Workplace reviews and discussion: 棉花田生機園地股份有限公司

There aren't really any advantages. The salary, benefits, and leave aren't particularly better than those offered by other similar companies.

When assigning employees to stores, the company does not consider the convenience of their commutes. Even if a nearby store has the same vacancy, they may transfer you to a location that requires a one-hour commute.

As for working at the stores, there is a small late-shift allowance for the time between the scheduled end of the shift and actually closing and leaving the store. However, the store manager may make you work an additional one or two hours beyond your original end time before you can leave, and may also require you to arrive half an hour early, sit quietly in the store, prepare yourself mentally for work, and so on. The working hours increase without limit, making an ordinary store clerk’s job resemble a position with an all-inclusive responsibility system. You may also be required to return to the company during your days off to count the inventory of the display area you are responsible for. If items in that area are damaged or nearing expiration, you must find a way to sell them yourself; otherwise, the store manager may pressure you to buy them yourself. Although you can refuse, you may still face psychological pressure.

Regarding work at the stores, the manager will usually be scheduled alongside regular employees. They generally work together at night or during busy periods, so the staffing arrangements may appear normal. In practice, however, there is a good chance that the store manager will not do their job. The manager may leave during working hours to buy coffee, sit in the store discussing their own insurance business with an insurance agent, or spend the entire day watching the surveillance cameras to study what other employees are doing. Even when the manager is the only person on duty, they may fail to perform the tasks required during that period, allowing work to pile up and then pushing everything onto the employees when the next shift arrives. When a store earns a performance bonus, the head office gives the bonus directly to the store manager for distribution, allowing the manager to arbitrarily withhold the shares of employees they are dissatisfied with.

In addition, the store manager may do everything possible to make things difficult for the employees who stayed, then drive a wedge between them and new employees. Once the new employees discover that the company is not very good, the manager may tell the head office or other customers that the old employees corrupted the new ones. Even when groups of employees resign en masse one after another, the head office may fail to notice the problem. Employees are also constantly urged to avoid wasting food and to buy products from the store that are nearing expiration, sometimes with only one or two months left before their expiry dates. After working here for a year, you could end up with a large quantity of expired products at home. These issues are difficult for regular employees to report, and even if they do, the head office may ignore them. If there is a real problem, they can simply blame it on the store manager’s personal behavior. Anyone considering joining should think carefully about whether they can find a normally operated store and whether they are willing to commit so fully to “cherishing resources.”