儷寶化粧品有限公司

The work environment is very standardized.

There are a lot of nitpicky rules. You have to remember many issues for each machine. One technician named 翔育 only makes sarcastic comments and does not teach you. When you need to make something, you have to replenish the raw materials, but if you replenish too much, you get scolded. The person giving instructions also does not say exactly how much you are supposed to replenish. You also have to watch out for other veteran workers setting traps for you. Even when you report an issue to a veteran worker and they say the technician said it was okay, once quality control comes to inspect, the technician starts being sarcastic and complains that you were not taking care of the machine.

In short, the obnoxious technicians are really annoying.

1. The office equipment is good; the desks are height-adjustable, allowing employees to work while standing.

2. The toilets have bidets.

3. There are small foil-packaged drinks in the refrigerator that employees can drink.

4. The salary for sales assistants is slightly better than at other companies.

1. There are not many places to eat near the company. If you do not order delivery, the choices are probably limited to convenience stores or Bafang Dumpling.

2. Several sales employees need to improve their emotional management. They show their impatience with colleagues without any attempt to hide it, which makes the work atmosphere rather unpleasant.

3. Most people work overtime until 7 p.m., and some even until 8 p.m. They clock out before 6:30 p.m. and then return to their desks to continue working. (Company policy requires employees to clock out by 6:30 p.m. at the latest, and there is no overtime pay.)

4. The items in the sample room do not match the company's system records and are often difficult to find. Troublesome tasks such as organizing the sample room and adjusting the records are assigned first to newly hired sales assistants.

5. The turnover rate is high. Twelve new employees joined in July alone, and several have since gradually left.

The environment is nice, and there are quite a few female colleagues, so at least the scenery is easy on the eyes.

The quality assurance department has meetings every morning, and every time you can hear the QA supervisor making a loud fuss, which is quite stressful.

At noon, you have to clock out for the 12:00 break and clock back in at 13:00 when work resumes. It’s very troublesome.

1. The office environment is clean and tidy

2. Free coffee and snacks

3. $100 meal allowance

1. Employees have to take turns being assigned as the duty person

2. Both disciplinary actions and commendations are posted on the bulletin board. However, commendations are generally given only to the Sales Department; the reward systems for Finance, Administration, R&D, and Engineering are very unclear

3. A few managers in the Sales Department often speak very loudly in the office. They are usually arguing with the mainland China and Changhua factories, and they often yell loudly enough for the entire office to hear, affecting others’ work

4. There is no comprehensive employee training

5. Employees have to perform songs and play games to entertain everyone at Christmas

6. Regular overtime under a duty-based work system, with no overtime pay. Because of the time difference, the Sales Department often has to hold meetings with clients at night or on holidays, but there is no compensatory time off, profit sharing, or performance bonus (employees receive fixed salaries)

7. The Engineering and Sales Departments often need to travel to Changhua for business, leaving early and returning late.

8. Employee turnover is extremely high. There is an expression circulating privately within the company: “Normal and capable people don’t stay at this company.”

9. The company uses a mainland Chinese communications app called “DingTalk” for internal communication. Senior management often assigns tasks after work and on weekends

10. Basically, employees can be promoted as long as they have sufficient seniority, so the office is full of managers and team leaders (because turnover is so high, staying for one year qualifies you as a veteran). However, promotion does not bring any changes in authority or benefits; it only means more work. Authority remains concentrated in senior management (a common problem in family businesses). There have even been bizarre cases of people refusing promotions

11. Female employees are entitled to only three days of menstrual leave per year (although this complies with labor law, the vast majority of companies provide at least one menstrual leave day per month)

12. Apart from the $100 lunch allowance and bonuses for the three major holidays ($500 for new employees and $1,000 for everyone else), there are no other employee benefits (every company has a snack bar, so I suppose that does not count)

13. If you forget to clock in or out once in a month, you can correct the attendance record. The second time, you must receive a disciplinary warning before you can correct it; the third time, your perfect-attendance bonus is gone. In particular, forgetting to clock in or out is usually caused by an excessive workload—being too busy to eat lunch and busy working overtime, so you forget to walk to the entrance to clock in or out. This is a very inhumane policy

14. Parking around the company is extremely difficult

15. Senior management is very impatient. Although they say the company is replacing the old with the new, their methods of doing things, management practices, and thinking are actually very outdated

16. They are very fond of asking managers to create work procedures, perhaps to cope with the high turnover? However, employees are the foundation of a company, so if the root causes are not properly addressed, I believe no number of procedures will be useful

17. The environment is high-pressure, and many people handle matters emotionally

18. The average age of employees is relatively low, basically under 35. In any case, the company simply cannot retain people

19. Senior management is very impatient. Since this is a family business, some senior managers who started working at the family company immediately after graduation have difficulty winning people over because they have no idea what the outside world is like, yet they are always telling employees with extensive work experience how to do their jobs

20. At one point, the company even issued a notice specifying what had to be kept in the first, second, and third drawers of each employee’s desk. It is truly outrageous that they even control what is kept in the drawers

21. Employees must wear white or black clothing at work

1. Located in Taichung’s most expensive office building

2. Clean work environment

1. Heavy workload and extremely high turnover

This is a family-owned company that manufactures cosmetic packaging materials.

The workload is so heavy that employees occasionally hide in the restroom to cry, and turnover is extremely high. In 2021 alone, 45 people left (the average number of employees at our headquarters is 35).

Senior management is very impatient and expects everything to be produced immediately. Some account managers who show little respect for others also often assign work to R&D design just before or after the end of the workday, demanding that drawings be delivered to them that same day. They completely treat designers like magicians.

2. Regular overtime without overtime pay

The company’s working hours are 9:00–18:00, and overtime is unpaid. The company may even ask employees to “clock out first, then continue working” after six o’clock.

Basically, the company judges whether you are working seriously and whether you are passionate about the job based on whether you work overtime. If you leave before seven, senior management will think you have it too easy, lack goals, and are not proactive.

What they do not realize is that everyone’s goal is to work seriously with 150% focus every day and pray to leave on time. Some people are truly exhausted, yet they are regarded as being able to leave “on time” only because they have too little work, simply because they leave at 6:30.

3. Strict punishment system, vague reward system

If an employee violates any provision of the employee handbook or is dismissed, their full name will be posted on the bulletin board, or they will be made to write a self-reflection report like a student. (Even if you forget to clock in or out twice and want to correct the records, you must first receive a demerit before you are allowed to do so.)

In short, almost every week someone is posted on the bulletin board for receiving a demerit. Everyone knows what will result in a demerit, but no one is clear about what can earn a commendation. For certain positions, receiving a demerit and writing a self-reflection report is as easy as getting handed a flyer on the street.

4. Office atmosphere

Although the company is located in Taichung’s most expensive office building and has an excellent work environment, the atmosphere in the office is extremely oppressive and tense.

In this high-pressure environment, many people become emotional, selfish, impatient, irritable, and anxious. Since actual power is concentrated in the hands of senior management—the family members who own the business—managers without real authority are also afraid of taking responsibility. As a result, employees who encounter unfair situations often find themselves isolated and helpless. (Basically, do not expect your manager to help you. Your manager may curse the company constantly in private, but at critical moments they definitely will not protect you.)

“Who got a demerit today?” “Who was just called in for an interview?” “The vice president isn’t here today; we can finally relax.” Everyone works every day in a highly unsettling environment.

Even something as minor as someone forgetting to turn off the lights in the conference room will be singled out and criticized.

In early 2022, the company even caused widespread panic by suddenly laying off two senior employees just before the Lunar New Year.

5. Year-end bonus dispute

Because the company paid only NT$3,000 in year-end bonuses at the beginning of 2021, many employees left. Therefore, in June 2021, the company gathered everyone together and promised that in 2021, “anyone who meets the performance requirements and has worked for six full months will receive a year-end bonus.”

However, because I was going to resign after the Lunar New Year, the company refused to pay me the year-end bonus. Meanwhile, the company’s factory in Changhua was also full of complaints because it had not paid year-end bonuses for two consecutive years.

6. Hierarchical culture

The company has a strange hierarchical culture. I recommend that job seekers check the salary structures for different positions on 104 Job Bank before submitting their résumés. For example, the starting salary for an administrative assistant is actually NT$7,000 higher than that for R&D design.

This alone shows that certain positions are not valued at all by the company. Moreover, account managers basically have free rein, so R&D staff should be prepared to be treated as graphic designers by the company.

In short, this is an authoritarian company that has systems in name only. It introduces a pile of employee rules, reward-and-punishment systems, and performance evaluations to imitate the style of a large corporation, but lacks the magnanimity a large corporation should have. Even if you receive a huge number of demerits, the company will still promote you if it wants to; conversely, someone who has never been disciplined may continue to remain stuck in the same position.

Finally, whether it is a Google review or an interviewer, if they tell you that “the company is already changing,” please do not believe them.

There really aren't any. You'd better not come.

Here, as long as you stay long enough (about one to two years), you can get promoted regardless of your abilities or EQ.

The EQ of the heads of sales who graduated from certain diploma mills is very poor. They curse at people from time to time, thinking that being loud and aggressive will get them whatever they want,

and they also love pretending to know and be able to do everything. It's honestly quite laughable to watch.

o Office staff, atmosphere, promotion prospects

"Generally speaking," relationships among colleagues are quite good, and there is relatively little backstabbing among sales staff (because they receive fixed salaries rather than performance-based bonuses).

The new office building is very clean and tidy. Parking for cars and scooters is difficult in the surrounding area, but there are quite a lot of lunch options.

o A cleaning lady comes to the company to do basic cleaning.

o There is toilet paper in all the restrooms.

Taichung headquarters conditions

× General conditions: Average working hours are approximately 10 hours.

09:00 start: clock-in system.

18:00 end: unpaid overtime under a responsibility-based system; employees were even asked to clock out before 18:30 and then continue working.

Anyone leaving before 7:00 would be asked why they were leaving on time or subjected to strange looks—a coercive culture. Employees would be assigned all kinds of excessive workloads (and strange tasks) to make them work overtime. If they did not work overtime, management would directly conclude that they "didn't have enough work" or "hadn't done their job properly."

Administrative staff also work overtime until 7–8 p.m.; basically, people are still handling matters or "waiting for approval" at 7:30.

× Bonus system

One small gift each for the Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival; in 2021, each person received only one small gift for the year-end bonus, regardless of seniority (everyone received the same).

After the reward and disciplinary system was established in June 2021, the stated rule was: "Employees who join after July will not be included in that year's year-end bonus distribution."

There is an evaluation every month, along with a reward and disciplinary system. The reward system is very vague. Written demerits, including the employee's full name, are posted on the bulletin board.

In 2022, I heard that colleagues who were still working there received an additional year-end bonus. I estimate they will use this to trick a bunch of people into joining ^_^

× Office staff overview

There are apparently around 30-something people in the office building, and approximately 2–4 people leave every month.

Basically, anyone willing to work overtime can become a manager, regardless of efficiency or ability. So when joining, it depends on luck which manager you are assigned to and whether you can actually learn anything.

Of course, if you are highly capable and have plenty of time to devote here, you can also be promoted very quickly (an option for padding your résumé).

× Job content

Most positions are provided with laptops (so employees can work overtime at home). The company's review and approval process is lengthy and inefficient, and people frequently spend time waiting for senior management's approval or revisions. Receiving messages at night is commonplace. Department managers have no real authority, so even minor matters require approval to avoid being reprimanded.

(Note: All of the company's senior executives are relatives or otherwise connected to the owners, and the opinions and management styles among senior executives are inconsistent.)

× Leave rules: Paper-based approval—extremely inefficient; they might even forget who is taking annual leave that day.

There seem to be many unwritten rules (for example, how many consecutive days one may take off and which days one should try not to request leave), but generally leave is fairly easy to take—although it still requires approval, approval, and more approval. According to colleagues, menstrual leave can be taken only three times a year (a company with mostly women offers no particular advantages). There is vaccine leave (unpaid on that day). Most employees are under 30, so I don't know whether maternity leave, parental leave, marriage leave, family-care leave, and similar types of leave can be taken or whether they are easy to obtain.

× work from home (WFH) – None

How could anyone work from home? At heart, this is a traditional manufacturing company. The office is quite grand and the space is not small, but it is not possible to arrange alternate seating, and no partitions have been installed.

Pros: Located on a very high floor; the office building is stylish; toilet paper is provided in the restrooms, which also have bidets.

Cons:

1. Parking nearby is difficult; even finding a parking space for a scooter is hard.

2. Although it is in the cosmetics industry and looks glamorous on the surface, at its core it is a traditional manufacturing company through and through. It has every problem that traditional manufacturing companies typically have.

3. It is a family business. Most of the people who hold real power are connected to the boss. The boss is a woman with many ideas, but her ideas change extremely quickly.

The second-most powerful person is the boss’s younger sister. The work pace is fast and she is impatient; whatever they want has to be produced for them immediately.

4. There is overtime almost every day, approximately 1–2 hours, with no overtime pay. (During the interview, the interviewer repeatedly confirmed whether I could accept working overtime.)

5. I heard that the year-end bonus is very poor. In one year, it was less than one month’s salary, and various evaluations had to be passed before it could be received. However, I left before I received mine.

6. Some positions require writing many reports and attending meetings from time to time.

7. Toilet paper is not provided individually. Everyone in the office shares one pack of toilet paper in the pantry area, and there are no personal trash cans at the desks.

8. There are many internal company procedures to go through. New employees only get their own email account about a week after starting, and various company-specific ERP systems, data exchange areas, and so on are gradually activated starting in the second week.

9. A particular mainland Chinese messaging app is used for internal company communications.

10. The employee turnover rate is extremely high. On average, people leave after staying for only about 1–2 years; those who leave sooner usually quit after just a few months. When I first joined, senior colleagues kept advising me to escape quickly.

11. The salary structure is also the kind that consists of a low base salary plus a position allowance, meal allowance, and perfect-attendance bonus stacked on top. Those of you with work experience should understand what I mean.

The office is bright, and the meeting rooms are freely available for use.

Inhumane management

Comfortable working environment

Unwritten overtime rules; managed in a mainland Chinese style, with an extremely high employee turnover rate