Sources and scope
This page collects workplace experiences, questions and discussions submitted by users. Dates shown are submission dates, not periods of employment. Individual reports do not describe the entire company.
Read the community guidelines1. The unexpected sense of accomplishment from doing extra work (being forced to do it)
2. This company’s activities are fairly high quality, and I recommend participating in them. However, as an employee, there are absolutely no advantages—it is basically hell
The supervisor is absolutely terrible—there’s so much to say that three days wouldn’t be enough!
When new employees first join the company, she intimidates them with her demeanor. She says that, as a psychology graduate, she is very good at reading people, and forces new employees to sit across from her in meetings so she can keep an eye on them.
The most outrageous thing is that she has people secretly take photos, then uses the photos to threaten new employees by saying that their attitude in meetings is poor.
She boasts about being punctual for work and being hardworking enough to work overtime on holidays, but in reality she simply oversleeps, and she waits until holidays to do her work.
She once criticized me for lacking a sense of responsibility because “I didn’t work on the weekend,” even though that event had been assigned to me at the last minute under pressure. I completed an event for 100 people within three days, and even worked overtime every day on weekdays; my colleagues praised me for having no shortcomings.
She pressures you to submit files on time but never looks at their content. Having 300 accumulated emails is considered normal.
She claims to be a devout Catholic and says that everyone else lacks dedication. She slips away at 5 p.m. every day to attend “Mass” (who knows where she actually goes), leaving the entire company waiting for her to return from “Mass” and review the materials before they can continue working!
She criticizes you for leaving work on time and will dump even more work on you!!
She forces everyone to reply on LINE within one hour: a first violation results in a NT$5,000 deduction, a second violation results in half-pay being deducted, and anyone who objects is told to resign. But when you need to contact her, she refuses to answer and deliberately turns off her phone.
She once taught everyone in front of the entire company how to ignore messages, shamelessly saying that she does not read messages from a certain company and telling others to handle them.
For one event, she was extremely picky about the poster beforehand. On the day itself, I was the only person staying behind, and she called to demand that I ask the boss to print larger posters. The boss said reluctantly that there were many orders and the earliest they could be ready was the next day. She actually told me to “beg” and find a way to produce them. Later, when I relayed the boss’s message—that additional printing had to be requested earlier—she accused me by asking, “Are those your true feelings?”
On another occasion, a volunteer did not want to participate, and she also told me to find a way to beg them until they agreed. In the end, that person took advantage of the food and drinks for free and was completely useless on the day of the event!
Once, I came down with gastroenteritis while organizing an event, but she allowed only other colleagues to take a break and said that, as the organizer, I was not allowed to rest. (She was on leave that day but called back to check attendance, asking harshly, “Are you at work?” “Yes!” “Is XX on leave?” “Yes!” “Take your work seriously.”)
On another occasion, I had arranged leave only after everything before the event had been taken care of and there was absolutely nothing left to do. She then suddenly dumped ten tasks on me and ordered me to finish them before the event, forcing me to cancel my leave! I was the only one working that day; everyone else was off!!! (I worked overtime until 10 p.m. and did not even get to eat lunch or dinner.)
She abuses her power to take advantage of perks: for company activities she likes, she forces employees to reserve spots and take notes for her, and she always buys desirable products first.
At camp activities, she only makes snide remarks: on the day of camp, she merely chats up officials from other organizations, does absolutely nothing, calls everyone to a meeting late at night, and then complains that the employees are physically unfit and useless.
In conclusion, because she has a great deal of authority and likes to threaten people by speaking loudly, this supervisor presents herself as a devout believer, but in reality exploits employees, abuses her personal power, and does unreasonable things every day. She is incredibly selfish. She once said in front of employees during a meeting, “Go ahead and report us; the government won’t investigate a small company like ours anyway,” and “If you want to resign, then leave. We’re not short of people.”
1. Members often give us snacks, food, and so on.
2. Scheduling time off is relatively flexible.
The office director holds all the power and likes to control everything. She often forces people to make changes without considering the actual circumstances or feelings of frontline staff, only increasing their workload.
In particular, she seems to believe that she has excellent writing skills and aesthetic sense, so almost all documents and materials must receive her approval. However, she does not seem to manage her time well and spends a great deal of effort and time on her own faith. Everyone’s documents are always held up with her and cannot proceed as expected.
She is crazy about using LINE to assign work, even outside working hours and on holidays. If messages are not read or answered, she gets angry and berates people. (She even once stipulated that employees would be fined NT$1,000 in wages if they did not read a message within an hour.)
Although it is supposedly a “nonprofit organization,” it has refused to let people with illnesses participate in activities more than once, has also turned visually impaired people away at the door, and has even harshly criticized other people’s appearances.
She does not take responsibility as a supervisor, is unwilling to admit her own mistakes, and frequently threatens to deduct employees’ wages.
There does not seem to be any consistent management or work system, because everything depends on the director’s mood.
Overtime is calculated in two-hour units. Two hours of overtime pay amounts to only NT$250, but overtime can be converted into money only on holidays; on regular workdays, it can only be exchanged for compensatory leave.
Rather than a nonprofit organization, it is more like an event public-relations company, where group activities and hosting skills are everything. Also, employees should not have too many ideas or questions of their own. Work performance is not the top priority—as long as you are obedient and do exactly as you are told, that is enough.