for my original responsibilities on time. This was also the reason I submitted my resignation for the first time, but my supervisor persuaded me to stay, so I withdrew it afterward.

Then, because of the company’s operational difficulties, and because the immigration industry was severely affected by the pandemic—clients could not come to Taiwan, so the company was not making money—the company also took over the business of operating the business centers it had originally rented for clients establishing offices in Taiwan. This became the fundamental and most important reason I resigned. My original workplace was on Bo’ai Road in Taipei, while the newly opened business-office rental center was in the Far Eastern TOWER building in the Neihu Technology Park. As a result, I had to take both the MRT and a train to get to work, and the commute took a full 1.5 to 2 hours. My job also changed from an internal administrative role to showing properties to clients and handling sales. Seriously, what was that about? Most importantly, the original 9:00 a.m. clock-in time did not change. I had to get up even earlier to commute, and it was completely overwhelming. Although a colleague later drove me to and from work, that was obviously not a long-term solution. There were also times when he could not drive, and I would end up getting home very late.

Simply put, the company makes money from immigration services when the industry is profitable, and when business is bad, it starts cutting costs. Labor and all kinds of resources can be reduced, and they would even scold immigration consultants for taking taxis. The key point is that the person who took the most taxis in Taipei was the Taipei owner himself. He would then turn around and complain about why people in Taipei did not take the MRT and buses more often. On top of that, he had bought a new car at the time, occasionally drove it to Taipei to show it off, and took it in for servicing—each service cost 20,000...