昱網科技股份有限公司

The boss is very good at talking about the company’s dreams and ideals, and the company seems to be quite large-scale. They also seem quite willing to offer a high salary.

However, when asked about the key points, they would evade the questions, and strangely enough, the interview location wasn’t even at the company. When they heard that you didn’t like small companies and that your salary expectations were too high, their expression and tone changed, and then there was no follow-up.....

Don't go. Whatever you do, don't go.

There are absolutely no advantages.

What they said in the interview is completely different from reality.

This company doesn't actually need employees at all.

Don't go. Whatever you do, don't go.

Basically none. At most, I was exposed to and learned some programming-related technical knowledge. Since I did not have a technical background and was working as a marketing planner at the time, looking back, this was all very superficial and could probably have been learned through self-study anyway.

1. At first, I really believed the lies told by the exploitative boss. (I was young and inexperienced back then, and accidentally helped perpetuate the toxic culture.) For example: not requiring clocking in was supposedly to allow flexible working hours; employees were valuable company assets; every Saturday was for training (or overtime if there was no training)....and so on and so forth (there are too many examples to list). During the interview, I specifically asked about the company’s size (number of employees), only to discover afterward that even counting his wife and children, the total still did not reach the number he had claimed, haha.

2. He constantly called you into the office for isolated one-on-one talks, criticizing this and that. He was very good at talking, but often made it difficult to tell what his point was. He would go on and on about the company’s lofty goals and dreams, while the tasks he assigned were vague and broad. You could not even discuss them with him to reach any concrete conclusion; it felt like he himself was unclear and simply very good at giving orders. In addition, during working hours, he would sometimes monitor you from the back of the office like a shadow, which put you under enormous pressure.

3. Initially, I estimated that only about 20% of the work was related to the position. (I am referring to the marketing planner role; I do not know about the others.) Basically, it was no different from administrative work. You even had to double as a telemarketer (effectively being responsible for sales targets) and a classroom assistant. There was no overtime pay or compensatory leave, and—this is important!!!—he loved summoning you to meetings just before the end of the workday. As mentioned above, these meetings were extremely long-winded and lacked focus, often dragging on until 7 or 8 p.m. before he was satisfied. (If I remember correctly, you were required to start work at 8:30 a.m.) He loved handling everything personally, but it often ended up feeling like you were just accompanying him while he practiced (or killing time?).

4. He was extremely suspicious!!! All day long, he would probe you with a distrustful look, as if you were obviously going to leak the company’s confidential information.

5. In summary, I could not see any future there, while being taken advantage of and subjected to inexplicable levels of stress day after day, so I resigned. I am still very grateful for that decision. After switching to a better job, I now live a relatively happier and more relaxed life every day. ^^

I recommend that friends who think the salary and benefits look good not try it lightly. (If you actually calculate it, the salary he paid could not even cover the time you spent working overtime, let alone the additional mental stress.) Unless—you really want to see what an exploitative boss looks like in person. ^^

If you do end up joining and find yourself strongly relating to everything above, please be brave and stop the bleeding as soon as possible. Do not settle just because you are afraid you will not find something better. I truly do not think it is worth it.

Are there any?

Pressures employees into helping him move and dismantle furniture without saying so

Only one capable engineer is assigned to handle an entire project, while also being responsible for fixing previous employees’ projects

Is the pay particularly high? No.

When he is in a bad mood, he may delay paying salaries until midnight

Makes things difficult for engineers and yells loudly

The three holiday bonuses may not be paid before the holidays; he deliberately delays them until the following month

After forcing you out, he makes an internal rule that bonuses will not be paid to people who are no longer employed

I don’t know what the point is of working hard here

He really has every skill imaginable

I'm really sorry, but I honestly can't think of any.

During the interview, they agree on one salary, then lowball you with a three-month probationary salary. Once the three months are up, they start using all kinds of bizarre logic and arguments to avoid raising your salary to what was originally agreed upon. If you're lucky and they're short-staffed at the time, you might successfully get the salary that was agreed on three months earlier. If you're unlucky and they aren't short-staffed, the boss will act as if they're unhappy and tell you to get lost.

Everything you can imagine when it comes to exploitative-boss tactics is there: “They say one thing when they’re in a good mood, then forget about it a few days later,” “They add requirements to the program whenever they think of them,” “They’re generous in places you feel are meaningless, but save money and try to squeeze you in every necessary area,” and so on. Those are merely the basics of the basics.

Whenever they talk to you, they always have an expression that says, “Are you fucking bullshitting me?”

They strictly require engineers to dress and present themselves properly, on the grounds that they need to look decent and professional when going to clients’ sites. Yes, that’s right—engineers do need to go to clients’ sites to understand requirements and conduct site surveys.

All the company’s rules are apparently just for show.

The pressure was so intense that I could hardly sleep well for a single day while I was working there. Fortunately, I’m mentally resilient; otherwise, seeing a psychiatrist would probably have been entirely understandable.

I can’t think of a single thing the boss said that they actually followed through on.

Life after resigning feels wide open. Treasure your life and stay away from Yu-Wang.

You can hone your skills, and you’ll adapt very well to any job that comes next.

If you thought the company benefits looked good, almost all of them are fake.

This small company has the highest turnover rate I’ve ever seen. It would be amazing to stay for three full months. The boss simply doesn’t value employees. Even when there’s nothing to do, if he wants you to stay and do some insignificant tasks, you’re obligated to—and there’s absolutely no overtime pay. He doesn’t even have a clock-in system. He says it’s to give everyone more freedom and convenience, but if you arrive even one minute late, you’ll be reprimanded. He even requires everyone to end their lunch break ten minutes early, claiming that this will allow them to rest for ten minutes in the afternoon, but in reality, he has no intention of letting you rest. He nitpicks over ten minutes of lunch break, yet never mentions all the time he forces people to stay without paying overtime.

Before joining this company, I always thought it was perfectly reasonable to do your own work, keep up with the schedule, and take a short break at an appropriate time.

It really opened my eyes: this was the first company I’d encountered that didn’t allow even a minute or second of rest, and during working hours, you’re absolutely not allowed to reply to messages or answer phone calls—even if a family member has an emergency, you can’t even take a glance.

He thinks he pays very high salaries. You might think the pay is pretty good at first too, but consider that it includes the unpaid overtime—when you calculate it, it’s not much at all.

By the way, he also requires everyone to use two days of annual leave around the period before and after the Lunar New Year, because he doesn’t intend to work on those two days. What about your other annual leave? You have the right to request leave, but he has the right to reject it. He can say that those dates happen to be unavailable, or suddenly tell you that you can’t take leave the week before a vacation you’ve already planned.

None

The usual boss is one of the teachers and is very good at persuading others.

Administrative staff are fundamentally not just administrative staff; planning staff also have to be extremely versatile.

The position I applied for was a planning position, but it was actually the boss’s secretary/general odd-job worker/telephone customer service representative/clerical administrator/syllabus-planning assistant. I had to do all kinds of miscellaneous tasks, but not a single bit of marketing planning!!

I resigned because I really couldn’t take it anymore—even designing promotional DM materials was assigned to me!! The outsourced assistant was driven away by the stress, and when the boss looked for a printing company, they complained that it was too expensive!!

Every day, more gray hairs kept appearing, and the stress was so intense that I was losing hair like crazy.... Think very carefully before taking this job.

P.S. The boss really likes calling people into meetings just before the end of the workday to talk about this and that, deliberately dragging things out until employees’ quitting time.