Workplace reviews and discussion: 微笑單車股份有限公司

From the perspective of a part-time worker with short hours, it’s a lousy place where you can temporarily lie low.

That’s about it. Oh, and the pay is just a tiny bit higher than the statutory minimum wage.

Northern Taiwan, a certain location: terrible environment, poor administration, and full-time employees exploit part-time workers.

1. For maintenance work, the tools provided are ridiculously bad and incomplete. If something breaks while using them, you still have to pay compensation when you leave. What kind of ridiculous logic is that?

2. New part-time workers are not taught how to perform first-level maintenance or second-level repairs. They just leave the part-timer alone to repair and mess around, then, when something goes wrong, tell the part-timer to take it apart and redo everything. After working at it for ages, they finally start giving a little instruction, and then demand a certain quantity. What kind of crazy logic is that? Damn it! Also, when taking apart bikes and removing tires, since you have no experience and nobody teaches you, they still stand nearby complaining that you’ll damage them instead of teaching you...

3. Experienced veterans (whether full-time or part-time) always pick bikes with only one or two problem points to repair, while leaving bikes with many problems and issues untouched. Novice part-timers don’t know how to choose bikes and always end up picking bikes where they could practically replace every part on the whole bike. Then they complain about how all the bikes chosen are terrible. Damn, no wonder the U-Bikes outside are all in such bad condition! And when you finally finish working on one, they still complain that this has a problem and that has a problem.

4. Every day there are more lousy bikes than can possibly be repaired. The worse the bike, the longer it sits there. In the end, the full-time employees and veteran part-timers don’t deal with them at all, causing the number of lousy bikes to keep increasing. They only want to pick the easy ones and repair bikes with simple problems so they can quickly reach their quota, then play on their phones and slack off. After that, they leave the lousy bikes for the newcomers to pick and complain from the sidelines.

5. The administration is problematic. Administrative matters are never properly explained, and then, after something goes wrong, they come back to complain and curse at everyone. The bikes are also thrown around randomly every time, with no proper planning for what should be done with them. As a result, bikes with serious and minor problems are mixed together, and they are arranged so tightly that it is difficult to retrieve a bike every time.

6. The situation for people doing battery replacements and maintenance in the field is also terrible. The number keeps increasing—from a dozen or so to more than thirty now—while the replacement points are all so far away. Yet the fuel allowance is only a tiny NT$10 subsidy per trip, and you also have to use your own vehicle. They even designate bicycle locations in areas where it is difficult to park cars or scooters, or where traffic access for cars and scooters is poor. If you happen to violate parking regulations temporarily because you cannot find a parking space for your own scooter while replacing a battery, any ticket issued is your own responsibility. They do not provide company vehicles or group insurance either. If an accident happens while working in the field, it is unclear whether you can claim any compensation.

In the end, I simply forgot to check this place out beforehand, so I foolishly came to this awful place. If it weren’t for the fact that I was looking for temporary short-term work and couldn’t find any other short-term jobs, I would have run away long ago. I strongly advise against coming here.