Close to the MRT station—the North Office is in the liveliest part of the East District, making it convenient to go shopping after work.
Early finish—The North Office is usually not busy. Unless there is overtime or a client visit, work generally ends by 5:30 p.m. at the latest; if necessary, overtime usually lasts until 6 or 7 p.m., and overtime can be claimed.
A one-and-a-half-hour lunch break—you can get a proper rest.
Opportunities for business trips—I went to the Kaohsiung office for training and flew to Beijing to handle business matters for clients and industry peers.
A large amount of document translation—this helps develop your Chinese-to-English and English-to-Chinese translation skills.
Good-quality managers and colleagues—most people have returned from overseas, so there are shared topics of conversation as well as similar levels of knowledge and education.
The clients are all wealthy—female employees may encounter harassment from clients, such as requests for their phone numbers or demands that they accompany them to AIT interviews. The boss may even tell you to go and not refuse the client.
An information session must be held every other weekend—this takes up the entire day. You receive overtime pay but no compensatory leave, and having to work again after only one day of rest can be quite exhausting.
The boss’s wife is difficult to get along with—she is a highly capable businesswoman, and you can learn a lot from her because she enjoys teaching people. However, she has a frightening temper, is very skilled at emotional manipulation, and often scolds people using personal attacks. If you are not easily affected emotionally, you should be able to overcome this issue.
A family business—the boss is a wealthy, generous, and easygoing person who pays well, but he follows his wife’s lead in everything else and has no decision-making power.
The boss’s wife strongly favors men over women. If your colleague happens to be male, even if he does nothing and constantly makes mistakes, she will not blame him and will only fault you for failing to handle things for your colleague.
The boss’s wife’s younger brother seems to be living off her. He probably has few accomplishments of his own and can only rely on his sister. Talking to him may involve a great deal of gender discrimination or threats toward employees. Unfortunately, he is the one who must approve HR matters and leave requests. He likes to ask intrusive questions and then report everything to the boss’s wife, which makes things very troublesome.
1. The company is upright, operates honestly, and is dedicated to serving its customers.
2. Supervisors and colleagues are willing to teach. As long as you are willing to learn, you can acquire a great deal of professional knowledge and technical skills.
You need to be interested in English, as you will handle a large volume of documents from overseas and frequently translate between Chinese and English. Some people choose to leave and seem to feel that they have been treated unfairly, when in fact they were careless in their work or lacked the necessary abilities, yet were unwilling to learn humbly. They then spend time writing reviews that do not reflect the facts, which is rather unfair.
The interview consists of several stages, but they are all fairly conversational and not very stressful. The employees here all seem very refined, and the environment is excellent—impressive and clean. The working environment is very good, and I can generally handle the work with ease. Having a strong foundation in foreign languages makes the job less stressful. Colleagues and supervisors are also able to help one another. You can still leave on time, with the actual departure time usually varying by only 30 to 40 minutes. I think it is pretty good. You need to be able to manage your own work progress. As for benefits, the bonuses for the three major holidays are quite generous. I can accept everything else.
The environment is too quiet and somewhat serious. Try not to eat breakfast during working hours; it is better to finish eating before entering the company.
The company is in a great location. It’s very convenient to find food, shop, and take the MRT. The workplace is bright and modern, and stepping into the office feels very comfortable! I like this kind of environment. The individual workstations are spacious, and the equipment is new and comfortable. They don’t stick you in a corner just because you’re new—haha. I’ve worked in places that were as dark and messy as warehouses and had a stuffy smell, so working here is extremely comfortable! My colleagues are all kind and always willing to answer questions, and they’re understanding toward newcomers. The supervisor is also easy to get along with. The benefits are pretty good too. Team meals are held at lunchtime, so they don’t take up your time after work, which is great! The company pays for taxis to take all employees to and from the restaurant, and we always eat at upscale hotels or famous restaurants. The bonuses for the three major festivals are very generous, and the holiday gift boxes and afternoon tea are abundant—perfect for someone like me who loves to eat, haha.
Parking is extremely inconvenient; you have to arrive early to find a spot and avoid waiting too long for the elevator. The work details are tedious. Besides the tasks that must be done regularly every month, the work really tests your ability to organize and prioritize tasks. Once you become familiar with the environment after two or three months, you can handle things with ease. However, the boss’s requests need to be handled first, otherwise you may end up scrambling!
The job duties are pretty much the same as those originally listed on 104, and all my coworkers are very friendly.
The end time in Kaohsiung is as stated above—it isn’t necessarily exactly 5:30 p.m. However, I can leave by 6 p.m. at the latest, so this is something to consider personally.
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I experienced a great deal of psychological pressure here. While doing this job, I heard a lot of unpleasant things and was often scolded by the boss, including personal attacks. The boss would openly or indirectly imply that employees had something wrong with their brains, insinuate that employees lacked good fortune, and often drag employees’ family members into conversations, among other things. There was once an employee who cried almost every day while eating lunch. The boss’s likes and dislikes toward employees were also very obvious. As part of the office, you could clearly sense which employee the supervisor was targeting recently. Based on my observations, the target rotated irregularly, and basically everyone was targeted eventually. When returning to work after taking leave—regardless of the type of leave, even annual leave—employees were especially likely to be scolded.
Although the working hours listed on 104 end at 5:30 p.m., I could count on one hand the number of days I actually got off work at 5:30. More often, the boss would assign work just before the end of the day, and it was impossible to leave without finishing it. At the end of the day, we also had to report to supervisors at every level before we could leave. The company said this did not count as overtime. They seemed to regard leaving at 5:30 as a benefit—as if it were charity bestowed on employees—so it was only available when they felt like bestowing it.
There is a great deal of administrative work here, so much that finding your next job afterward could count as the equivalent of ten jobs’ worth of experience. Administrative staff have to go to designated locations before work to buy flowers for the company, play Buddhist scriptures for the boss, handle matters concerning the boss’s foreign domestic helper, buy things for the boss’s daughter, and so on. I have also heard of employees being required to buy things for the boss on holidays and deliver breakfast to the boss’s home.
I have also heard homophobic remarks here, such as saying that LGBTQ+ pride parades are full of demons and monsters, and that same-sex marriage had been an eye-opening experience for them. At weekly meetings, I also often heard the boss say that employees nowadays could not endure hardship and were unwilling to sacrifice and devote themselves to the company. I am not sure why they would expect low-paid employees to throw themselves into the line of fire for the company.
The company’s year-end banquet is still held at lunchtime, with only one hour allowed for eating before returning to work. During lunch breaks, employees also have to take turns staying on duty in the office and serving as the duty person, helping the boss take out the trash, and so on.
The Taipei office and the Kaohsiung office have the same boss, so apart from the working hours being slightly more normal, there is not much difference. The turnover rate is still fairly high, though. I met several people who left within less than three months. Turnover in Kaohsiung is also very high; many people have come and gone.
I am sharing my own experience so that those considering joining can make their own decision. In any case, as the person in the previous post said, there are still plenty of people who want to try it themselves and only regret it afterward.
Taipei seems pretty cool.
Anyway, no matter how much you say, there are still people willing to give it a try. In the past, some employees were sued because of their work, and the person in charge was involved in a bunch of lawsuits too. The turnover rate was extremely high. For this kind of pay, is it really worth being humiliated and taking on this kind of risk?
1. I work at the Taipei branch, with fixed working hours (08:00–17:30) and a long lunch break (12:00–13:30)
2. There are bonuses for the three major holidays, birthday bonuses, Christmas bonuses, and New Year’s red envelopes
3. Director Lin in Taipei is kind and highly knowledgeable
4. The environment is tidy and quiet
5. Occasional group meals and snacks
The remote desktop connection used for file transfers is unstable, and the Google cloud storage is not an enterprise version. These could be improved.