Workplace reviews and discussion: 艾佳清潔有限公司

1. During the interview, HR provided a glass of negative-ion mineral water.

1. After that, I never got to drink it again, so I couldn't have it with the pie the executives were eating.

2. At the beginning of the interview, the senior manager said that the pre-employment training would last two weeks and that, once we had a solid foundation, we could develop through our own sales strengths. However, during the first two weeks, I found that it was all just sales scripts. We had to stay for eight full hours a day, but the actual teaching took less than one hour; we spent the rest of the time passing time on our own, which was a huge waste of time.

3. What they taught at the beginning was fundamentally hollow. The result of rushing new hires into the job was fully reflected in our performance. The company would tell us to practice independently and discourage us from asking experienced colleagues for advice. Once we failed to meet our targets, management would assess whether we were qualified to continue, making newcomers feel that being allowed to stay was an opportunity granted by the company and that they needed to work harder.

4. Once I really started working, I found that the pay was extremely meager. Basically, this is a highly profitable industry, but the sales commission is small. In addition, being late or forgetting to report something would result in a NT$5,000 deduction from that week's marketing bonus. Supervisors would also encourage us to work on weekday evenings and holidays to generate sales, without overtime pay. Even on ordinary days when no client appointments were scheduled, we still had to go to the office and role-play with ourselves, which was quite a waste of time. It completely restricted the sales staff's freedom, and in practice we only had two or three days off per month.

5. The company's senior managers like sycophants. Even if their sales were zero, as long as they performed the show of practicing with themselves in the office all day for management to see, management would protect them. The company supposedly needs people who are constantly improving, but even high-performing salespeople who voice opinions about company rules will become targets of resentment for upper management.

Overall company atmosphere:

At first, they say they will give you plenty of freedom and that if you work hard at the beginning of the month, you can rest later. All of that is false, because upper management wants to take a cut of your sales. As a result, you can only work harder. If you slack off even a little or want to rest, you instead become an outcast. Many experienced colleagues therefore gradually adopt a slow pace and do only the minimum, which is nowhere near as positive as it was made to sound during the interview.

Thoughts: If you are doing this short-term, personally I don't recommend staying for more than six months, because you don't really learn much from the work itself. Most of your time is tied up in the office, where you end up fighting with yourself. For the long term, don't even consider it: there is no year-end bonus or promotion system. It is purely physical labor; you work overtime on holidays and evenings to earn sales, but there is no overtime pay. Each month, high-performing employees may go out for a meal, but from what they share, it is basically a direct-sales convention. The boss sells you dreams and empty promises. I heard that one of the meals was at Costco, which sounds rather pitiful too (fortunately, I didn't push myself to generate sales at the time). This is clearly an industry with room for development, but the company has developed it into a complete mess ^_^