Workplace reviews and discussion: 威煦軟體開發有限公司

Last night I had a dream that a former employee sent a letter to the entire company. Because the dream felt so real, it drew the attention of senior management. In the dream, senior management refused to repent and only wanted to smooth things over XD. I wonder whether reality is the same.

The dream was very long, so here’s a summary for everyone:

1. Senior management assigns you a project, then counts it as their performance once it is completed. The performance evaluation system is opaque, and the supervisor has the final say. Moreover, sales staff receive no performance bonuses. Salespeople work themselves to the bone, while supervisors only criticize them from behind the scenes.

2. Violations of the Labor Standards Act. Benefits are unilaterally canceled without any announcement. The rules have been “secretly changed” multiple times, and even contracts can simply be denied. Is this kind of company worthy of trust? It emphasizes selling legal and compliant products, which makes this blatant contradiction even more embarrassing.

3. Employees have to “come up with strategies” and “execute strategies” themselves—then what do we need managers for? The overseas market has supposedly been in preparation for years, yet there isn’t even a single customer.

4. The product is stuck two years in the past and cannot keep up with the times. When customers do not buy it, they are told, “The customers don’t understand the system.” The company has no clear roadmap, changes direction constantly, and everything depends on the boss’s mood.

5. There are people in the company who seem afraid the world might be too peaceful and enjoy spreading rumors.

Hello, everyone:

Regarding the second point, it concerns a benefit shared by everyone. When I first discovered it, I thought most people already knew about it. Later, I gradually realized that many people were unaware of it. Please look after your own rights and interests. Keep it up, everyone!

Returning to the main topic, I would like to share some thoughts about the work process, and I hope these thoughts can receive some feedback.

I do not have a great deal of work experience, but fortunately, through my previous work in human resources, I came to understand many of the internal workplace ecology and cultural issues of large, medium-sized, and small companies. If the leaders of Wishu sincerely want the company to become stronger and better, please read these humble opinions carefully. I also hope you can provide appropriate responses to the questions I raise.

Believe me, these are not questions only I have!

So this is not a response addressed to me, but to those who still believe in the decision-makers.

I believe the first step to “solving a problem” is absolutely to “acknowledge that the problem exists.”

As leaders, you can implement appropriate downward management, but you must likewise be able to accept corresponding upward management.

Let’s be more direct from here on out! Addressing the issues, not the people!

1. Attribution of project performance

The most straightforward way to determine who should receive credit for a project is based on the proportion of contributions. The key people who ultimately brought the project to a successful conclusion should receive a corresponding share of the performance allocation.

But here, after a project is confirmed and closed, the bonuses are extremely vague, and there is even a possibility that someone else will take the performance credit. The boss has also never proactively explained or discussed this. I have considerable respect for the boss’s ideas and abilities, but sometimes an opaque system makes the people below feel completely unable to trust it.

Some salespeople choose to remain silent. I understand—after all, harmony creates prosperity. But my suggestion is that only transparent management can let everyone know that putting in the effort and producing results will be rewarded. If management and performance evaluations are always vague, then should we simply avoid handling projects with unclear attribution whenever possible?

A successful project means that the salesperson made the right efforts throughout the process. If the person credited as responsible today not only takes over without properly handing things off, but even complains, what kind of attitude is that?

That attitude is deeply discouraging! To lead people, you must win their hearts. If you have only selfish interests, you cannot unite people.

Oh, right! The comments above are referring to the “XX project.” If you already knew from the beginning that the performance credit for this project would fall under your department, why didn’t you handle the entire project from the start?

If you only bring up “cross-departmental collaboration” at this point as a one-sided explanation, then you can take that answer back...

2. How changes to benefits are handled (this is very important!)

The wording “guaranteed 14 months” should be quite familiar to Wishu employees.

In October 2021, this new rule was announced at Wishing Bar (although Wishing Bar has quietly disappeared for two months now ><).

It was also announced that it would officially take effect in January 2022. Even employees who joined after that date confirmed this provision in their employment conditions! (You can ask current employees.) But this guaranteed benefit no longer exists. It was canceled without an announcement, right? According to the law, changing the rules unilaterally is not allowed!

（https://www.1111.com.tw/dayoff/discussTopic.asp?cat=vacationQuestion&id=241909&vmode=all）

There are quite a few similar cases online. Once the words “guaranteed” are used, they cannot simply be changed at will. Of course, the company can insist that this is “variable compensation” rather than “fixed compensation.”

But conversely, this also means that when management decided to change salary and benefits, it did not formally announce or discuss the matter with employees. Regardless of whether the company ultimately wins the argument, this will first deal a heavy blow to internal cohesion and culture...

Can a company’s management really be trusted if it secretly changes the rules, obscures or directly deletes content that harms its own interests, and has already done this more than once?

You strongly emphasize selling legal and compliant products, but in practice, what you do is completely contrary to that. Integrity, amplification, growth—please don’t let your own slogans come back to slap you in the face, okay?

I have been here for less than a year, yet I have personally experienced an unknown number of changes to the system. I am not quite sure what management is thinking when doing these things.

I would really like to hear the answer to this.

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For sales staff, with the bonus system having disappeared or become vague, how do you expect people to believe in such a system or fight for the company?

On top of that, there is workplace PUA from time to time: threatening to disband the entire team if the company does not make money, followed by the simple line, “Work hard! You will definitely get your share in the future.” Then everyone is expected to fight for the company. This is truly very old-school...

——I believe that after reading this far, some leaders will say...

If you do well, you will definitely get something!

Well, you didn’t do well, so what do you expect to receive?

(I don’t feel like arguing about this section, but I’ll briefly address it: taking results that were never achieved in the past and using them to demand that they be achieved now?)

What I am really trying to say here is that “a clear bonus system is the key!”

The current Wishu does not even dare to put the “system” in writing; it only communicates it verbally...

Did you even cancel the bonuses because sales bonuses were paid out too generously?

Shouldn’t leaders be thinking of ways to generate more revenue rather than ways to prevent employees from earning bonuses?

This could actually be stated more directly. If you do not want to pay bonuses, just write clearly, “There are none.” Don’t say one thing to people’s faces while following another set of rules behind their backs....

Isn’t putting things in black and white a basic standard for modern people? Isn’t this exactly the same as point two?

After working hard for so long, everything ends up being in vain simply because the people above have the final say over the rules...

3. Market attack strategy

During regular meetings, we review the feasibility of our strategies. However, whenever management proposes a strategy, it is extremely vague and unclear, with no continued execution. There are only demands to hold an enormous number of events, while very few resources are provided for them. On top of that, you keep saying that we are not thinking about the company...

Last year, we held six events; this year, sixteen.

At the end of the first quarter, we had already proposed improvement measures and adjustments, but no one listened. Instead, the team was simply asked to propose new strategies again....

If the scope of our work is to “come up with strategies” and “execute strategies,” then what do we need “managers” for? Proctors?

I am even more curious, so let me ask about the “attack strategy for the Japanese market.” Raising the flag and advancing into the Japanese market sounds quite inspiring. But which system can Japanese companies use? None. So after flying to Japan to exhibit, will all of this be completed?

I hear that planning and preparation have been underway for many years, yet there are still no customers. The cost calculation is truly astonishing. What is even more interesting is that most companies had already solved the problem of needing to fly over in order to negotiate deals during the pandemic. Why, instead, did we not adequately prepare for the Japanese market during the pandemic?

Will we only start preparing to negotiate deals in Japan after we can fly there, and will such an absurd attack strategy be easily approved and continuously executed?

Will everyone have to “weather the difficult times together” after the money is spent? So who proposed this strategy?

4. Software system development

Before the pandemic, I believe Wishu was far ahead of the market. But now, when meeting with customers, all we hear is that we are still stuck two years in the past. The product’s development speed is clearly unable to keep up with the “needs of major customers.”

When we bring these issues to the company, all we hear is that this is not our development direction... We are told that we need to stick to our own development path. The roadmap is defined solely by the founder, without any data analysis or assessment of customer needs. The only answer we receive is, “The direction of customer needs is not the direction of our product development.”

This is indeed not my area of expertise, but whenever I see the people above meeting with customers,

in the end they only retort that the customers do not understand environmental, health, and safety systems. The situation of shutting their ears is becoming increasingly serious, making it difficult not to reflect on whether our product exists to fulfill personal ideals or to meet market demand.

5. The source of the company’s problems?

Every company naturally has people who like to spread rumors and speak ill of others.

I once heard a story: A teacher had a class with poor grades. It might be because the students in that class had poor academic ability. But if every class taught by that teacher had poor grades, then it is clearly the teacher’s problem!

If a supervisor goes around saying that people are not good enough, while everyone who leaves the company has grievances against that supervisor and is even unable to get along or work with her, who exactly is at the root of these problems?

If you have made it this far, that is truly impressive! I have said about all I wanted to say.

My suggestion is to keep this message carefully and respond cautiously. I have no interest in posting it on Tianyan Tong. The problems here should be resolved here. If the managers and founder have no intention of resolving them and simply make this text disappear, you do not need to worry too much, because everyone has already received a complete copy of the letter!

I was actually very happy during my time at the company. My colleagues were genuinely wonderful to work with, and they were all highly capable. But I have to say that the problems are becoming increasingly serious. You can keep replacing people, but the problems themselves will remain and only continue to worsen. I am definitely not the first person to bring these matters up, but I am certainly among the few willing to tell you directly. After all, I am not worried about being persecuted over something so childish. “I hope I will be the last person who needs to tell you these things!”