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 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 taking over a mess (a cockroach explosion or severe rodent infestation). Since the previous treatment was ineffective, the person taking over

may get heavily blamed for problems left behind 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 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 devote the effort needed to help resolve the issue).

“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., if you rest for 2–3 hours and return to the company to carry out spraying work at 10 p.m., that counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days depends on luck; when there is a staffing shortage, plenty of people work more than ten night shifts.

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.

Currently, 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 if there happens to be a public 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 reported 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 public holidays are shifted, there is essentially no overtime pay for working on days off to claim.

Your days off still have to 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 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. 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 (for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000; only a few people earn more than 40,000. You only get more money if you are promoted or take on a managerial position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, taking on managerial roles, or salary increases; it all depends 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 determined by the boss, 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 less than a year, it is calculated proportionally by month.

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

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 gatherings.

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 handle clients and pest control on your own (because turnover is so fast, there is no one to take over the assigned areas).

Then, inside the company, they claim and tell outsiders 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 look easy to enter and get started in, 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 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 taking over a mess (a cockroach explosion or severe rodent infestation). Since the previous treatment was ineffective, the person taking over

may get heavily blamed for problems left behind 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 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 devote the effort needed to help resolve the issue).

“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., if you rest for 2–3 hours and return to the company to carry out spraying work at 10 p.m., that counts as a night shift.

Whether night shifts stay under seven days depends on luck; when there is a staffing shortage, plenty of people work more than ten night shifts.

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.

Currently, 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 if there happens to be a public 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 reported 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 public holidays are shifted, there is essentially no overtime pay for working on days off to claim.

Your days off still have to 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 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. 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 (for reference only).

Monthly pay is generally between 30,000 and 40,000; only a few people earn more than 40,000. You only get more money if you are promoted or take on a managerial position.

There is absolutely no system for promotions, taking on managerial roles, or salary increases; it all depends 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 determined by the boss, 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 less than a year, it is calculated proportionally by month.

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

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 gatherings.

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 handle clients and pest control on your own (because turnover is so fast, there is no one to take over the assigned areas).

Then, inside the company, they claim and tell outsiders 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 look easy to enter and get started in, but without 1–2 years of training, it is difficult to become fully competent.