正新橡膠工業股份有限公司

1. Cheng Shin’s Xiamen plant is located in the Jimei Industrial Zone in Xiamen; it takes approximately 15 minutes by taxi to reach the nearest metro station.

2. It is fairly close to downtown Xiamen, about 30–40 minutes by car.

3. The work is relatively straightforward; it is probably similar across departments.

4. The basic Taiwan salary for an expatriate assignment is fairly decent.

5. Married couples can apply to live in company-funded apartment housing outside the factory.

1. It is the most traditional type of traditional industry. Apparently, the petrochemical industry is like this: seniority and hierarchy are clearly defined, and young people may find it unbearable or need to suppress themselves to survive.

2. Internal operating procedures are also very traditional, with a lot of paper-based work that is already outdated and often delays the handling of affairs.

3. Cross-departmental communication is difficult. The people in other departments you need to deal with may be local employees from mainland China, and their communication style is very different. It can take quite a while to adapt; simply put, many people are difficult to communicate with.

4. Business trips are mainly for section-chief level employees and above. General staff have few opportunities to travel and cannot travel independently.

5. There is insufficient delegated authority within the system; matters both big and small require approval from senior managers (even very minor matters unrelated to the company’s interests may require it).

6. The employee management system is inflexible. Everyone goes to the cafeteria together after meals, and everyone is expected to attend religious ceremonies. Perhaps nothing would happen if you did not come and go with everyone else, but when most people follow the group and you do not, you appear unconventional and may become the focus of discussion.

7. The company is basically quite profitable, as can be seen from Cheng Shin’s publicly available financial reports as a listed company. However, only section-chief level employees and above receive bonuses. Those below that level basically receive a fixed two months’ year-end bonus in Taiwan and another two months in mainland China, paid in two installments.

8. Because you live at the factory (the dormitory is inside the factory), you have to follow factory regulations, such as curfew and access control. It is difficult to live like someone working in the city and go downtown after work; even when going downtown, you generally have to take a taxi at your own expense.

9. You live in the factory dormitory. Although it is designated for supervisors, the building is old and the rooms are not very large. It does not feel comfortable at first, and there are occasionally pest problems, such as rats.

9. Your Taiwan-based colleagues, supervisors, and department heads all live in the same dormitory as you. Basically, your personal life and work are combined.

10. Entertaining clients mainly takes place at local open-air food stalls. Generally, the ingredients are not fresh, and the environment and dishes can be somewhat disgusting. Many foreign clients do not even want to take one bite. It takes a very, very long time to adapt to eating in places like this.

11. The computer hardware, software, and equipment are all very outdated. They are still using extremely old computer systems, and the printers frequently break down.

12. The qualifications and capabilities of mainland Chinese colleagues vary widely. For example, some overseas sales staff handling European and American clients have very poor English.

13. Most people in most departments do not understand English at all. Those who can speak English have to take on translation duties, both interpretation and written translation.

14. The expatriate allowance is far too low. The local cost of living is not low, and simply eating out and taking taxis on holidays can easily exceed the allowance.

15. Lunch and dinner are very unappetizing. It is a problem with both the flavors and the ingredients, and even the plain rice is not good. As a result, you often have to spend your own money eating outside.

16. Being assigned to a company that operates on a factory-based model means giving up a normal life in Taiwan. In addition to the poor industrial-zone environment, including the air quality, the location is very remote and there is little in the city center either.

17. There are actually very few days off. The Xiamen plant works half a day on Saturdays, and statutory holidays only include the legally mandated days—for example, one day for the Dragon Boat Festival. If a statutory holiday happens to fall near a Saturday or Sunday, the company may decide to grant consecutive days off, but you must make up the work afterward; they will not simply give you the extra days for free.

18. The company often announces how statutory holidays will be observed only a few days beforehand. As a result, it is difficult to plan holidays or arrange trips to other places in advance. The exception is if you apply in advance for your own return-to-Taiwan leave, which you can choose to spend either returning to Taiwan or staying in mainland China. However, if the company later decides to grant consecutive days off, you will have wasted the return-to-Taiwan leave you applied for.

19. You often encounter departments that do not help one another and instead pass the buck. It is hard to understand why everyone is so afraid of taking responsibility.

The company covers half of the cost of subscribing to stocks under heavy selling pressure.

The salary follows the company’s established system—fixed, with no room for negotiation.

The salary used to be fairly decent for fresh graduates. If you were frugal, you could indeed save a little money; that cannot be denied.

Every office has an old monster, Lazy Evil Lord, who is both incompetent and likes to pull rank. She spends all day browsing online auctions and slacking off; her work performance is basically negative. She loves badmouthing people and ordering junior male employees to do her own work. Even her supervisor can do nothing about her—calling it indulgence would not be an exaggeration. Working with someone like this is a waste of every second. With work this comfortable, there is no way she would resign; she probably would not know where to go even if she did, and she might even stab the company in the back. Even being prettier than her won't do! What the hell.

None

The survival wisdom of an old-timer: How can one keep the department understaffed so the company will continue signing contracts and reusing oneself? Exploit logical flaws to drive newcomers away.

For example: Taking (?) leave means being unsuitable for the job.

1. The R&D staff were fairly good in the early days, completing tasks on time and keeping regular working hours.

2. The company's salaries are considered above average in the Changhua area.

3. For overseas assignments, service of more than three years is counted at double the rate.

4. The dormitories in mainland China are quite good, and the airfare provided for overseas assignments can be used freely to travel to different destinations.

5. The R&D staff are relatively young and easier to communicate with.

1. Salary growth is extremely slow. The base salary never changes, and you never know when you will get a raise.

2. Management has old-fashioned thinking. Although the company claims to have an innovation department, it receives no support from senior management.

3. When you leave, HR will try every possible way to deduct money from you. Remember to argue with them.

4. This company is extremely fond of standardized forms, but the format often has to be changed again after a meeting.

5. Basically, it is a family business. The former chairman particularly liked hiring a Japanese instructor to guide development, but it did not result in developing anything worthwhile.

6. Overseas assignments in China require working half a day on Saturdays, and the responsibility-based system provides no overtime pay.

7. Information across internal plants is very complicated. Efforts to guard against one's own people have made meetings inconvenient instead.

8. During the pandemic, senior executives at the China plant returned to Taiwan first, leaving frontline employees to work without relevant protective measures.

9. The buck-passing culture is severe. At the mainland plant, Taiwanese employees may even stab other Taiwanese employees in the back.

10. Experience at a tire plant is basically considered useless in Taiwan, unless you have experience managing development, in which case it is only somewhat useful.

1. Salary payments are regular and fixed; payday comes on time.

1. Salary increases are slow.

2. The bonuses for the three major holidays are limited to gift vouchers.

3. The year-end bonus is based on a fixed number of days, and various types of leave are used to deduct money.

4. R&D does not actually do R&D work. Basically, after examining the structures and formulas of outside brands, it imitates them without a sufficiently clear understanding of the underlying principles. It also frequently goes to the production site—not only to conduct R&D trials, but also to monitor the manufacturing process. Sometimes it is unclear whether the role is R&D or process engineering.

5. The department culture is poor. Even minor matters require approval from a supervisor, and the supervisor is risk-averse and overly timid. To make things easier for themselves or avoid being reprimanded, they may submit adjusted data or conceal some information.

6. Work efficiency is poor. Computer requests are processed slowly, and the hardware performs poorly. Paper documents often need to be completed; although the company says it wants to go paperless, it continues to use paper forms. Document transfers between departments also take considerable time, and documents are often lost or fail to receive all the required approvals.

You can start and finish work on time, and overtime is paid (at the full hourly rate). It has a strong sense of human connection.

The salary adjustment system is unclear (which makes younger employees feel insecure). There are an alarmingly large number of long-serving employees, a preference for men over women, and limited opportunities for personal development (the pace is slow).

Only the starting salary is high

If you just want to coast, you can be quite happy

A daily-wage company—you only get paid when you work

When something goes wrong, it’s always only the lowest-level employees who take the fall

R&D salaries start at 35,000. They may be adjusted by 3,000 after a year, or not at all. There is a two-month year-end bonus, and nothing else.

There are systems in place, but all I can see is uniforms. The mindless assistant managers issue thoughtless orders every day, while the department managers below them are like dogs that only bark at the engineers.

The sales staff tasked with developing the market know absolutely nothing about their own products—not even the specifications. They only know how to be afraid of everything.

In short, this company has a bleak future. Mid- and senior-level managers either do nothing because they are afraid of taking responsibility or keep themselves pointlessly busy. Lower-level managers are just dogs, while the engineers are worked to the bone.

The only advantage is that the meager salary you receive every two weeks may be less than what a mid- or senior-level manager takes in kickbacks in a single day.

Let’s start by commenting on the salary. The salary is high for Changhua, but basically, the company will try every possible way to deduct money from your pay. You’ll feel especially strongly that the company is trying to take advantage of you when you leave. HR also treats you very well on the surface, but privately deducts the money you’re entitled to under all kinds of pretexts. Anyway, I still ended up leaving = = The company’s annual dividends are very high, yet it always tells employees that it didn’t make money and keeps deducting money here and there. I guess that’s probably what financial performance looks like...

As for the job itself, the chairman basically has initiative and ideas, but the deeply entrenched management structure in Taiwan is mostly just going through the motions. They don’t properly think about what should be done; instead, they simply follow orders without considering whether anything makes sense. They work without even knowing what they’re doing. At the company, you’re incredibly busy, but in the end, there are no results—just emptiness. If you leave to look for another job, this work experience isn’t particularly useful, but it’s very easy to coast along inside the company for your whole life!

Basically, I still recommend working there. It’s quite suitable for saving money and spending your whole life there~