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 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 have to visit approximately 5–8 clients a day. This is not difficult for someone with pest-control experience, but because employee turnover is so high,

you often end up taking over a complete mess (a cockroach infestation exploding out of control or a severe rodent problem). Because the previous pest-control work was ineffective, the person taking over

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

or they assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management also just goes through the motions and does not genuinely devote the effort needed to help solve the problem).

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.

If you finish at 5 p.m., rest for 2–3 hours, and return to the company to do pesticide spraying at 10 p.m., that counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days is also a matter of luck; when staff are short, plenty of people end up working more than ten days of them.

After working at night, you must take compensatory time off the following morning, meaning you only need to report to 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 days off), using flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you may get two or three days off in a 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-fixed-day-off-and-one-flexible-rest-day system and national holidays are shifted, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to claim.

Your days off still have to be scheduled around the work on hand—in other words, according to the needs of clients, coworkers, and company operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly tell you that you cannot 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 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 position of responsibility system),

minus your share of labor and health insurance premiums. 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 earnings are generally between 30,000 and 40,000; only a few 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 salary increases; it all depends 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, 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 for less than a year, it is calculated proportionally by month.

Bonuses for the three major festivals are not guaranteed. It could be just one box of pastries for everyone to share, or cash anywhere from 600 to 1,000.

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

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

What I find most laughable about this company is that it claims on 104 Job Bank to provide comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means 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 pest control on your own (because turnover is so fast, there is no one to take over the territory).

Then, within the company, they claim that you tell people externally that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—did you enter a time chamber?

In my view, pest-control work may look easy to get started in and enter, but without one or 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 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 have to visit approximately 5–8 clients a day. This is not difficult for someone with pest-control experience, but because employee turnover is so high,

you often end up taking over a complete mess (a cockroach infestation exploding out of control or a severe rodent problem). Because the previous pest-control work was ineffective, the person taking over

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

or they assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management also just goes through the motions and does not genuinely devote the effort needed to help solve the problem).

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.

If you finish at 5 p.m., rest for 2–3 hours, and return to the company to do pesticide spraying at 10 p.m., that counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days is also a matter of luck; when staff are short, plenty of people end up working more than ten days of them.

After working at night, you must take compensatory time off the following morning, meaning you only need to report to 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 days off), using flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you may get two or three days off in a 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-fixed-day-off-and-one-flexible-rest-day system and national holidays are shifted, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to claim.

Your days off still have to be scheduled around the work on hand—in other words, according to the needs of clients, coworkers, and company operations.

For example, a supervisor may suddenly tell you that you cannot 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 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 position of responsibility system),

minus your share of labor and health insurance premiums. 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 earnings are generally between 30,000 and 40,000; only a few 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 salary increases; it all depends 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, 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 for less than a year, it is calculated proportionally by month.

Bonuses for the three major festivals are not guaranteed. It could be just one box of pastries for everyone to share, or cash anywhere from 600 to 1,000.

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

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

What I find most laughable about this company is that it claims on 104 Job Bank to provide comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means 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 pest control on your own (because turnover is so fast, there is no one to take over the territory).

Then, within the company, they claim that you tell people externally that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—did you enter a time chamber?

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