An eye-opening experience

Not recommended. Absolutely not recommended! Don’t be fooled by what appears to be a high salary. After deducting the free overtime you give the company, you might as well work for a Taiwanese company—at least the work culture is more relaxed, and you won’t hear absurd statements like “personal learning doesn’t count as overtime.”

1. New employees spend one or two hours writing daily reports, but this is not paid as overtime because it is considered “personal learning.” Although the official end of the workday is 4 p.m., almost everyone leaves at 5 or 6.

2. Even though you are already working overtime for free, supervisors will still assign “homework” for subordinates to do at home. If you don’t “study” at home, you will be scolded the next day.

3. All of the above is classified as “personal learning.” Several senior employees within the company agree that “personal learning does not count as overtime” because it “cannot bring the company tangible numerical benefits.”

I can’t believe that in Taipei today, there are still companies like this. It is even a consulting firm that claims to provide consulting services for Japanese companies in Taiwan. It has been operating for over 20 years, yet it has never realized that its company policies are illegal.

Not paying overtime, arbitrarily defining what “doesn’t count as overtime”—this is illegal in both Japan and Taiwan, and it also violates basic common sense.

I’ve only ever seen people define “what counts as overtime.” I’ve never seen anyone define “what doesn’t count as overtime.” This company really opened my eyes.