Workplace reviews and discussion: 台北愛樂廣播股份有限公司

Colleagues in the same department are very friendly

The position I applied for was “Marketing Planning and Integration Specialist.” According to the job description on the official website:

- Able to create things “from zero to one” and bring something out of nothing!

- Capable of proposing and planning projects, with relevant experience, and able to work independently.

- Good at integration, coordination, and communication.

- Interested in advertising, event planning, digital platforms, and executing plans.

- Able to listen to and speak English, and write in Chinese.

- Compensation: Salary (depending on experience) and performance bonuses.

Note: No music expertise required.

1. The company required me to sign an “Employee Service Guarantee and Guarantee Regulations”

After I joined the company, it required me to sign an “Employee Service Guarantee and Guarantee Regulations.” Some of the clauses were unreasonable, such as: “The company may transfer the insured person’s position or place of service at any time. All responsibilities borne by the guarantor shall not be affected thereby, nor may the guarantor evade them on any pretext.” “If the insured person causes the company to suffer losses due to shortages of company funds, including shortages of money or goods under their management, or due to other fraud, misconduct, violations of the law, or other illegal acts, the guarantor shall be jointly and severally liable for compensation and agrees to waive all rights of defense and the right to require prior recourse against the principal debtor available to the guarantor.”

The requirements for guarantors were also very stringent, for example: “Direct relatives, spouses, and company employees may not serve as guarantors.” “An individual guarantor must own real estate.”

After reading it and discussing it with my family, I decided not to sign because my position was not in accounting or finance and did not involve handling large amounts of money. Signing this was unreasonable, and the wording of the clauses was not sufficiently precise, making me suspect that there might be gray areas.

After the finance department learned that I was unwilling to sign, it first tried to persuade me to ask my parents to serve as guarantors and said that it could later submit a request to allow a direct relative to sign. I directly stated that I was unwilling to do so.

Later, they proposed a second option: I could instead sign a “Business Personnel Guarantee and Integrity Agreement (including an alternative clause without a guarantor).” It stated that the company would obtain “Employee Honesty Guarantee Insurance,” with the premium paid by me. It also contained a very unreasonable clause: “The company may inspect Party B’s (my) accounting records and collection details at any time. Party B may not refuse, delay, or conceal them.”

Although the premium for this insurance was not very high, the overall situation made me very uncomfortable. That afternoon, the chairman came to speak with me personally and said: “Your mother is unwilling to sign the guarantee. That makes me suspicious of you as a person. If your own mother doesn’t trust you, why should the company trust you?”

When the chairman said this for the first time, I responded: “My mother does not distrust me; she simply does not understand why the company needs this information.” However, he clearly was not listening and repeated the same statement two or three more times.

I also explained that the reason I was unwilling to sign was that the clauses were unreasonable, but they said the guarantee had been drafted by a lawyer and was completely compliant with the law.

I tried to point out that the clause stating, “The company may transfer the insured person’s position or place of service at any time. All responsibilities borne by the guarantor shall not be affected thereby, nor may the guarantor evade them on any pretext,” seemed to mean that the company could change my position at any time. Wasn’t that inappropriate? They replied that I had misunderstood it: the clause meant that the guarantor’s responsibilities would not change after I changed positions.

Although it stated that the guarantor’s responsibilities would not change, my question was: “Why did the company add a premise to the clause that seems to allow it to change an employee’s position at will?” This concern was never adequately explained or dispelled.

During the meeting, the chairman mentioned several times: “I’ll give you one day to think about it, but if this matter (referring to the meeting) creates resentment between us and affects your work, then there’s no need to force you to stay.” Near the end of the meeting, the chairman brought up the above exchange again and said: “Do you want to hear what I think? (I nodded.) I think we should terminate the contract.”

So I said: “Okay, then let’s terminate the contract.”

The interview ended with the chairman saying: “Young people nowadays are pitiful; they don’t understand anything.”

When I went through the procedures afterward, I asked the finance department: “Will the company issue a non-voluntary separation form in this situation?” Finance replied: “This does not count as involuntary resignation because you failed to follow the company’s regulations.”

At that point, I was truly physically and mentally exhausted, so I did not want to argue and simply followed the procedures to resign.

When looking for a job, everyone should first assess whether they can meet the company’s personnel guarantee requirements, to avoid wasting both sides’ time.

2. The system is very outdated

Every day, I had to fill out reports. The reporting system was also extremely outdated and inconvenient: before opening the system, I had to close Word, Excel, and even Outlook; otherwise, the system would not open. Leave forms also had to be handwritten.

3. The actual job duties did not match the description

In fact, the main responsibility of this position was sales. Basically, every day involved making cold calls to develop new clients and asking customers to purchase advertising time slots.

Based on the requirements listed on the official website, I thought the position would primarily involve “marketing” and “planning,” but it turned out to require cold calling for business development. Job seekers should consider this carefully; if they cannot handle the pressure of sales, they may want to avoid applying for this position.