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Operator, Taoyuan manufacturing plant, Taiwan. Everything is contract manufacturing, and the company’s own products are only occasionally produced. The focus is entirely on mainland China, and the company does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty. Internal friction is severe, regardless of the department. When there is a problem, people pass the buck, and those at the bottom bear all the consequences. Many managers at all levels are incompetent. Every year, people are hired during peak season and laid off during the off-season. On average, there are one or two major personnel reshuffles each year. After joining, everyone is expected to be a multi-skilled worker; now one person is expected to do the work of several people. Among all the companies I have seen, this one has the highest turnover among supervisors and managers. The factory’s systems are chaotic, and its reputation outside the Taoyuan area has become terrible. It recruits dispatched workers at a high hourly wage, then complains that labor is too expensive, wasting the company’s labor costs while restricting overtime. Don’t expect dispatched workers to become regular employees—it is impossible now. If you can last a year, you should consider yourself lucky. During the off-season, dispatched workers are the first to be targeted for layoffs. If the company recruits again in the future, whether for dispatched or regular positions, think very carefully—do not go. Don’t be fooled by the benefits, which may appear very good; they are gradually being taken back. Benefits available at the Zhonghe headquarters are often not necessarily available at the Taoyuan manufacturing plant. Do not let HR rhetoric deceive you.

Don’t assume that because it is a large company, its personnel management and work systems are good—they are worse than those of many small and medium-sized companies outside.

Quality assurance is the company’s boss, especially at the highest level. They like to repeatedly ask why you did something this way regarding the same issue, and whether you can guarantee that it will never happen again. They keep asking until the people below are speechless, but the problem still is not resolved. They only talk and will shoot down any proposed improvement. I have also heard that some people tamper with products to improve their own performance. I don’t know whether they were caught doing it themselves, but the fact that such rumors circulate shows that this department has serious problems.

Engineering keeps pushing people around. An SMT line requires a large number of engineers. To avoid working overtime on Saturdays, the maintenance team pushes the work onto manufacturing maintenance in other departments, claiming that their own personnel costs are too high.

IE constantly compresses the time and space available on the production line, resulting in the company’s strange practice of setting a required number of units per hour: once the hourly target is reached, you are only allowed to produce that many and must stop until the next time period begins. If you produce more, they say there are too many people and that headcount and working hours must be reduced; if you produce less, they ask why output is low.

Production control is basically one of the sources of workplace chaos. When materials are needed for production, they are often incomplete. Each line has its own products to make, but one moment it is producing A, the next B; then a lack of materials causes the line to stop and switch to C. Otherwise, workers are assigned to support products in other departments they are unfamiliar with. No one knows what production control is scheduling.

In short, there are many more problems. Anyone considering working there is strongly advised not to join the company, because you never know when the company will force you out—or when you will go crazy and leave on your own!