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

The job basically involves riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants or other establishments to control cockroaches and rats.

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 (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). Because the previous treatment was ineffective, the person taking over

may get chewed out over problems left behind by the previous worker. Reporting problems to management often gets you the response that you should figure out how to solve them yourself,

or they will assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management usually just makes a perfunctory visit and does not genuinely have the time or inclination to help resolve the issue).

Night work is defined as 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., you may rest for 2–3 hours and then return to the company to carry out spraying work 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 end up working more than ten night shifts.

After night work, 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 marked in red on the calendar are also off), using flexible scheduling.

That means you may get two or three days off in a week (three if there happens to be a public holiday), but you cannot be scheduled for three consecutive days off.

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 holiday overtime pay to claim.

Your days off still have to be scheduled around the work at hand—in other words, coordinated with clients, coworkers, and company operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly instruct you not to take the day off, a client may suddenly ask to 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 it 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 (for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a small number of people earn over 40,000; you only get more money if you are promoted or take on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, management appointments, or pay raises; it all depends on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, the boss 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, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus is approximately 11,250–22,500 (calculated using a basic salary of 22,500). If you have worked for less than a year, it is prorated by month.

Bonuses for the three traditional festivals are not guaranteed. They may be nothing more than a box of snacks for everyone to share, or cash anywhere from 600 to 1,000.

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

Department dinners only happen occasionally. If the company spends 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, being casually handed over to a senior employee or a colleague who is about to leave,

being trained for 3–5 days, and then being sent out to deal with clients and perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, there is no one to cover the area).

Then the company claims externally that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this a time-travel chamber?

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

The job basically involves riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants or other establishments to control cockroaches and rats.

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 (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). Because the previous treatment was ineffective, the person taking over

may get chewed out over problems left behind by the previous worker. Reporting problems to management often gets you the response that you should figure out how to solve them yourself,

or they will assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management usually just makes a perfunctory visit and does not genuinely have the time or inclination to help resolve the issue).

Night work is defined as 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., you may rest for 2–3 hours and then return to the company to carry out spraying work 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 end up working more than ten night shifts.

After night work, 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 marked in red on the calendar are also off), using flexible scheduling.

That means you may get two or three days off in a week (three if there happens to be a public holiday), but you cannot be scheduled for three consecutive days off.

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 holiday overtime pay to claim.

Your days off still have to be scheduled around the work at hand—in other words, coordinated with clients, coworkers, and company operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly instruct you not to take the day off, a client may suddenly ask to 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 it 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 (for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a small number of people earn over 40,000; you only get more money if you are promoted or take on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, management appointments, or pay raises; it all depends on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, the boss 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, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus is approximately 11,250–22,500 (calculated using a basic salary of 22,500). If you have worked for less than a year, it is prorated by month.

Bonuses for the three traditional festivals are not guaranteed. They may be nothing more than a box of snacks for everyone to share, or cash anywhere from 600 to 1,000.

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

Department dinners only happen occasionally. If the company spends 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, being casually handed over to a senior employee or a colleague who is about to leave,

being trained for 3–5 days, and then being sent out to deal with clients and perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so high, there is no one to cover the area).

Then the company claims externally that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this a time-travel chamber?

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