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

The work is basically riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants or 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 fast,

you often end up taking over a mess (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). Because 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 a response that you should figure out how to solve it yourself,

or they may assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management also just goes through the motions and does not genuinely invest the effort 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 at 5 p.m., resting for 2–3 hours, and returning to the company to do pesticide spraying at 10 p.m. counts as a night shift.

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

After night work, you must take compensatory leave the following morning, meaning you can start work at noon the next day.

At present, the company generally implements a two-day weekend (public holidays marked in red on the calendar are also off) and uses flexible-hours 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 based on the insured salary used for labor insurance calculations.

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 around, there is essentially no overtime pay for working on days off that you can claim.

Your days off still have to be scheduled according to the work at hand—that is, in coordination with clients, coworkers, and the company’s 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 + unexplained 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, with only a few people earning 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, taking on management roles, or pay increases; 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 percentage (also determined by the boss, somewhere 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 holidays are not guaranteed. It may be just a box of cookies 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. But if people eat too much, the boss may complain again, so some employees do not attend the dinners either.

What I find most laughable about this company is that it claims on 104 that it provides 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 perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so fast, there is no one to take over the area).

Then, inside the company, they claim that they tell people outside that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this a time chamber?

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

The work is basically riding a company motorcycle or car to various restaurants or 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 fast,

you often end up taking over a mess (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). Because 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 a response that you should figure out how to solve it yourself,

or they may assign a team leader or someone else to accompany you (although senior management also just goes through the motions and does not genuinely invest the effort 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 at 5 p.m., resting for 2–3 hours, and returning to the company to do pesticide spraying at 10 p.m. counts as a night shift.

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

After night work, you must take compensatory leave the following morning, meaning you can start work at noon the next day.

At present, the company generally implements a two-day weekend (public holidays marked in red on the calendar are also off) and uses flexible-hours 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 based on the insured salary used for labor insurance calculations.

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 around, there is essentially no overtime pay for working on days off that you can claim.

Your days off still have to be scheduled according to the work at hand—that is, in coordination with clients, coworkers, and the company’s 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 + unexplained 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, with only a few people earning 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, taking on management roles, or pay increases; 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 percentage (also determined by the boss, somewhere 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 holidays are not guaranteed. It may be just a box of cookies 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. But if people eat too much, the boss may complain again, so some employees do not attend the dinners either.

What I find most laughable about this company is that it claims on 104 that it provides 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 perform pest control on your own (because turnover is so fast, there is no one to take over the area).

Then, inside the company, they claim that they tell people outside that you have three years of experience. Three days equals three years of experience—is this a time chamber?

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