Position applied for: Marketing Planning
Overall, this is a challenging job that requires frequent document translation and interpretation, providing many opportunities to improve and apply Japanese. The company also offers a perfect-attendance bonus of NT$1,000 and may provide overseas training courses. Japanese business consultants visit Taiwan regularly, and you may need to accompany them to stores to provide interpretation. When new menus are being developed, you may also need to assist with translation. Since Japanese is used frequently, this role can strengthen your language skills!
※There may be a need to assist other departments with translation and interpretation.
1. Documents that I personally considered inappropriate: After notifying me that I had been hired, the company first required me to visit the office to collect the hard copies related to the onboarding procedures. During the call, I asked whether they could send the documents electronically and explain their exact contents, but my request was declined. I was only told to ask about any questions when I arrived at the office. The next day, the HR staff first asked me to sign the “Employment Notification and Undertaking” (stating that I would report for duty on the designated date and provide the company with the documents listed below). They then explained that I would also need to sign a “Joint and Several Guarantee,” stating that it could not be signed by a family member and that I would need to ask a friend to act as guarantor. If I was unwilling to do so, I could instead make regular monthly payments to an insurance company for coverage (the guarantee must be renewed every three years). Next, I was asked to sign an “Affidavit” (some of its provisions raised concerns), and finally, I was required to sign the basic employment contract.
2. Numerous documents were required, such as a certificate of police clearance, a complete household registration transcript, a certificate of service and labor and health insurance transfer-out documents, copies of my ID card and diploma, a health examination form, and a headshot.
3. In addition to the initial and second interviews, I was later told that the supervisor wanted to conduct another interview, resulting in three interviews in total.
4. The company culture leans toward the traditional-industry model and an old-fashioned, conservative style. The company does not like communicating via email, and the official start date must be moved earlier because the company expects new employees to begin work immediately upon arrival.
5. Since this is a brand being gradually developed by a large group (with relatively few stores), its current staffing plan calls for only one person. Therefore, you should be prepared for one person to handle multiple responsibilities (including taking on tasks from other departments).
※It is understandable that the company may require employees to sign contracts and confidentiality clauses. However, if you have concerns about the content or consider certain contract or guarantee documents inappropriate, use your own judgment. Some companies believe these documents protect the company, and some job seekers may accept them. Personally, however, I believe the terms should be based on mutual trust and respect rather than being imposed without question (especially since this is neither a technology company nor a department handling money).
90% of the colleagues are easy to get along with
The promotion system is unclear; what was said during the interview is different from what you actually end up doing (e.g., performance evaluations are merely for show)
Employees are not the company's valuable assets, but merely the company's slaves
A strict top-down hierarchy: the manager doesn't follow the SOP either. If you tell him that gloves must be worn when preparing food, he will tell you: "I'm the manager!"
Be mentally prepared if you come here: this place endlessly cuts staff, then opens more branches and divides the already-limited workforce among them. You’ll be expected to do the work of 1.5 people. Don’t even think about a pay raise; you may well be criticized when things go wrong.
This is a place where policies change every day. There can be a new scheme for everything each day. Personnel changes leave you dumbfounded; people with no ability rise smoothly through the ranks, while those who do not curry favor or put on a superficial show work themselves to death for nothing. The main manager has no experience whatsoever in the food and beverage industry. When staffing is short, they do not know how to show consideration for frontline employees; instead, they come to help when staffing is sufficient to show off their power and make it look as though operations depend entirely on them.
Everything can be blamed on the store manager: too much waste—why didn't the store manager control the quantities? Part-timers chatting—why didn't the store manager manage them? No sales performance—why didn't the store manager come up with a solution? But the unfortunate store managers have no real authority at all. They have to report everything to upper management. Are they store managers? No. They are the assistant managers' Excel spreadsheet people. There are endless spreadsheets here waiting for store managers to report back on.
There is no system for promotion. During interviews, HR tells you that you will be promoted after three months or after learning all the positions, and that there will be an assessment whether a full-time employee is promoted to a trainee manager or a part-timer to a shift leader. Don't listen to their empty promises. They will promote you only when they have a need and are desperate because no one is available. There are plenty of part-timers here who have worked for more than a year without receiving even a cent of a raise. However, part-timers at the food-court locations have a higher hourly wage. Stores that require customer service have more and more exhausting work, yet their hourly wages are not higher. Meanwhile, food-court locations that do not require customer service pay five dollars more per hour. No one understands this bizarre logic. Don't ask why, or you may find your shifts cut.
Previously, part-timers A and B asked the assistant manager on the 31st, at the end of the month, whether the schedule for the following month had been approved. (The poor store manager had submitted the completed schedule before the 20th.) Simply asking about the schedule led the assistant manager to drastically cut A's and B's shifts, and afterward they simply found an excuse to fire A.
Recently, there has been a major personnel reshuffle. Store managers, deputy managers, and trainee managers were all transferred to different stores for no reason. Everyone complained, but who can defy the assistant manager's decree? At Gyu-Kaku, the chairman is God and the assistant manager is the emperor. Don't make them unhappy. Here, a single word from them can change everything.