汎武事業股份有限公司

Resignation

Fan Wu Enterprise Co., Ltd. — Embracing Everything You Do While Employed

I. Introduction:

Hello to all the winners in life with annual incomes in the 7-to-8-digit range,

I am Single Beat-the-Dog Bro, a.k.a. the One-Day Corporate Health Checkup Expert.

The purpose of this series is to introduce you to an electromechanical equipment distributor located in Yanchao, Kaohsiung, and to provide a bullet-point analysis based on six major indicators—food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, and recreation—by combining information from its official website, Facebook, YouTube, and external websites.

II. Six Major Indicators

1. Food:

As a distributor for Shihlin Electric, Fan Wu sells electrical materials while also operating its own switchboard factory, Fu Chiang Electric https://tinyurl.com/y3jsk4d2. Switchboards come in various sizes and weights, so switchboard factories are generally located on the ground floor of a flat building to facilitate lifting operations. Fan Wu, however, leads the industry and stands alone by moving its factory to the third floor. This allows the space on the first and second floors to be rented to a noodle factory, creating an inter-industry alliance in which coated steel is above and noodle soup is below. This not only demonstrates the company’s ability to combine strength and flexibility, but also greatly increases the kind of workplace accidents that money cannot buy.

Besides the noodle factory, warehouse floors are also rented to a sheet-mask company’s offices. With numerous businesses operating at the same location and complicated personnel traffic, the company planted many trees at the entrance—presumably to attract good fortune and ward off bad luck.

When one’s annual horoscope is not yet strong enough, one saves the dying and treats the injured.

2. Clothing:

The company website https://tinyurl.com/y2u4wvwm states that employee benefits include “employee uniforms.” However, these uniforms are issued only to male employees, not female employees, and must be returned upon resignation. The author of this article, however, donated the uniform to a homeless mutual-aid organization the day after resigning. Therefore, if you see an unfamiliar woman wearing this uniform in the future, remember that she is a homeless person, not a company employee.

3. Housing:

The company’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hsieh Wu-chi https://tinyurl.com/yxjf5fap, built their business from scratch and established an extensive business empire. To fully embody the core concept of the “Fan Wu family,” this frugal, expansion-loving couple lives directly above the company. In addition to making it easier to arrive at work on time and avoid tardiness, this enables them to literally keep all employees under their feet. United in purpose, husband and wife proceed step by step.

4. Transportation:

A. Company vehicles

The company provides two second-hand Vios company cars, allowing professional women who commute long distances to travel to and from work. However, the reason these professional women commute such long distances is that the company relocated from the Fine Arts Museum area to Yanchao—small cars for a big company after a big move.

B. Transportation subsidy

Because the company is short on company vehicles for sales staff, employees must provide their own private cars for business use. The monthly maintenance allowance is fixed at NT$3,000: whether you drive 1,000 kilometers or 2,000 kilometers per month, the maintenance allowance remains NT$3,000. One liter of fuel is subsidized for every 12 kilometers. If readers calculate the fuel economy themselves, they will easily discover that the more you drive, the more you earn—provided you are not an employee.

C. Natural disasters and obstruction

If an employee is late because of force majeure, such as a truck overturning or a natural disaster, the company invariably forces the employee to take leave. Those without leave may have their perfect-attendance bonus deducted, with no room for discussion.

On this matter, Fan Wu HR Manager Chang offered an incisive observation: “Is the road blocked?”

5. Education:

Fan Wu places considerable emphasis on talent development https://tinyurl.com/y27n8gfz and provides the electrical distribution department with extensive and diverse training. It is held after work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and employees are not charged for it.

In 2019, due to intervention by the Labor Bureau, the company reluctantly adjusted the schedule to one after-work session per week. Comfortingly, the company still does not charge extra; this system can be seen clearly in the company’s beautifully presented images:

https://imgur.com/iollnSi https://imgur.com/JVs83CG

The training listed in the table is held after work on Fridays and on Saturdays. Do not misunderstand: the educational activities on Tuesdays and Wednesdays continue as usual!

The after-work training provides participants with leftover snacks from the company’s monthly worship rituals. The company thereby feeds the remaining sales staff with leftover food—training troops like raising dogs, with not a thread out of place.

Chatter pours forth an industry of happiness, spoken gently without blemish;

The many students struggle to scatter leaves, while mediocre teachers remain drunk in place.

6. Recreation:

A. Employee trips

Fan Wu values emotional bonds among employees and encourages mutual interaction. Thus, after the employee trip—suspended for many years—seemed likely to rise from the ashes in 2017, it nevertheless ended stillborn. To show consideration for employees, Chairman Hsieh personally provided a travel fund of NT$500 per person in 2018—not NT$50 or NT$5, but NT$500, the golden ratio equivalent to ten cups of fresh milk tea. This demonstrates the chairman and his wife’s extraordinary generosity. To use the fund, the trip must not only have an educational purpose; the Hsieh couple must also be invited before an application may be submitted.

On a recent business trip, the author took the high-speed rail from Zuoying to Chiayi for approximately NT$410 https://tinyurl.com/yysvljlx. The travel fund would therefore still cover the full amount. If employees wish to travel north to Taichung to admire flowers and the moon, they may borrow a bicycle kept on the company premises, although it is uncertain whether an additional fee will be charged.

B. Family Day

According to the description of Family Day at https://tinyurl.com/y3gsx8gz—“Most enterprises hold at least one Family Day event every year to show appreciation to employees and their families”—the meaning of Family Day is clearly a reward activity intended to show consideration for employees and their families.

Fan Wu Chairman Hsieh naturally would not be left behind when it comes to this kind of benefit. Since employees work at Fan Wu, and Fan Wu is rooted in Chairman Hsieh, and since the company has previously been described as “one big family,” it follows that Chairman Hsieh is the employees’ family member. To reward family members, one must naturally reward Chairman Hsieh properly. Therefore, on Saturday, November 25, 2017, all employees were summoned to the Yanchao Township Office to distribute employee bonuses deducted here and there to low-income households in Yanchao https://tinyurl.com/y2s5uor5, thereby completing Family Day’s appreciation event and earning the good name of public welfare through self-produced, self-consumed charity.

The image contains the following statement https://imgur.com/KjiwLxP: “Having just moved to Yanchao, building good relations with our neighbors is our first priority.” This time, the words were about building good neighborly relations, but looking back at the Tudigong temple next to Fan Wu’s warehouse, the two parties went from their original cooperation and mutual exchange to eventually having iron gates occupy the road and demarcate boundaries. If this kind of “neighborliness” can be called unprecedented and never to be repeated, then interpreting “building good relations with relatives” as “keeping the beloved son at home” is naturally not difficult to imagine.

In fact, Fan Wu’s Family Day has been held for many years. This fine tradition dates back at least to 2013. The photos tell the truth—just look at how happy the employees looked six years ago:

https://imgur.com/InzwwG5

III. Conclusion

This brings the article to a temporary conclusion; the remaining sections will have to wait for the next installment due to space limitations.

This article contains plenty of laughter, anger, satire, and invective, interwoven with narration and commentary. I only hope readers can read it with ease. However, as the itinerary progresses, the issues will gradually become more serious, and the satirical remarks will naturally decrease. I do not know how many people will read this article, but I ask only that it be understood clearly and leave me with no regrets.

Next article: Fan Wu Does It All—Meetings, Banquets, and Heart-to-Heart Gatherings

References:

1. Fan Wu official website

2. Slave Bank

3. Taiwan High Speed Rail

Leaving work

Sharing these impressions on behalf of the original poster; the text is rather long and may not be suitable for those who are not considering applying.

The company name has been withheld, but the company has posted job openings year-round on both three-digit- and four-digit-numbered job websites for many years. There are also inquiry posts about it on the forum. As a distributor of electrical and mechanical equipment in Yanchao, it should not be unfamiliar to those seeking sales positions or assistant vacancies.

After the company moved to its new location and the new warehouse was completed, unlike most hot sheet-metal factories, air conditioning was installed in the office area, and multiple fans were also installed in the work area. The working environment can be described as relatively cool and comfortable. If salary, leave, and overtime are not taken into consideration, warehouse management is an excellent choice.

The company conducts inventory counts twice a year, in the middle and at the end of the year. These are the busiest periods for warehouse management staff. Both counts have approximately one month of preparation. The closer it gets to the inventory count, the longer the overtime hours become. In addition, the year-end inventory count takes place around New Year’s, which is usually a holiday. All warehouse management staff must attend; those who take leave will have it deducted from their attendance record.

Overtime pay is provided and calculated in half-hour increments. Any period shorter than half an hour is compensated with merit instead. Perhaps for ease of calculation or visual simplicity, the multiplier for year-end overtime pay drops the final digit, with one boxed meal provided as compensation. (If one boxed meal is not enough to fill you up, you can wait until you get home to eat again.)

In principle, everyone in the company except those in the finance department must undergo one month of warehouse training upon joining. Due to turnover, this may be extended depending on the circumstances.

The company is centered around sales, allowing sales staff to build up extensive networks both inside and outside the company. Externally, the company has been in business for 30 years and has a stable customer base, so cold prospecting is not required. However, because of staff turnover and customer reassignments, customers never have enough time to become familiar with you. Internally, chasing customers is just as common as chasing departed sales staff, so you can also meet many new faces—if you are still there by then. The company has approximately 100 employees, and the number of people hired and then leaving within a year can reach nearly 50 person-occurrences. Since that is still less than half the total, it can be said to be quite stable.

Each sales representative is assigned an assistant. Assistants start work at 8:30, while sales representatives start at 8:00, so sales representatives have a half-hour gap without an assistant every day. Assistants must also take turns covering the phones during lunch, answering calls and informing customers that we are on lunch break. In the industrial control department, assistants are replaced at a rate of approximately one person every six months. Assistants who resign voluntarily are informed in advance, but assistants whose employment is terminated involuntarily are informed and dismissed on the same day. Department transfers are handled the same way. Handling matters assigned by supervisors during lunchtime is an everyday occurrence.

If external causes such as traffic jams caused by natural disasters or accidents prevent you from arriving at work on time, you must use your own annual leave or compensatory leave to take the time off. In particular, try not to get stuck in traffic on Mondays, as the company holds an all-hands morning meeting. In addition to reciting the company’s guiding principles, everyone sings the company song, making it harmonious and lively.

To avoid delaying sales staff’s business and customer-visiting schedules, all meetings are held after working hours. There is a monthly meeting every month and a quarterly meeting every quarter. If the monthly and quarterly meetings cannot be finished, everyone meets again on Saturdays. Saturday meetings occur an average of once a month, except that this time there is no boxed meal or overtime multiplier. To improve the professional knowledge and standards of the sales team in the electrical distribution department, the company provides free training two evenings after work every week. If the two days are not enough, the company is willing to sacrifice Saturday to continue. In addition, to strengthen company cohesion, the company holds a one- to two-day mobilization meeting and experience-sharing competition during a holiday or weekend at the beginning of every year to welcome a new beginning. All employees must participate, and of course one boxed meal is provided.

Performance targets are adjusted every year. If last year’s target was met, it is raised; if last year’s target was not met, it is also raised. The system is open and transparent, with no need for negotiation. If you meet the target, there is of course a performance bonus, but the calculation method is rather complicated. Once the monthly performance target exceeds one million, the company will certainly not shortchange you or your assistant over the roughly hundred or so dollars in bonus—after all, you still have to split it with your assistant. If the collection rate for that month is below 95%, the company may reclaim the bonus. But quibbling with the company over a mere few hundred dollars would make a salesperson seem rather petty.

Although there is no employee trip, this year the company provided each person with several hundred dollars in travel funds for independent use. Of course, use this subsidy on a holiday when there is no meeting, or take personal leave.

The company’s training is comprehensive and its meeting schedule is efficient. As for the Labor Standards Act, which is most directly relevant to employees, the company will make every effort to comply when it wants to and is willing to comply. The promotion system is also relatively half-transparent rather than entirely opaque. There was once a publicly announced promotion of an employee that was later rescinded for special reasons. The situation took an unpredictable turn, changing from clear skies to cloudy ones. It is a wonderful workplace that newcomers must not miss.

The salary for the new role is 25,000; after passing the probationary period, it is 27,000 (including the meal allowance).

It is unclear how the bonuses are paid. Colleagues either have never received them or are unwilling to discuss them.

The environment is friendly toward newcomers, the office atmosphere is good, and there is a performance-based system.

Once you reach the target, you can receive a bonus, and the amount increases as you move up. If you do not reach the target, there is no bonus, but the target still increases.

This gives employees the feeling that they may never catch up with the performance targets and may never receive a bonus.

Regardless of the facts, this performance system has indeed left some employees with doubts.

There are two days each week when you have to stay late for meetings, mainly for training and case discussions.

Although there is no overtime pay, I personally feel that the meetings are not meaningless. They usually end at around 8 p.m.

This company holds many meetings.

Fuel subsidy:

Fuel price / 12 * mileage = the fuel subsidy provided to you.

Below 1,000 km: an additional subsidy of 2,000; 1,000–2,000 km = 4,000; above 2,000 km = 6,000.

A company mobile number with a monthly plan of 1,500 and no contract restriction is provided.

You can use it to renew the contract and buy a phone, but if you resign early, you must pay the contract penalty yourself.

Therefore, it is better to buy a second-hand phone and put the SIM card in it.

In my opinion, this is a company that tends to recruit outstanding talent. Those who are confident in their abilities can take on the challenge.

They will provide you with a pretty good working environment.