Workplace reviews and discussion: 耀際實業有限公司

The job basically consists of riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants and establishments to carry out cockroach and rodent control.

Working hours are 8:30 to 17:00, with a 1.5-hour lunch break. You clock in and out at the company.

You visit approximately 5–8 clients a day. This is not difficult for people with pest-control experience, but because employee turnover is so rapid,

you often inherit a complete mess (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). When the establishment’s pest-control results are poor, the person taking over

may get chewed out over problems left by the previous employee. Reporting problems to management often gets you a response like, “You should figure out how to solve it yourself,”

or they send a team leader or someone else to accompany you. (However, senior management also just makes a superficial appearance and does not genuinely put in the effort to help resolve the issue.)

Night work is defined as any work after 5 p.m. For example, leaving at 5 p.m. to perform pest control until 8 p.m. counts as overtime.

After finishing at 5 p.m., resting for 2–3 hours, and returning to the company to spray pesticides at 10 p.m. counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days is a matter of luck; when there is a staffing shortage, plenty of people work more than ten days of them.

After working at night, you must take compensatory time off the following morning, meaning you only need to come in at noon the next day.

At present, the company generally implements a two-day weekend (and holidays marked in red on the calendar are also days off) and uses flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you get two or three days off per week (three when there happens to be a national holiday), but three consecutive days off cannot be scheduled.

Overtime is currently calculated according to the Labor Standards Act, but only based on the insured salary used for labor insurance,

for example, if your insured salary is 22,500: 22,500/240 × 1.33 or 1.66 (after two hours).

Because the “one regular day off and one flexible rest day” system and national holidays are shifted, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to receive.

Your days off still have to be arranged around the work at hand—that is, coordinated with clients, coworkers, and the company’s operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly instruct you that you cannot take the day off, a client may suddenly change the appointment time,

or a team leader or coworker may ask you to swap shifts. Often, if you do not show up, the work simply goes uncovered.

Pay consists of the basic salary + meal allowance + unexplained bonuses + overtime pay (if any; I heard they may change to a responsibility-based system),

minus employee contributions to labor and health insurance. Since the insured salary is low, the deductions are generally just over 1,000.

The actual calculation is 22,500 + 1,500 + 8,000 + 1,236 − 800 = 32,436 (example calculation for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000; only a few people make more than 40,000. You only get more money if you are promoted or take on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, becoming a manager, or raises; it depends entirely on the owner’s mood. Of course, outwardly they will say that there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance ratio (also determined by the owner, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus received is approximately 11,250–22,500 (based on a basic salary of 22,500); if you have worked less than a year, it is calculated proportionally by month.

Bonuses for the three traditional holidays are not guaranteed. They could be just one box of pastries for everyone to share, or cash of 600–1,000.

Company trips essentially do not exist. If it is impossible to take three consecutive days off, how could there be a company trip?

Department dinners only happen occasionally. If people eat too much, the owner may complain again, so some employees do not attend the dinners either.

What I find most ridiculous about this company is that its listing on 104 says it provides comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means that after you are hired, they casually assign you to a senior employee or someone who is about to resign,

who trains you for 3–5 days and then sends you out to deal with clients and perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, no one is available to take over the area).

Then, inside the company, they claim that they tell people outside that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this some kind of time chamber?

In my view, pest-control work may appear easy to enter, but without one or two years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.

The job basically consists of riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants and establishments to carry out cockroach and rodent control.

Working hours are 8:30 to 17:00, with a 1.5-hour lunch break. You clock in and out at the company.

You visit approximately 5–8 clients a day. This is not difficult for people with pest-control experience, but because employee turnover is so rapid,

you often inherit a complete mess (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). When the establishment’s pest-control results are poor, the person taking over

may get chewed out over problems left by the previous employee. Reporting problems to management often gets you a response like, “You should figure out how to solve it yourself,”

or they send a team leader or someone else to accompany you. (However, senior management also just makes a superficial appearance and does not genuinely put in the effort to help resolve the issue.)

Night work is defined as any work after 5 p.m. For example, leaving at 5 p.m. to perform pest control until 8 p.m. counts as overtime.

After finishing at 5 p.m., resting for 2–3 hours, and returning to the company to spray pesticides at 10 p.m. counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days is a matter of luck; when there is a staffing shortage, plenty of people work more than ten days of them.

After working at night, you must take compensatory time off the following morning, meaning you only need to come in at noon the next day.

At present, the company generally implements a two-day weekend (and holidays marked in red on the calendar are also days off) and uses flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you get two or three days off per week (three when there happens to be a national holiday), but three consecutive days off cannot be scheduled.

Overtime is currently calculated according to the Labor Standards Act, but only based on the insured salary used for labor insurance,

for example, if your insured salary is 22,500: 22,500/240 × 1.33 or 1.66 (after two hours).

Because the “one regular day off and one flexible rest day” system and national holidays are shifted, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to receive.

Your days off still have to be arranged around the work at hand—that is, coordinated with clients, coworkers, and the company’s operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly instruct you that you cannot take the day off, a client may suddenly change the appointment time,

or a team leader or coworker may ask you to swap shifts. Often, if you do not show up, the work simply goes uncovered.

Pay consists of the basic salary + meal allowance + unexplained bonuses + overtime pay (if any; I heard they may change to a responsibility-based system),

minus employee contributions to labor and health insurance. Since the insured salary is low, the deductions are generally just over 1,000.

The actual calculation is 22,500 + 1,500 + 8,000 + 1,236 − 800 = 32,436 (example calculation for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000; only a few people make more than 40,000. You only get more money if you are promoted or take on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, becoming a manager, or raises; it depends entirely on the owner’s mood. Of course, outwardly they will say that there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance ratio (also determined by the owner, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus received is approximately 11,250–22,500 (based on a basic salary of 22,500); if you have worked less than a year, it is calculated proportionally by month.

Bonuses for the three traditional holidays are not guaranteed. They could be just one box of pastries for everyone to share, or cash of 600–1,000.

Company trips essentially do not exist. If it is impossible to take three consecutive days off, how could there be a company trip?

Department dinners only happen occasionally. If people eat too much, the owner may complain again, so some employees do not attend the dinners either.

What I find most ridiculous about this company is that its listing on 104 says it provides comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means that after you are hired, they casually assign you to a senior employee or someone who is about to resign,

who trains you for 3–5 days and then sends you out to deal with clients and perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, no one is available to take over the area).

Then, inside the company, they claim that they tell people outside that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this some kind of time chamber?

In my view, pest-control work may appear easy to enter, but without one or two years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.