Workplace reviews and discussion: 拜達生化科技股份有限公司

The only advantages are at the beginning: you can receive your salary in advance, and he is willing to discuss things with employees (but the boss makes the final decision). He is a Monkey, a Leo, and an ESTJ according to the MBTI. A smart, justice-minded older man. If you like a sense of being commanded and an alpha-male (macho) atmosphere, welcome to this company. He likes smart, orderly people—preferably obedient, not lazy, and also capable of graphic design. However, what he currently needs most is marketing staff.

I only stayed at this company for six months. I built the e-commerce department from scratch. I not only designed the HUSHOP website, but also designed another company website (biogreen). Almost 80% of all the photos and designed materials you see were created by me.

At first, my experience was very enjoyable because I felt that what I could offer was English and graphic design. No other company would initially offer a salary higher than 32,000. However, I ultimately chose to leave.

At the beginning, there were three people in the e-commerce department. One left in the first month (this is the other post on this website), another worked for three months, and I worked for six months. I can tell you that in the end, everyone—including the two operations staff members, who were long-term employees—submitted their resignations. However, one person is still working there now.

1. The boss does not like people who are overly forceful or particular, because he is a control freak. The reason he has been able to run this business alone for so long is that everything has remained within his control.

2. The boss does not like lazy people. He will know whether you do more or less, because after the two people resigned, he required everyone to report what they had done that day before leaving work. He will know if you are frequently late or sleep at work. If he discovers that you know how to do marketing but did not bring it up until you were about to be fired, he will be extremely angry, fire you anyway, and use your marketing ideas.

3. There are many illegal matters. During the six months I stayed at this company, the boss did not apply for my work permit during the first four months. I could not open a bank account, so everything was done in cash. For foreign nationals, opening a bank account, paying taxes, and labor and health insurance are very important. He delayed applying for my work permit for four months, leaving me confused until my residence permit was about to expire in the final month. During the last week, I had to seek help from the National Immigration Agency and the Ministry of Labor, and the residence permit was not officially completed until three days before it expired. It was extremely frightening. He could even say, “Why are you in such a hurry? Would I hurt you?” That made me laugh. Because of this, I nearly got deported.

4. After I officially started working, was I enrolled in labor and health insurance? No. I had worked at the company for two full months, yet I had neither labor nor health insurance, and no taxes were paid. Before resigning, I discussed this with the only operations staff member and discovered that she—a Taiwanese employee—had worked there for two years without being insured. I was completely stunned and felt that I had to leave quickly. She also said that if the company made money, the year-end bonus would be paid on time, but if it did not make money that year, payment would be delayed until April.

5. Regarding the e-commerce department, they say that once sales reach 100,000, 10% will be taken and distributed. Just take it as something to listen to, because after working for six months, my total sales amounted to only 50,000. At the time, I wondered whether I should wait for the year-end bonus, but ultimately decided not to.

6. My biggest problem with the boss was not that I was too forceful or lazy. I handled graphic design and document translation, and eventually also Shopee, official website orders, and Facebook marketing. I simply wanted to help the company, but the company did not think it needed such refined and attractive designs. Instead, he gave the work to another graphic designer who had already left, paying 500 per image. At the time, I angrily said, “Then you should just ask her to come to work.” After that graphic designer left, I handled everything. Did I get a raise? No. However, because everything was easy for me, it became taken for granted. The images also had to be produced quickly, and if that was not possible, it was considered my problem. If you fire a graphic designer because you want things done quickly and cheaply, then I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.

7. The pressure of graphic design/e-commerce work is not great. The only pressure is that the boss speaks very directly and is sometimes loud and unpleasant. One reason one of the remaining operations staff members resigned was that the boss’s way of speaking was genuinely offensive. I am a Taurus and also very stubborn, so things were fine at first; I considered it part of getting along with him. However, if I were the only person in the e-commerce department, I would have been miserable. I would rather have a busy job than a boss who constantly lectures me.

8. The boss does not speak English, so files have to be renamed in Chinese when they are managed. I was not used to this at first, since I named my folders in English to work faster. He hired me because I knew English, but when I gave him files in English, he said, “You’re in Taiwan, so you need to follow Taiwanese culture.” I found that somewhat amusing.

9. Doing graphic design is difficult: if you do not give your opinion, he thinks you have no ideas; if you express an opinion and take action, he does not want to move that far forward. It has to be Taiwanese-style, but not too ugly.

10. He is always right. He is a Wang by surname and an ESTJ, and thinks of himself as an emperor managing the people under him. If you are not the type to simply listen and let things go, working there will be very painful. Try not to mention having a side business, running a Shopee store, or any life outside of work. It is best not to let him know about your romantic partner, because he judges what kind of person you are through all sorts of details about your life (zodiac animal, star sign, blood type, work experience, and salary expectations). Even if you ask for a graphic design salary of over 20,000, he will think you lack confidence.

To share what happened at the end: another person and I decided to resign at the same time, so he asked the two of us to talk that day. After my coworker went in, she said that because her leg was injured, she wanted to switch to a job that was not operations work. The boss then raised her salary by 4,000 and assigned her as an administrative and inventory management employee, moving her to the e-commerce department.

When I went in, instead of offering me a raise, he said several unpleasant things: “Do you know that many companies won’t dare hire you once they hear that you need a work permit?” “A graphic designer’s career is very short-lived.” “There are no large companies in the Shulin Industrial Park.” I asked him not to scare me because I only needed to rest. I was genuinely stunned at the time. Nevertheless, he gave me three weeks of leave to work from home at half pay. (For me, half pay meant working only four hours, but he expected me to finish detailed, one-night product images for five products, which was impossible.) After the leave, both sides decided that I would resign. He also said, “Don’t sacrifice other things for the sake of certain things”—meaning, don’t get married just to stay in Taiwan. … I feel that this is not something you need to decide for me.

By this point, I felt I had a fairly good understanding of what kind of person he was. It was a valuable experience. Most of the job was essentially about dealing with the boss. I hope you can think it through carefully.