Workplace reviews and discussion: 金彩棠國際有限公司

Just as 87% of the previous reviewer’s experience shared above described, the boss and his wife consider themselves to be very good to their employees—giving gifts, organizing meals, and so on. In reality, however, they use these things to emotionally manipulate employees. Perhaps they are not necessarily aware of it. It is simply the usual “I’m good to you, so you should appreciate it” mindset. They often talk about how good they are to their employees and wonder how their good intentions could be punished, without considering what employees actually want. In fact, employees are simply here to earn money and make a living, not to become part of a sweatshop family.

The boss and his wife frequently disagree, which repeatedly causes work to go in circles. The boss thinks A, while the boss’s wife thinks B. If you follow the boss’s approach and the boss’s wife loses her temper and berates you, the boss will tell you that you should have judged for yourself what the best approach was. Alternatively, he may say that you should ultimately listen to his wife. However, you still have to bear the full consequences of the convoluted work disruptions caused by their lack of agreement, including work being delayed and left unfinished.

The company was established and directed by this husband-and-wife team, but there are no SOPs or procedures whatsoever. For example, how should the return, exchange, and refund mechanisms be defined? You are told to adapt as you go. Of course, can a junior employee arbitrarily decide whether to issue a refund? No! If you let a customer receive a refund directly, you will definitely be criticized: “Why did you allow a refund in this situation?” If you refuse a refund according to the company’s stated return and refund policy, and then encounter a difficult customer who files a complaint, you are still at fault. You will be heavily reprimanded for making the wrong decision.

Before this, you may already have asked the boss how to handle the return order. The boss tells you to figure it out yourself, which means you are responsible for the consequences of the decision. There are only the following possible outcomes:

1. You refuse the refund because it does not comply with the store’s rules, and the customer accepts it. You are incredibly lucky—you neither cost the company money nor received a complaint.

2. You approve the refund because you are afraid of receiving a complaint. After you notify the boss of the refund account, the boss questions why you allowed a refund in this situation and tells you to continue going back and forth with the customer. If you are lucky, the boss may lecture you and then approve the refund.

3. You refuse the refund, but the customer loses their temper, files a complaint, and leaves a negative review. The boss will definitely condemn you for making the wrong decision and damaging the store’s reputation.

All of the above require an element of luck, like gambling—it is truly humiliating.

As soon as you join, you have to figure everything out yourself and learn from existing colleagues. When you ask about the rules and regulations, there are almost never any correct answers or established procedures. What is frightening is that veteran colleagues may deliberately teach you incorrectly. The ways of handling gray areas may perhaps be related to the boss’s unpredictable moods.

When you follow instructions and are then criticized by the boss, she immediately distances herself from responsibility. Because the system makes it difficult to identify the operator, and because the company has no SOPs whatsoever, much of the work is chaotic and consists of miscellaneous tasks. If a problem occurs, veteran colleagues will frame you and falsely claim that it was your fault, and there will be no evidence to prove otherwise.

The worst part is that one person has to take on many different types of work: designing and formatting product listings, packing and shipping orders, handling returns and exchanges, customer service, inventory management, answering the phone, handling logistics issues during your lunch break, and more. The salary is described as very generous on the surface, but in reality…

I would not do this job for even NT$50,000 a month, because you also have to endure the emotional manipulation and loss of control of the boss and his wife, as well as veteran colleagues who set people up. The veteran colleagues also like to volunteer for overtime and stay very late to demonstrate their loyalty to the company. There are surveillance cameras monitoring your every move throughout the workday to see whether you meet the required speed.

Moreover, this kind of completely non-specialized miscellaneous work offers no prospects at all when considering the company’s scale and long-term outlook.

I am truly glad that I left early. I am now doing work that matches my professional expertise, with much better pay than here. My expertise is also respected and recognized.

However, if the boss and his wife improve the SOPs and establish clear principles, most of the colleagues are kind and easy to get along with. People who like to run the company as if it were their own, enjoy knowing a little about everything, and treat the company like a family may still consider working here.