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

The job basically involves riding a company scooter or car to various restaurants or locations 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 high,

you often end up taking over a mess (cockroach infestations or serious rodent problems). Since the previous pest-control work was ineffective, the person taking over

may get severely chewed out for problems left by the previous worker. Reporting the issue to management often gets you the response that you should figure out how to solve it yourself,

or they may send a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management usually just makes a superficial visit and does not genuinely devote time or effort to helping resolve the problem).

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

After finishing work at 5 p.m., you may rest for 2–3 hours and then return to the company to carry out pesticide spraying at 10 p.m.; this counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days is a matter of luck. When there is a staff shortage, plenty of people work more than ten night shifts.

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

At present, the company generally implements a five-day workweek with two days off (public holidays in the same month are also off), using flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you may be given two or three days off in a week (three if there happens to be a public 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 contributions.

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

Because the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” system and public holidays are shifted around, there is essentially no overtime pay for working on days off.

Your days off are still scheduled according to the workload at hand—in other words, according to the needs of clients, coworkers, and company operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly instruct you not to take the day off, a client may suddenly ask you to change the appointment time,

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

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

minus some employee-paid labor and health insurance contributions. Since the insured salary is low, the deduction is generally a little over 1,000.

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

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a few people earn more than 40,000; you only get more money if you receive a promotion or take on a supervisory role.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, becoming a supervisor, or pay raises; it depends entirely on the boss’s mood. Of course, on the surface, they will say there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance ratio (also judged by the boss, ranging from 0.5 to 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 for less than a year, it is further calculated proportionally by month.

Bonuses for the three major holidays are not guaranteed. They might be just one box of pastries for everyone to share, or cash ranging from 600 to 1,000.

Employee trips essentially do not exist. If it is impossible even to take three consecutive days off, could there really be an employee trip?

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

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

The “comprehensive training” consists of applying to the company and being casually handed over to a senior employee or a coworker who is about to leave.

They train you for 3–5 days, then leave you to deal with clients and carry out pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, there is no one to take over the assigned area).

Then, within the company, they claim to outsiders that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this some kind of time-travel chamber?

In my view, pest-control work may appear easy to enter, but without 1–2 years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.

The job basically involves riding a company scooter or car to various restaurants or locations 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 high,

you often end up taking over a mess (cockroach infestations or serious rodent problems). Since the previous pest-control work was ineffective, the person taking over

may get severely chewed out for problems left by the previous worker. Reporting the issue to management often gets you the response that you should figure out how to solve it yourself,

or they may send a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management usually just makes a superficial visit and does not genuinely devote time or effort to helping resolve the problem).

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

After finishing work at 5 p.m., you may rest for 2–3 hours and then return to the company to carry out pesticide spraying at 10 p.m.; this counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days is a matter of luck. When there is a staff shortage, plenty of people work more than ten night shifts.

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

At present, the company generally implements a five-day workweek with two days off (public holidays in the same month are also off), using flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you may be given two or three days off in a week (three if there happens to be a public 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 contributions.

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

Because the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” system and public holidays are shifted around, there is essentially no overtime pay for working on days off.

Your days off are still scheduled according to the workload at hand—in other words, according to the needs of clients, coworkers, and company operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly instruct you not to take the day off, a client may suddenly ask you to change the appointment time,

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

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

minus some employee-paid labor and health insurance contributions. Since the insured salary is low, the deduction is generally a little over 1,000.

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

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a few people earn more than 40,000; you only get more money if you receive a promotion or take on a supervisory role.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, becoming a supervisor, or pay raises; it depends entirely on the boss’s mood. Of course, on the surface, they will say there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance ratio (also judged by the boss, ranging from 0.5 to 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 for less than a year, it is further calculated proportionally by month.

Bonuses for the three major holidays are not guaranteed. They might be just one box of pastries for everyone to share, or cash ranging from 600 to 1,000.

Employee trips essentially do not exist. If it is impossible even to take three consecutive days off, could there really be an employee trip?

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

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

The “comprehensive training” consists of applying to the company and being casually handed over to a senior employee or a coworker who is about to leave.

They train you for 3–5 days, then leave you to deal with clients and carry out pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, there is no one to take over the assigned area).

Then, within the company, they claim to outsiders that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this some kind of time-travel chamber?

In my view, pest-control work may appear easy to enter, but without 1–2 years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.