Workplace reviews and discussion: 嘉聯科技股份有限公司

[Salvation Guide] You absolutely have to read this! What you decide after reading it is up to you—and your fate.

1. After being hired, you may have the opportunity to work as a volunteer:

a. Indoor slippers must be worn. All employees take turns serving as the person on duty to clean, take out the trash—including bathroom trash—sort recyclables, sweep and mop the floors, wipe tables, wipe chair casters, and clean and organize the office.

b. Signing the Labor Standards Act Article 84-1 agreement turns you into a permanent long-term worker, with the possibility of spending the night sleeping at the company.

c. Missed-meal allowances and overtime pay: Of course they exist—as long as you dare to apply for them.

2. If you are good at flattering and playing the sycophant, you may receive the “Boss Lady Feels Good” bonus (the boss lady says she can give it to whoever she wants when she feels like it, without needing a reason).

3. Employee benefits: You get birthday leave, but only if your birthday happens to fall on a day you are not already off. Labor Day is not a holiday because they have to cooperate with government agencies (the boss lady says she wants to give everyone the day off, but everyone wants to come to the company to work).

4. Endless snacks: The two packages of cookies from the offerings made on the second and sixteenth days of the lunar month.

5. Endless coffee: The boss lady says, “No one likes to drink it anyway,” and is considering canceling it.

6. Employee meals, company trips, lavish afternoon tea, endless group purchases, and a rest and tea area: Dreams are beautiful and hope is always with you—please strengthen your ability to dream!

7. You can be quiet or lively: As long as you regularly listen to the boss lady scold people and spout nonsense, your eloquence can improve too.

8. It gives you a homey feeling: The office has a high ceiling and split-level layout. It is rare to see a company with a family-style kitchen and bathroom inside the office. It is located in a residential building in an alley; the guard has to open the door and let you in by card. The streets and alleys are very dark at night, with hardly anyone around. It feels... very much like a home.

9. You may get to see a luxury home’s kitchen: You fill out the forms in the kitchen. For the interview, you are taken to a partitioned second floor. The employees inside look very young. The interviewer is very articulate and talks a lot, and some questions are rather sharp. There are two written tests focused on professional skills. Including filling out the forms and taking the written tests, the entire process takes about two and a half hours.

10. You never know until you compare: Anyone who leaves this place will find a bright, heavenly paradise wherever they go.

I am writing this in the hope that you will not become the second me!

The company uses a clock-in system for arriving at work, but a responsibility-based system for leaving; the hours are long, you learn nothing, and some people even work through the night and simply sleep at the company.

When I resigned, I could describe it as escaping alive. The average workday was 10 hours. Even though work officially ended at 6 p.m., no one dared to leave, so I did not dare to clock out either. On holidays, you were indirectly pressured to work overtime. You were also asked to sign a consent form agreeing to use Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Act (look up Article 84-1 yourself). Normal working hours became 10 hours. When signing the employment contract, you also had to find a joint and several guarantor to sign and provide a photocopy of their ID. When you started work, you had to provide the company with a wooden stamp for permanent retention. They would also repeatedly emphasize the “responsibility-based system.” Many people left work at seven or eight every day without applying for overtime pay... and so on.

The salary is far below the industry standard. I was making almost the minimum wage. The perfect-attendance bonus was not included in the salary reported for labor and health insurance. You can be late three times a month (within a total of 15 minutes). If you exceed 15 minutes, you have to take two hours of personal leave; if you exceed 30 minutes, you have to take another two hours of personal leave... and so on.

Most employees are young people with little social experience. After only a few days, you can see how chaotic things are internally. They call themselves a technology company, but they use outdated programming languages and still manage projects with Excel. The boss’s wife likes gossip and loves scolding people. She often scolds the boss in front of everyone (they are married). Overtime has to be approved by the boss’s wife in advance; otherwise, she will say she does not know what you are staying at the company to do, and accuse you of forcing her to pay overtime...

In short, it is outrageously absurd—there is too much to list!