iStore_立展資訊科技股份有限公司

The store is relatively LGBT-friendly, so there is no awkwardness because of that and you can comfortably be yourself. However, some people at headquarters are not.

A NT$500 Shin Kong gift voucher is given for birthdays.

The stores hold year-end parties together with the department stores, and sometimes you can win fairly good prizes.

Salaries are paid very punctually.

If you want to switch to a directly operated store, you can build up your experience; it will be better than at other dealers.

As several people mentioned above, the salary structure is unfavorable and bonuses are difficult to obtain. Previously, when a store received too much in bonuses, the store manager was asked to contribute money to treat everyone to a meal, effectively resulting in a pay deduction. No one dared refuse, so they could only be privately upset.

When the Facebook page initially had few followers, employees were told to like it and inflate the positive reviews. You can look at whether those profile pictures belong to senior employees at some of the stores and you will know.

There are only two operations supervisors. One is friendly toward gay people, but only on the condition that they have some value to exploit; people without value are discarded.

The other appears friendly but privately makes disgusting jokes about people’s sexual orientation. They especially like to chat proactively with young female employees. Because department-store floor managers change frequently, if they hear that there is an attractive floor manager, they will ask the store manager what the person looks like. If the store manager happens to be gay, they are particularly unlucky and get taunted with disgusting jokes such as, “Do you think they’re attractive? But you like something different from me, right? Would that even work?”

Or, if a certain supervisor is also gay, they may privately joke, “How would I know whether they’re good at blowing?”

But their work ability is completely unacceptable. They even make fun of themselves by saying that all they can do is stamp documents; whenever something goes wrong, the store manager has to handle it. This reputation is known throughout the entire company.

The other person who is friendly toward gay people is a woman, but her behavior is very patriarchal. In any case, she simply accepts whatever those above her tell her to do, which is apparently why bonuses are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.

Moreover, at first they will open up to you and lower your guard, making you think you can trust them. Little do you know that after they pry information out of you, they will use it to undermine you.

As long as Shin Kong has no intention of closing this company, you can work here until retirement. It is even better if you get married and have children; then they will be even less likely to lay you off.

Someone previously said that headquarters supervisors love adding people on Instagram and Facebook. Even if you do not add them, they will look at anything public, so it is recommended that you lock your accounts and not add anyone from headquarters, to avoid giving people something to gossip about. Also, when you submit a résumé, they will search for you online using your email address or name. No wonder they seemed to know so much about me during the interview. I only later learned from colleagues that things were not so simple, which made me uncomfortable.

This company really loves talking about astrology—to the point of superstition. For personality tests, they only like using the “Peacock” type (for store staff).

If an issue cannot be resolved, they just keep throwing it to the stores. It is hard to understand why people in lower positions with lower salaries are expected to clean up the mess. I suppose this is one of the secrets that cannot be discussed behind the appearance of sound management.

Basically, people in the north are more likely to encounter headquarters personnel, while things are relatively fine in central and southern Taiwan. If you want to advance quickly, remember to cultivate a relationship with your supervisor and volunteer for everything they assign. You will definitely be able to take on more work, but the increase in salary may not be proportional to the work.

The year-end bonus is highest only at the Zhonggang store, so they are not very short-staffed; the other stores do not get much. All I can say is that it is truly enviable to work at the store that is the company’s cash cow—the other stores lose money, and that store earns it back for them.

After saying all that, I still recommend going in and experiencing it for yourself; it will make a deeper impression. The anniversary sales event is about to start too. You will understand what it is like to work a full shift and be exhausted but receive no bonus. At least there is overtime pay—if they do not forget to apply for it, or if all the stores are not reprimanded because overtime costs are too high, there is still a chance of receiving it.

The previous two reviews are already very detailed and can be referred to.

Adding to what the previous two people mentioned~

Regarding the overseas travel notification form, it has to be signed off by all supervisors, so they will know where you are going on vacation. If someone is staying abroad for a longer period, a supervisor will privately message them and ask them to buy cigarettes to bring back. In reality, the store staff are the ones working in the store, and the people who actually have to deal with the hard work are the store employees. Having to help carry those items, taking up their allowance and luggage space, really makes it feel not worthwhile.

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The store proxy system is really ridiculous—it is basically the acting position when the store manager is on leave. There is no position allowance; they only draw a rosy picture and tell you that you will have priority for promotion when a new store opens. The stores being opened now are all in places with poor business prospects. Becoming a store manager there just means working yourself to death chasing sales targets. I really wonder whether they assessed anything before opening these stores, or whether they just opened them and left the consequences to the stores, as if they had nothing to do with headquarters. (The locations are also decided by headquarters.)

Then, some store managers take responsibility themselves when it comes to the proxy, while others leave everything to the proxy to handle. People really do imitate what they see, and unfortunately, they learn all the wrong things.

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The company’s policies are only good for reference.

In practice, it is basically as if there were no policies at all—there are two different standards for everything. If you unfortunately get asked about an event and do not know about it, you will be considered careless. On the other hand, when headquarters staff come to help during the anniversary celebration, they may not have taken Apple’s training courses but still explain things to customers. When the information is wrong, the stores are the ones who suffer in the end. They do not apologize for their mistakes and act as if nothing happened.

For tasks that stores are required to do, such as listing the items on Black Cat shipping forms, every store obediently fills them out even when busy. Headquarters just says it is too busy shipping to fill them out. What kind of standard is that?

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Regarding sales-performance adjustments:

Basically, conscientious regional managers will tell headquarters that the targets are difficult to meet, but in the end they are just patted on the head and told to hold on a little longer and that things will be changed later. After hearing this for so long, the stores cannot be bothered to raise the issue anymore. The system is bizarre.

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After the store managers’ meetings, everyone goes out to eat with the supervisors.

In practice, it is not really a reward for employees—they just drink. If you do not drink, it is genuinely painful to go; you just want it to end so you can leave as soon as possible. Oh, and meetings or training sessions are always arranged at very short notice. Even after the schedules have been finalized, they keep having to be changed.

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At better stores, everyone helps one another with sales.

At worse stores, it all depends on each individual’s ability.

In the end, it is very difficult to earn bonuses.

You just have to get used to the cliques.

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Human resources, finance, general affairs, and IT are all handled by the side of Fayaque, so it is difficult to get immediate help, and their attitudes are terrible. Asking questions is like owing them money. In short, the parent and subsidiary companies push work back and forth because of their friction, while the well-paid do-nothing positions just collect high salaries every month.

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The employment contract states that, depending on job requirements, you may be transferred to work at an affiliated company. It also does not specify the job duties or salary; everything is communicated verbally. As a result, the job scope is very vague—it can be a lot or very little. HR is very afraid of accidents and will not violate the Labor Standards Act, but if there is an impact or concern, you may still be quietly pushed out. Previously, very few of the people who went over to Fayaque managed to stay on.

1. Colleagues are easy to get along with, and the age difference isn’t large—on average, around 30.

2. Salaries are always paid on time.

3. I can’t think of anything else.

1. It’s a technology company, but its way of operating is very traditional and old-fashioned.

2. Basically, people who join later don’t get much of a salary adjustment; those who came before have already secured the better positions.

3. They like hiring fresh graduates to keep salaries low, and they also like telling employees that “ours is the best in the industry.” You can imagine how poor the salary levels are for frontline store staff.

4. Senior sales associates who come over to become managers will ask whether there were any problems at the previous company as a way to screen people.

5. The bonus requirements keep being changed for the worse, so you can only keep receiving the base salary.

6. The busiest times are new product launches and anniversary sales events. If targets aren’t met, the year-end bonus is also pitiful. It’s basically just the base salary multiplied by some fraction—so miserable that it makes you feel depressed just looking at it.

7. I’ve encountered store-visit supervisors saying that employees are rich because they had bought some new product. As a frontline employee, am I supposed to be able to teach customers how to use it just because I attended training?

8. In the past, whenever equipment broke, they would only say there was no budget. Eventually, an efficient logistics team came in and replaced a round of equipment, but then they resigned too. If something breaks in the stores again, the reply will probably once again be “there’s no budget.” Other people also have no budget but still help think of ways to handle things. To put it bluntly, they just don’t want to do it.

9. What era are we living in that we still have to fill out paper forms to report overseas travel? And the system still requires us to do the same thing twice, just like applying for leave. Great job.

10. Head-office managers really like prying into employees’ privacy. If you add them on Instagram or Facebook and say anything wrong, you’ll immediately be blacklisted. You’re better off not using them.

11. Whether you’re working or off duty, messages keep flooding the company LINE group. I’ve already turned off notifications, but seeing the red number keep increasing is still depressing. Even more frightening is that there’s iMessage too. What an efficient technology company—sending messages constantly apparently counts as doing work. If a store has no customers, just receiving the base salary is already considered good enough.

12. Managers are very good at holding grudges, so after seeing this, they will definitely immediately try to find out which employee wrote it. With the turnover rate so high every year, they can take their time guessing.

1. Coworkers are fairly easy to get along with, and the atmosphere at work is great (depending on the store culture)

2. Even if you have no experience, your coworkers will help you and learn from one another

3. Comprehensive Apple training courses

4. It is an affiliated company of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi; the year-end party was decent

1. The salary is relatively low. If the store's sales performance is poor, you can only keep receiving the base salary. The performance targets are too high and difficult to reach. The bonus is a very tempting prospect, but you cannot actually get it

2. It is a Shin Kong-affiliated company, and the parent company is Fnac, so you can refer to the reviews there, which have a certain degree of accuracy. In addition, because many approvals within the same group must go through Shin Kong, in addition to Fnac, the process is very lengthy

3. Tasks that used to be handled by the headquarters' back office have all been delegated to the stores because everyone who was capable of getting things done has resigned. Now, even when you ask about something, no one can give you a clear answer; they just pass the buck and stall. It is truly speechless

4. During the interview, what they said sounded great, but after actually joining, you can see the true situation clearly within six months. As a result, once some people have built up a basic level of experience, they resign and move to directly operated stores