Workplace reviews and discussion: 三民書局股份有限公司

It’s more or less compliant with the Labor Standards Act. You can almost always leave work on time, with a 1.5-hour lunch break (which has its pros and cons).

Conveniently located next to an MRT station. There’s a refrigerator, water dispenser, and microwave.

As long as you finish your work, taking leave generally won’t be made difficult.

The boss is extremely emotional. When angry, he belittles employees, while believing that he treats them very well and is generously giving jobs to people who aren’t particularly capable—he’s basically a textbook example of PUA. It’s understandable that the company needs to lay people off when it isn’t making money, but forcing out long-serving employees through belittling and sarcasm is truly heartbreaking. He says things like, “If you’re so capable, go start a company yourself,” as if this company wasn’t inherited from his father.

The company has almost no marketing budget. The marketing department may even consist of zero to one person (I’m not sure what the situation is now), with the editorial staff also handling marketing. Even the best book can’t sell when there’s zero-dollar marketing, few distribution channels, and little public discussion. Not to mention the piles of obscure old books being reprinted. When sales are poor, the boss just gets angry and gives the senior management, editorial, and graphic design staff a thorough scolding. In the end, poor sales are always blamed on the book selection or the cover design. Whenever the boss is unhappy, he summons the entire department to his office to listen to him lecture them. He seems to think employees don’t stay long because the news about Sanmin fighting over an inheritance has made everyone feel no sense of belonging or solidarity with Sanmin, and he even said he would sue the news reporters???

Because they want to streamline the graphic design staff, the boss and senior management now require editors to first come up with the book cover design, and even use AI image generation to create the style for the cover illustration. They then take it to the boss for discussion, and only after he approves it can it be handed over to the graphic designer for completion. The graphic designers have it terribly—they’re basically just software operators, only able to produce ugly things. Oh, and the cover designs previously created by the graphic designers themselves were also criticized by the boss’s supposedly refined taste.

Salary increases are extremely slow. A fresh master’s graduate earns the same salary as a supervisor with a bachelor’s degree and three years of work experience. It’s awful.

The benefits are pretty poor. The gifts for all three major holidays are bookstore gift vouchers, and they can even be canceled after three tardies. You can read the Dcard article (https://www.dcard.tw/f/job/p/240281624)

People who don’t get angry about the boss, senior management, or the system, and who can become numb while working just to earn money, may be better able to tolerate working at Sanmin.

If you can’t stand injustice and unfairness, don’t enter lightly.

(Oh right, the current graphic design supervisor doesn’t understand design or printing at all. It’s terrifying lol)