Stores can do whatever they want, and the company won't intervene or manage them.
I was a full-time employee.
How good or bad this company was depended entirely on the store manager.
Once, I had a severe cold and serious throat inflammation, but I was still required to work at the cash register.
Even after I had completely lost my voice,
communicating with customers had reached the point where I had to use gestures.
I wanted to take leave to see a doctor, but I was not allowed to; the store manager blocked every request, citing insufficient staffing.
When I finished work that day, it was already after 10 p.m. I went to the hospital's emergency department, took a taxi home by myself, and spent more than 1,000 dollars in total—almost a day's wages. Looking back, why did I force myself to keep going? The company was already breaking the law by refusing to let sick employees take sick leave.
I have to say that I have now resigned and joined another well-known Japanese restaurant company. It is a genuinely Japanese company, and everything is very orderly.
On one occasion, I was stationed outside the restaurant to manage the queue and hand out explanatory menus.
I was not sick, but my voice had already become hoarse from talking so much. After the supervisor there found out, they immediately came out to check on me, asked me to go to the break room to rest properly and drink some water, and arranged for me to switch to a position that did not require speaking. I was deeply moved. The company places great importance on its image; although its internal management is very strict, it also takes excellent care of its employees. I believe this is the kind of atmosphere a sustainable business should have.
Meanwhile, the Marugame store manager from that time has now risen to a managerial position.
You can tell what kind of company Marugame is.
It is as if every bit of conscience at Ton Li Duo has been lost in a filthy ditch.
Everyone at PT is pretty nice.
And then that's it.
I don't know—is everyone at this company gone?
The store manager is terrible, the supervisors are terrible, and everyone is lazy.
During work, one female supervisor just kept chatting with the store manager, even talking about where they were going to have fun that night.
Meanwhile, one PT employee did all the work they were responsible for, prepared everything, and left on time.
Then the store manager said, “They’re in a bad mood today and didn’t help me prepare this or that.”
I was speechless.
Also, are days off prohibited during Christmas???
What kind of rule is that?
My birthday just happens to fall around Christmas! I wanted to take some proper time off to celebrate my birthday.
But then they said taking leave was prohibited! What the hell!
And they exploit the workers, too.
Everything is prepared properly by the morning shift, while the evening shift gets to take it easy.
The store manager only ever covers for the evening shift.
This company may be okay in Japan, but as soon as it came to Taiwan, it became unbelievably awful.
If you want to work at Marugame, think it through carefully—don’t join just because it’s a Japanese company.
There might be a bunch of monkeys waiting for you.
You’ll find that you’re actually a very hardworking employee 🙃
PTs are basically just pawns constantly exploited by the store manager and supervisors.
During the peak periods of summer and winter vacation, PT hours are scheduled to the fullest extent possible, and staffing is extremely insufficient.
But the store manager and supervisors only have to work three or four days a week, and whenever there’s nothing to do, they sit in the office scrolling on their phones and chatting (outside of break times).
During non-peak periods (weekdays),
PT working hours are cut in half outright. The only exception is people who know how to butter others up—they continue to get plenty of hours as usual.
To put it simply: you’ll never be scheduled for the easy shifts. The store manager and supervisors get to enjoy all of them.
They say there’s performance pressure, and that there are bonuses 💰 for meeting performance targets?
(Full-time employees promoting new products): Great job! Keep it up.
(PTs promoting new products): That’s what you’re supposed to do. What’s today’s target? Why didn’t you meet it?
The store manager always says there are performance bonuses, but we haven’t seen a single penny of them 👀
Our hours are cut to an utterly unreasonable extent. Besides the store manager cutting them, the company also inexplicably cuts your hours, and they keep deducting some inexplicable welfare fund as well. The payslips are also unclear and poorly itemized.
Employee meals provided
1. Life held hostage by Marugame:
A single store has over 20 people and 7 or 8 group chats: the full-time staff group, the full-time staff + part-time staff group, the cashier group, the tempura group, the tempura prep group, the soup-boiling group, and the soup prep group.
There are hundreds of messages every day, with constant notification sounds. Whenever someone says something, you have to reply “Received” immediately, and announcements are even posted at 2 a.m.
Hello, do you have nothing better to do?
Could the boss please get some proper sleep?
It’s fine if you don’t sleep in the middle of the night, but please don’t come out and scare people!
2. Life held hostage by Marugame, part 2
I never knew that working at an udon restaurant would require being on call just like an engineer!
They often call people who are off work at around 10 a.m. or 11 p.m., just to tell them there is trash on the floor or that something has been put in the wrong place.
Please don’t disturb people who are currently on vacation over things you could have handled yourself right then. Put yourself in their shoes, okay?
Whatever it is can wait until they’re back at work. Don’t act like a terrifyingly obsessive partner.
3. Thinking about it now, it feels completely absurd:
The stores have to be renovated every few years. The only time this happened to me (and the last time :)) was when the crew arrived right after we had just closed. The song from Shin Kong Mitsukoshi wishing you good night had barely finished, the greasy equipment had not yet been washed, the sales report had not yet been sent, and the store manager was still sitting in the office handling business when the wall beside us was literally torn down by the renovation crew. We had to rescue the pots, pans, and dishes amid the rubble.
The company did not provide any complete information about the process, the follow-up cleanup, or how to handle short-shelf-life ingredients. That day, we had to figure it out ourselves and transport several boxes of ingredients to other stores by pushing handcarts [taking taxis in the middle of the night].
I did not get home until 3 a.m. and had to start work at 9 a.m. the next day, while the company showed no concern whatsoever. (Full-time staff are considered to be under a responsibility-based employment system, so in addition to not receiving overtime pay, they also had to pay the full taxi fare themselves.)
Was it really that urgent? Had the company never discussed this with the renovation contractor?
On the final day of business, the crew only needed to put up a construction barrier around the work area. Couldn’t they have left one day as a buffer for the store to organize the equipment and ingredients, then started demolition and the actual construction that evening after everything had been sorted out? Wouldn’t that have been better?
5. Problems with responsibility allocation:
Many stores do not have a store manager. Regular full-time employees (assigned as acting store managers) are responsible for operating the store and bear all the responsibility, without any additional allowance, while being paid the salary of entry-level full-time staff.
At Marukame, I deeply felt how much I was needed, how powerless I was, and how worthless I was.
I was needed because the stores were always short-staffed and could never fill all the vacancies;
I was powerless because I could never get support or recognition from the company;
I felt worthless because the company’s attitude toward its employees was always unilaterally tough. It always insisted on having things its own way, refused to communicate or compromise, and took the attitude that anyone who wanted to leave was free to do so.
As a full-time employee at Marukame, you had to know how to do everything and could not back down from any situation.
That was because there were pitifully few full-time employees at the stores,
and you were often the only person on-site who could take responsibility and handle problems.
I won’t deny that Marukame brought many people together and allowed me to meet so many colleagues. Marukame was so busy, and when things got hectic, it could leave you completely flustered.
Those who were willing to stay were people who genuinely liked being there.
Our shared goal was to keep the stores operating smoothly. Everyone looked after and helped one another through all kinds of difficulties, creating many deep bonds forged through shared struggles.
Every day, so many things happened—some absurd, some heartwarming, with both tears and laughter. There were always endless stories and topics to talk about, and the days passed by so quickly.
But I also won’t deny that at Marukame, I lost my own life. It felt as though my entire life was stuck in a quagmire. Whether I was off work or on vacation, my mind was filled with company matters. The messages never ended, and I had to check my phone every hour, afraid that I might miss even one important message.
Even when I took several consecutive days off to travel to another county, I couldn’t disappear—not even for a day. I had to remain on standby at all times.
If you didn’t reply to a message within two hours, you would be bombarded with calls.
If no one could reach you for an entire day, you were finished.
You would definitely be chewed out. Why couldn’t we get proper rest even when we were on vacation?
I often hid alone under my quilt and cried silently, for no particular reason.
Pressure came from the very top of the company
and pressed down layer by layer,
leaving people unable to breathe and utterly exhausted.
Even the most good-natured person would be driven to illness.
For many things, there was no clear right or wrong.
I don’t hate the people who scolded me; they had their own pressures to bear.
I don’t hate the people who misunderstood me; they had their own difficult obstacles to overcome.
Where there are many people, there are many disputes, and power can make people lose their way.
In fact, many of those who resigned wanted nothing more than dignity.
After saying all this, perhaps it won’t change anything.
I only hope that
the company will still put people first.
This was my first job—the job that gave me confidence and a sense of worth when I first entered society.
It also made me realize that I was still too young. Every day, I watched new and old employees come and go. Every day, I was exhausted both mentally and physically, giving up many things I wanted to do as time slowly slipped away, all for a collection of capital called “the company”?
Is the only goal in life really “money”?
The store manager is good.
The PTs work like dogs, while the company’s district manager only knows how to watch surveillance cameras and do their job. Areas that need improvement are not improved. People are replaced batch after batch, and even when performance is very good, there are still no bonuses. Stop deceiving fresh recruits into being exploited.
Don't come to Marugame—it's brutally exploitative.
The promised employee meals are basically something you can see but never eat.
If you're a full-time employee, you need to be on call at all times during your days off,
because you have to respond immediately.
As for the salary, it's paid on the 10th (and transferred on time),
but if you want to take time off, it's generally very difficult,
because, as I said earlier, you have to be on call 24 hours a day and come back to reply on LINE.
At work, Manager Gu will constantly watch the surveillance cameras,
monitoring every move the employees make.
It's normal to get written up for the slightest work deficiency.
As for whether this affects your rights?
Of course it does! The manager will tell the store manager to take away your scheduled days off.
So, after saying all this, I just hope that everyone who sees this message will tell young people: don't come to Marugame~~~
Marugame will show you what “exploitative labor” really means!!
I suggest that headquarters fire Manager Xinggu!!
He's the one exploiting the employees!
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The more capable you are, the more work you’ll be given.
You may be harassed by female employees who have been around for a long time.
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Monthly bonuses have to accumulate for three months before you can receive them—it’s basically a disguised way of swindling money. If payday doesn’t come, all the hard work from the previous months is for nothing.
Staffing keeps getting cut back. Closing shifts have gone from seven people down to just three, and if we can’t finish, that’s apparently our problem.
Someone parachuted in who knows nothing, yet their salary is forcibly set $20,000 higher than that of long-time employees. Whenever something goes wrong, the veterans are the ones who have to take the blame.
There’s nothing wrong with cutting your base salary, I suppose—if you don’t plan to become a store manager, then don’t stand in the way. But even after becoming a store manager, your salary still won’t increase.
They’re always saying the company needs people with ideas, but in reality, your ideas are only good for thinking about. The company likes people who obey.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to accumulate good karma. You really are doing good deeds here.
Taiwanese people are so good at courtesy that the vice president has the Japanese sake-sweet Mr. [name]/general manager completely under his thumb.
Two thumbs up!
Pay part-timers hourly wages but expect them to do full-time work.
If the company wants to keep costs this low, don't expect to retain people.
When you want to retain people, you are stingy about bonuses.
Who goes to work if not to earn a salary?
Look at how many people are still working at the store after a year.
You keep looking for new hires,
and then repeatedly fail to train them properly.
All day long, you think new hires should be self-reliant and tough.
Once they put on the uniform, they're superheroes.
If they can't survive, that's their problem.
To the people sitting in the company who call themselves *managers, *vice presidents, and *general managers: are you all right?
What on earth are you doing?
And then you can't retain anyone.
It's fine—just hire more people.
You don't want to be treated as disposable chopsticks, yet you treat us as disposable chopsticks: once we resign, it's out of sight, out of mind.
There is no one left at the store, yet you keep transferring people away.
You keep opening stores, then repeatedly fail to retain people.
You demand that we have Japanese-level dedication while paying Taiwanese-level wages.
You really have some nerve.
If the company could give the store's managers a manager-level salary,
and if it could pay part-timers more than other companies in the food court,
wouldn't everyone value the job and work hard?
Don't only think about how to calculate costs.
You are always calculating how to use your own Taiwanese people to curry favor with the Japanese.
How long can the company stay in business with such a reputation?
Would the Japanese clap for all you *managers, *vice presidents, and *general managers?
I'm still thinking.............
What's up with that new HR manager?
If you can't find anyone, you say other companies are the same too.
Isn't recruiting people your job? What else can you do?
You can't even respond when someone asks you something, huh?
You've already been here for several months.
Don't you feel embarrassed sitting in a manager's position?
Or are you planning to use “a few months” as an excuse? You tell me.
It's really just like what your previous previous previous previous company said.
You left because you were incompetent.
Is Wangu(i) a recycling center?
People at headquarters could be even more nearsighted.
Useless.
Claims to be a Japanese company
Damn!
Can HR take a moment to use their brains and keep their eyes open?
Even the hiring process is so careless and perfunctory.
They let just anyone in.
They don't retain the people they should.
For fuck's sake.
They say they'll cut our shifts whenever they feel like it—isn't that already illegal?
That deputy manager V... seriously.
If they say they're leaving, then let them go.
Don't drag it out.
Let's cut your shifts first before cutting ours.
Ah! Right.
HR has no brains or eyes—they can't see anything.
Are there any?!
There aren't any!!
The HR department might as well be disbanded. Business was bad, so they kept cutting and cutting. Now that business has improved a little, they say we have to find our own part-timers. That's not your responsibility. Damn it. How many full-time employees can the HR department hire in a month? Full-time employees have more work and responsibilities than the neighboring stores. What about the salary??!! Do you think it's very high? Then why can't you find any full-time employees? Hello~
The good supervisors who listened to us and actually got things done have all left. Vice President Li at headquarters, could you stop being so calculating??!! Ms. V in the HR department, the farther away you can get, the better.
No need to wash dishes
I dreamed that everyone at the Taipei headquarters was quietly collecting their pay and didn’t dare say a word.
Fuck!!
The store is so short-staffed we’re practically pissing blood.
You people sitting in air-conditioned offices, still making snide remarks—
The HR department is the most disgraceful, saying things like, “There are plenty of part-time applications; find one yourself.”
At the end of last year, an HR assistant came in claiming to be very capable, but the whole department was fucking brain-dead—only their lousy mouth was capable.
The HR department has some nerve saying things like that.
The Japanese guy and the vice general manager who’s always trying to get rid of the general manager—
Sleep well, huh.
We still have to open the store.
Keep embarrassing yourselves!!
You get paid.
A PT team leader who becomes a full-time employee gets paid the same as someone hired directly as a full-time employee.
Then what the hell is the point of all the experience that person gained as a PT?
They have experience and ability, yet in the end they get paid the same as someone hired directly?
You keep saying you need someone who can transition from team leader to full-time employee,
but what you really need is just someone with experience to shoulder the responsibilities.
Then if they’re paid the same, why the hell should they shoulder them??
Why should they have to work harder than everyone else? They’re people too!
In the end, they do more work than others,
but get paid the same?
If you took $4 to the boss to buy a $20 apple, do you think the boss would sell it to you??
Something they worked hard to earn,
and yet you’re trying to buy all of their hard work for just $4.
Then what the hell did they work so hard for all that time?
To do charity work??
So don’t ever tell me again, “How long have you been here?”
I will definitely answer you very bluntly.
The girl next door is really hot.
I seriously think Marugame’s new clock-in system is really problematic.
We work ourselves to the bone for this company, and you don’t even pay us overtime—fine.
We come in early without clocking in and work like dogs—fine. But if we clock out late, we still have to explain ourselves.
Isn’t all the work we do like this for this exploitative company?!
This will only make it even harder for full-time employees to receive overtime pay! And we’ll get our perfect-attendance bonus deducted too.
Who wouldn’t be pissed off?! Who’s supposed to know when there’ll be a sudden rush of customers? And we’re supposed to notify you two hours in advance.
If we don’t notify you and there really is a sudden rush on site, are you going to make the other shift work themselves to death? If we really clock out on time and don’t get complained at until we’re dead, then I really have to hand it to you!
Can I ask whether your head office really has nothing better to do? All you can do is make this troublesome, problematic app to make the company look more professional?
Why don’t you come work on site yourselves and see whether you really won’t forget to clock in because you’re busy?!
You work in an office, clock in with your phones, and sit down while you work—please don’t compare that with those of us working on site!
And don’t even get me started on applying this to part-time workers! It’ll only create a pile of problems!
You’re so free, could you please do something else that’s actually meaningful?
If you insist on continuing to use this method, Marugame as a company will only keep declining!
It’s very easy to get hired at PT.
Because everyone has been driven away by verbal abuse.
I just want to ask: does anyone really want to become a manager
before they’ve even joined, already assuming that there are lots of idiots and disposable chopsticks beneath them?
This mindset?
Also, if someone just happened to come here to eat, would they specifically post on “Damn Marukame”?
The first things that come to mind would be Marukame’s official Facebook page, Google reviews, or the Google review form outside each store, right?
And if they specifically name one person, normally they wouldn’t be talking about the entire store’s staff.
So if it’s not a group of friends or relatives, does that mean someone else did a poor job?
Or is it self-praise and self-promotion?
The above is all speculation.
But if you want to become part of the management team, I hope you will still consider the mindset of the employees beneath you. Every employee is working very seriously and diligently; they are not disposable chopsticks.
I hope you won’t use this kind of mindset toward people who are working seriously.
I am not a disposable chopstick.
Employee meals are provided
I’ve only been working here as a part-timer for a few days.
Because I’ve previously worked at other chain restaurants,
I found it unbelievable from my very first day.
On my first day, I was trained to open the restaurant in the morning.
I wasn’t even familiar with what equipment or supplies each station required,
yet I was expected to learn it all on the first day and remember how to do everything by the second day.
And when I asked the store manager or full-time employees questions, they would snap at me and have a terrible attitude.
I’ve never encountered this kind of situation at any other restaurant.
Wouldn’t helping new employees learn when they have questions ultimately help you in the future? Seriously, what exactly are you losing control over? Are you under a lot of pressure?
Even worse, the part-timer who trained me to open in the morning wasn’t even familiar with how to do it properly,
so when I followed their method, I was constantly scolded by the full-time employees:
“How can you do it like that?” “Why don’t you remember?” “Why didn’t you prepare this? Why didn’t you prepare that?”
I think that if you expect someone with a very high IQ, an excellent memory, and who won’t quit after being yelled at to do this job,
please state that in the application requirements, okay~
Also, the full-time employees are terrible at arithmetic. When they taught me how to package inari sushi, they kept miscalculating the grams per portion, which left me very confused.
At other companies, store managers may be very difficult during initial training, but if you’re making progress, they’ll also offer encouragement because we can finally be of help to them.
But here, I’ve never heard a single word of encouragement, nor a single “it’s okay.” If you make a mistake, they berate you relentlessly; if you do something right, it’s treated as if you were merely lucky.
Some of the full-time employees seem to have split personalities. One second they’re saying good morning in a childish voice, and the next they’re berating you in a deep voice.
I’m extremely surprised that anyone would be willing to stay and work here—or am I actually being singled out?
I still remember the first time I made a chicken rice bowl. I asked the person working at the tempura station where I should get the fried chicken, and they immediately snapped at me, “Can’t you get it yourself?” Although they grabbed it for me two seconds later, I still found it unbelievable. I asked because I didn’t know, but they treated me as if I were a useless person who only knew how to bother them.
Later, I asked other part-timers and found out that this person was an area manager.
The behavior of those above is imitated by those below—I finally understand. This is actually part of the company culture.
I’ve already found a new job for September.
They say this is a Japanese company, but the atmosphere at work is terrible every day. It’s truly unbearable.
Marugame
There is a daily limit for employee meals, but you have to pay out of pocket for anything over the limit.
There is an employee bonus fund, but it is not paid out directly; it is used for other purposes.
Uniforms and shoes are provided free of charge, but neither the uniforms nor the shoes are new. They may have many stains, and you can only hand-wash them yourself at home. If the pants are too long, you cannot have their length altered.
For part-time and full-time positions, please refer to the previous comment.
Supervisor: You only see them during peak periods; during off-peak periods, they automatically hide in the office.
Scheduling days off: During the interview, I explained that I could not work on a certain day. However, when I actually started working, I was still scheduled on that day. After raising the issue with the supervisor again, I did not receive a response indicating that time off would be arranged.
Injuries: It is best not to get injured. If you are injured, you cannot take extended leave; they will use staff shortages and the need to find a replacement as grounds to fire you.
Meetings: Meetings are held after closing and are not counted as paid work time. They can last about two hours and attendance is mandatory.
On call: Technology is now advanced and almost everyone has a phone, so you will be required to join a group chat. You must remain on call after work and during days off. From time to time, you may be tagged and questioned in the group, and you must respond by midnight that same day; otherwise, you will be considered problematic. If there is any issue with your work, they will not tell you in person either. Instead, they will tag you after your shift and tell you what you did wrong; failing to respond will also be considered problematic.
In summary, I do not recommend this place for basic hourly wages. There is not a second during work when you can stop; you have to keep working nonstop, and you may also be criticized. Unless you have a very strong love for the company.
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Part-time: When they’re short-staffed and need you, they keep desperately asking you to take shifts. Working several days in a row is no problem; they’ll just move the hours to other days, and you still won’t receive overtime pay. When staffing is adequate and you aren’t on good terms with the store manager, your shifts get cut—from a normal 8-hour day down to 5 hours, and from 5 days a week down to only 2–3 days. They deduct NT$100–200 in welfare fees every month. You don’t get to participate in employee trips either; you only get NT$100 a month for drinks, and even that depends on whether the store manager gives it to you.
Full-time: Promotions are extremely abnormal. When there’s a management vacancy, they make you an acting store manager, but you still don’t receive a store manager’s salary while being responsible for running an entire store. This is a company where promotions are not based on ability, but on whether you get along with senior management and obey them. The company wants obedient employees, not employees who can actually do the job. Personnel transfers are treated like a joke. Announcements are not made to all stores but communicated individually instead (what are they afraid of?). Transfers between the north and south are not negotiated either: if they tell you to go, you go; if you refuse, they tell you to submit your resignation. The labor–management relationship is extremely unequal.
Job seekers thinking of falling into this trap should think twice.