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 facilities 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 per day. This is not difficult for people with pest-control experience, but because employee turnover is so high,

you often have to take over a complete mess (a cockroach explosion or severe rodent infestation). Because the previous pest-control work was ineffective, the person taking over

may get chewed out over problems left by the previous person. Reporting the issue to management often gets you a response that 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 makes a superficial visit and does not genuinely devote the effort needed to help resolve it).

“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 take a 2–3-hour break and return to the company to do 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 staff are short, plenty of people end up doing more than ten days.

After working at night, you must take compensatory leave 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 monthly calendar are also days off), using flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you get two or three days off per week (three when a public holiday happens to fall in the week), but you cannot be scheduled for three consecutive days off.

Overtime is currently calculated in accordance with the Labor Standards Act, but only based on the insured basic salary for labor insurance.

For example, if your insured basic 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, there is essentially no overtime pay for holidays to collect.

Scheduling days off still depends on the work at hand—in other words, coordinating with 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 switch shifts with them. 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 plan to change to a responsibility-based system),

minus employee-paid labor and health insurance contributions. Because 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 small number of people earn more than 40,000; you only get more money through promotion or taking on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, management appointments, or pay raises; it depends entirely on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, 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 assessed by the boss, ranging from 0.5 to 1).

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

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

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, and if people eat too much, the boss may complain again, so some employees do not attend the dinners either.

What I find most ridiculous 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 resign,

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

Then, inside the company, they claim and tell people outside 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 enter, but without one or two years of training, it is difficult to become fully qualified.

The job basically involves riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants or facilities 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 per day. This is not difficult for people with pest-control experience, but because employee turnover is so high,

you often have to take over a complete mess (a cockroach explosion or severe rodent infestation). Because the previous pest-control work was ineffective, the person taking over

may get chewed out over problems left by the previous person. Reporting the issue to management often gets you a response that 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 makes a superficial visit and does not genuinely devote the effort needed to help resolve it).

“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 take a 2–3-hour break and return to the company to do 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 staff are short, plenty of people end up doing more than ten days.

After working at night, you must take compensatory leave 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 monthly calendar are also days off), using flexible-hours scheduling.

In other words, you get two or three days off per week (three when a public holiday happens to fall in the week), but you cannot be scheduled for three consecutive days off.

Overtime is currently calculated in accordance with the Labor Standards Act, but only based on the insured basic salary for labor insurance.

For example, if your insured basic 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, there is essentially no overtime pay for holidays to collect.

Scheduling days off still depends on the work at hand—in other words, coordinating with 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 switch shifts with them. 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 plan to change to a responsibility-based system),

minus employee-paid labor and health insurance contributions. Because 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 small number of people earn more than 40,000; you only get more money through promotion or taking on a management position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, management appointments, or pay raises; it depends entirely on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, 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 assessed by the boss, ranging from 0.5 to 1).

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

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

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, and if people eat too much, the boss may complain again, so some employees do not attend the dinners either.

What I find most ridiculous 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 resign,

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

Then, inside the company, they claim and tell people outside 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 enter, but without one or two years of training, it is difficult to become fully qualified.