Workplace reviews and discussion: 昕麟庭園藝有限公司

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The salary structure is seriously flawed. My pay was basically the base salary + one hour of overtime per day × the number of working days (22 days) + a 500 fuel allowance, which came to approximately 30K in total. The fuel allowance was also subject to a monthly limit of 500; if I did not use the full amount, I could not carry the remainder over to the following month. The most baffling part was the overtime. The company calculated one hour per day as overtime pay, but I had to arrive at 7 a.m. every day and could only leave at around 6 or 7 p.m. Is paying only one hour of overtime really compliant with the Labor Standards Act?

The salary calculation was also problematic. The boss was responsible for designing the salary structure, while the boss’s wife handled payroll. When I received my first payslip, I could not understand the calculation, so I asked the boss’s wife to write out the formula. She did not seem to understand it very well either, and only provided the formula after a long time—but I still could not understand it. It felt as though the company could simply decide how much to pay.

In terms of the work itself, both the boss and the supervisor demanded efficiency. I really did not understand how demanding they expected us to be. I was already doing my very best—even holding it until after work instead of going to the restroom as many times as other people during the day—but the boss and supervisor still thought my efficiency was poor. The boss and supervisor also yelled at people every now and then, and would start berating us whenever something was even slightly unsatisfactory. There was also a fat coworker who was not very good at expressing himself and had a bad temper. Whenever we disagreed, he would swear and start shouting, yet he had been there for more than three years—longer than both supervisors. I do not know why the company kept him.

Then one night, the boss sent me a message at midnight saying that I should complete the resignation procedures the next day. He had gone to a meeting that day and did not show up, so he simply asked a coworker from the administrative department to hand me my salary envelope. I could leave after returning the equipment issued by the company, without even having a chance to discuss things with the boss. A few days before I was laid off, the company had hired a new employee, which made it feel as though they were using trial and error to find people—hiring someone, immediately firing them if they did not work out, and then looking for the next person.

If I had to name one thing I gained from this job, it would be that I spent almost all my time carrying heavy objects, so afterward I felt that my physical strength had improved a little compared with before. If you do not care about the salary and want to work out, you could give it a try.