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 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). Since the establishment’s pest-control results were poor, the person taking over

may get harshly blamed for problems left behind by the previous worker. Reporting the issue to management often results in being told that you should figure out how to solve it yourself,

or that a team leader or someone else will be assigned to accompany you (although senior management merely goes through the motions and does not genuinely have the time or inclination to help resolve the problem).

Night work is defined as work extending past 5 p.m. For example, leaving at 5 p.m. to perform 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 is considered 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 doing more than ten days.

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 during the month are also days off), using flexible-hour scheduling.

In other words, you may be given 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 the insured base salary for labor insurance is used in the calculation.

For example, if your labor-insurance base 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 effectively no holiday overtime pay to receive.

Days off must still be scheduled according to the work at hand—in other words, to accommodate 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. 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 duty-based system),

minus 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 earnings are generally between 30,000 and 40,000, with only a few people exceeding 40,000. You only get more money after being promoted or taking on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, assuming a management role, or salary increases; it depends entirely 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, 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 calculated proportionally by month.

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

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

Department dinners are also only held occasionally, but 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 Job Bank to provide comprehensive training.

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

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

Then, within the company, they claim—and tell outsiders—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 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 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 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). Since the establishment’s pest-control results were poor, the person taking over

may get harshly blamed for problems left behind by the previous worker. Reporting the issue to management often results in being told that you should figure out how to solve it yourself,

or that a team leader or someone else will be assigned to accompany you (although senior management merely goes through the motions and does not genuinely have the time or inclination to help resolve the problem).

Night work is defined as work extending past 5 p.m. For example, leaving at 5 p.m. to perform 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 is considered 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 doing more than ten days.

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 during the month are also days off), using flexible-hour scheduling.

In other words, you may be given 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 the insured base salary for labor insurance is used in the calculation.

For example, if your labor-insurance base 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 effectively no holiday overtime pay to receive.

Days off must still be scheduled according to the work at hand—in other words, to accommodate 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. 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 duty-based system),

minus 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 earnings are generally between 30,000 and 40,000, with only a few people exceeding 40,000. You only get more money after being promoted or taking on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, assuming a management role, or salary increases; it depends entirely 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, 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 calculated proportionally by month.

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

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

Department dinners are also only held occasionally, but 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 Job Bank to provide comprehensive training.

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

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

Then, within the company, they claim—and tell outsiders—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 appear easy to enter, but without 1–2 years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.