Upon arrival, you will first be given a form (one full A4 page) to fill out with your résumé, strengths and weaknesses, and work achievements.

After you finish filling it out, the interviewer will ask you to take a test in Chinese and English typing, and will grade your scores.

The interview content is more or less based on what you wrote on the form.

The address is on Zhongzheng Road in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City.

Working hours: 9:30–18:30, with a one-hour break in between.

Working on holidays means taking compensatory leave; no pay is provided.

Overtime on regular workdays is under a responsibility-based system, with no overtime pay.

Salary: The salary agreed upon in the initial interview was supposedly NT$33K, but it is actually NT$32K + NT$1K (perfect-attendance bonus).

Not including tardiness, NT$1,000 is deducted from your salary for any leave you take.

This includes any type of leave, including government-designated leave, annual leave, and so on.

When I asked about the reason for recruiting, I found out that turnover is high, so they need to hire people.

I was only there for a few days; the following was learned from employees who had been there longer.

GuDi = Four Paws = United Partners = Jichong = Peak Pets

All of the above are owned by the same boss. Looking up information related to the companies together can be quite revealing.

The work environment is very quiet. Usually, the only sounds are keyboards and phones. Employees are forbidden to talk because, supposedly, the boss will get angry.

To be honest, the atmosphere is about the same as the hospice ward where my grandfather was before he died—and that is already a flattering description.

Even the hospice ward was not as oppressive.

Most work-related communication is done by phone or through Skype.

The workload is very heavy, benefits and compensation are poor, employees cannot be retained, and turnover is high. It is standard for one person to do the work of three.

So ask for a high starting salary; do not be shy.

The boss is unwilling to give out Lunar New Year red envelopes. The prizes at the spring banquet are poor, and the bonuses are paltry.

Three batches of HR staff have been driven away. After asking around, I learned that they do not intend to provide employees with particularly good benefits or compensation. The boss has even said things like, “With money, you can hire anyone.”

The KPI bonus system is a scam. Departments have points deducted in strange ways, so they cannot receive bonuses; in the end, the amount received is disproportionate.

There is no year-end bonus. I heard that the equivalent of one month’s year-end bonus is spread across 12 months and paid out quarterly.

The KPI bonuses for January, February, and March cannot be collected until June, and so on.

If you resign early, you receive nothing, because your KPI performance will be evaluated. Even if you work for a full year, the amount actually received will not equal one month’s salary.

There is no standard for the deduction system used in performance evaluations; everything depends on the mood of the boss’s sisters.

There is no “actual” holiday gift money for the three major festivals. It is converted into an employee-purchase credit and deducted; if you do not make an employee purchase, you receive no gift money.

Employees are pressured to attend pet exhibitions on holidays, and are given only compensatory leave.

At pet exhibitions, regardless of your position, you are required to be present as a salesperson.

They say overtime pay is available, but in reality it requires “approval from a supervisor.”

Most people work overtime every day as an obligation. I have rarely seen anyone leave on time, and no one really dares to request overtime pay.

It is true that you can bring pets to work, and it is also true that you can wear slippers to work—but it is equally true that there are additional conditions they do not mention.

Bringing pets to work:

You may bring them occasionally, but not every day. Each time, you must inform your supervisor in advance, and you may bring the pet only after the supervisor approves.

Pets must not be noisy and need to be cared for. If any of the above becomes an issue, you will be indirectly discouraged from bringing them again.

The company makes it sound as though pets are allowed, but in reality, it hopes you will not bring them.

New employees cannot bring pets to work when they first join (there is no written rule; it is an implicit one). The earliest you should ask your supervisor is probably after about one month.

To be honest, even if you bring a pet, you will not have time to take care of it anyway.