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

The work basically consists of 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 office.

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 high,

you often end up inheriting a mess (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). Because the establishment’s pest-control results were poor, the person taking over

may get severely blamed for problems left 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 assist (although senior management usually just makes a cursory visit and does not genuinely invest the effort to help resolve 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 are limited to seven days is a matter of luck; when there is a staffing shortage, plenty of people work more than ten days of them.

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 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 the insured base salary for labor insurance is used in the calculation.

For example, if your labor-insurance base salary is 22,500, the calculation is 22,500/240 × 1.33 or 1.66 (after two hours).

Because the “one regular day off and one flexible rest day” system and national holidays are shifted to other dates, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to claim.

Days off still have to be scheduled according to the workload—in other words, coordinated 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 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’ve heard they may change to a responsibility-based system),

minus certain employee-paid labor and health insurance contributions. 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 (example calculation for reference only).

Monthly earnings are generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a few people earn more than 40,000; you only get additional pay after being promoted or taking on a management role.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, taking on management roles, or salary increases; it all depends on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, they will always say that there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance percentage (which the boss also evaluates personally, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus 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 holidays are not guaranteed. They may consist of just one box of snacks for everyone to share, or cash ranging from 600 to 1,000.

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

Department dinners only happen occasionally. However, 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 its listing on 104 states that it provides comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means 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 handle clients and pest control on your own (because turnover is so high that no one is available to take over the area).

Then, inside the company, they claim that employees tell people externally that they have three years of experience. Does three days equal three years of experience—did they 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 work basically consists of 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 office.

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 high,

you often end up inheriting a mess (a cockroach infestation or severe rodent problem). Because the establishment’s pest-control results were poor, the person taking over

may get severely blamed for problems left 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 assist (although senior management usually just makes a cursory visit and does not genuinely invest the effort to help resolve 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 are limited to seven days is a matter of luck; when there is a staffing shortage, plenty of people work more than ten days of them.

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 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 the insured base salary for labor insurance is used in the calculation.

For example, if your labor-insurance base salary is 22,500, the calculation is 22,500/240 × 1.33 or 1.66 (after two hours).

Because the “one regular day off and one flexible rest day” system and national holidays are shifted to other dates, there is essentially no holiday overtime pay to claim.

Days off still have to be scheduled according to the workload—in other words, coordinated 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 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’ve heard they may change to a responsibility-based system),

minus certain employee-paid labor and health insurance contributions. 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 (example calculation for reference only).

Monthly earnings are generally between 30,000 and 40,000. Only a few people earn more than 40,000; you only get additional pay after being promoted or taking on a management role.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, taking on management roles, or salary increases; it all depends on the boss’s mood. Of course, outwardly, they will always say that there is a system.

The year-end bonus is also calculated based on the basic salary, multiplied by a performance percentage (which the boss also evaluates personally, between 0.5 and 1).

The actual year-end bonus 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 holidays are not guaranteed. They may consist of just one box of snacks for everyone to share, or cash ranging from 600 to 1,000.

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

Department dinners only happen occasionally. However, 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 its listing on 104 states that it provides comprehensive training.

“Comprehensive training” means 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 handle clients and pest control on your own (because turnover is so high that no one is available to take over the area).

Then, inside the company, they claim that employees tell people externally that they have three years of experience. Does three days equal three years of experience—did they 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.