Workplace reviews and discussion: 全盛科技有限公司

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This is a predatory company operating within the Veterans Affairs Council’s vocational training system. It is a Hsiao family business, with the boss, the boss’s younger brother, son, daughter, and relatives controlling personnel and finances, so don’t expect any opportunities for advancement.

The boss teaches at a Veterans Affairs Council vocational training center.

Basically, the owner of a company with nearly 20 employees and annual revenue exceeding NT$10 million looks down on the hourly teaching fees at the Veterans Affairs Council vocational training center.

What he wants is to gain first contact with those who have just left the military and are still naïve about the dark side of society.

That way, he can carry out his exploitation plan. Who doesn’t know that soldiers are easy to deceive? They’re exactly the kind of people scam rings like most.

As for why it’s exploitative:

1. Work environment: There is a morning meeting at 8:00 a.m. where the boss assigns tasks and work. Sometimes, if he is in a bad mood, he also berates people. Attendance is recorded through a cloud-based system, which means that at 5:00 p.m. you have to clock out while still at the work site or on your way back from the site. That way, the company can avoid paying overtime.

2. Overtime pay: Basically, assume this doesn’t exist. For newcomers, when you return from a work site, the boss uses various forms of emotional blackmail, sarcasm and intimidating looks from senior employees, and peer pressure to force you to stay at the company and do odd jobs under the pretext of “practice.” For senior employees, it is actually worse, because after returning to the company they have to fill out all kinds of forms, submit official documents, and get yelled at by the boss—none of this is counted as overtime.

3. No meals provided: Normally, when a company sends a crew to a work site, the foreman provides meals and water. This company provides absolutely nothing; it even charges you for boxed lunches sold at the construction-site convenience shop. There is no need to mention water—even filling up too much water from the office can get you reprimanded by the boss.

4. Workplace atmosphere: Things are much more pleasant at the work site than at the company, because returning to the company means entering an oppressive atmosphere. This is also why the senior employees here all have such terrible attitudes: the pressure pushed down by the boss can, of course, only be vented on newcomers.

5. Most importantly, pay: Newcomers earn less than NT$30,000, with a three-month probationary period. Raises depend on the boss’s mood and are NT$500 each time. Even supervisory positions are a joke—just NT$500 more. There are technicians who have been with the company for three or four years and earn less than NT$40,000 a month; they have to work overtime on holidays to exceed NT$40,000. The holiday overtime pay is ridiculous: calculated out, it is less than what you would earn as a day laborer—at most just over NT$1,000.

6. Tools: The company does not provide basic tools and requires you to buy your own. Although there are shared power tools, the boss closely monitors how you use them, and you have to pay for any damage. Therefore, people there basically prepare their own tools. There is one benefit, though: when you resign, you can simply take all your tools with you.

7. Why hasn’t the company been sued? This goes back to what was mentioned earlier: soldiers are naïve and easy to deceive, so there have not yet been any major labor disputes. After the boss brainwashes people through his classes, every few months some fool gets tricked into joining his company. I’m writing this long post simply hoping to save people one by one. Low-voltage technicians are in very short supply in the market, so don’t let this company deceive you.