宜得利家居股份有限公司

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1. Even part-time workers who are paid only the basic hourly wage are required to serve as acting supervisors (referred to internally as "acting supervisors"). They are paid the same as other part-time workers but are pressured into doing supervisors' work (including their original part-time duties). Schedules treat part-time acting supervisors as supervisors; while regular part-time workers can freely arrange their days off and leave, those being pressured into acting-supervisor roles can only continue to shoulder the burden. They may even have their shifts cut without reason. There is no option to step down if you do not want to be an acting supervisor—if you do not want the role, you are simply told to resign.

2. The store's computer systems are full of bugs, processing efficiency is poor, and although errors are caused by the bugs, people are quick to blame the employees.

3. The atmosphere is unfriendly. Everyone is highly guarded, so communication is naturally poor.

Logistics is the department with the best work atmosphere. Shipment volumes for the next 2–3 days are prepared in advance, and overtime is only added when absolutely necessary.

The head office has company vehicles; employees can take the high-speed rail on business trips, and business travelers to southern Taiwan can stay at business hotels.

Compared with Taiwan’s retail industry, the store work environment is relatively clean and comfortable. Uniform styles are generally updated almost in sync with the Japanese stores.

Overtime is calculated by the minute. Unless there is a special reason, employees are expected to clock in and out exactly on the hour.

Overall, the system can be described as bureaucratic. Issues raised by junior employees are often brushed aside, and only when something really goes wrong does the company begin reviewing whether improvements are needed. Because the organization is relatively large, people who do not fit in are very obviously sidelined when bonuses are distributed. Rewards are not necessarily proportional to actual hard work and effort.

In fact, veterans with sufficient logistics experience know that there have been serious warehouse process deficiencies that resulted in the loss of a partner, and that some areas were once ordered to suspend operations. For some reason, the records of these violations cannot be found. The company did make many improvements afterward, of course because an incident occurred and a comprehensive labor inspection forced it to improve. However, it still did not show a friendly attitude toward employees. Those in power still have a bureaucratic mindset; to reduce unnecessary expenses, employee sentiment and talent loss are minor concerns to them. Store-level managers bear the responsibility, so working at the store level is nothing but hardship. Since the benefits for full-time employees are not particularly outstanding, some part-time employees are even more senior than full-time employees. If you expect this company to feel like a Japanese company, I do not recommend trying it. Put bluntly, it is a company with a Japanese exterior and a Taiwanese core.

All the benefits and allowances that Japanese companies generally provide are available, but there aren’t many.

The direct supervisor always keeps something to themselves, often hindering opportunities to communicate directly with Japanese supervisors. You also need to be able to withstand the high-pressure, Japanese-style management model of a Japanese company.

The work area is extremely open, with no partitions. Eating at your desk is not allowed; only water may be kept there, and nothing other than water is permitted. Casual shoes or sneakers cannot be worn to work.

However, this was my experience many years ago and is provided for reference only.

Overall, the work policies are clearly established, and the basic salary provisions are better than those required by the Labor Standards Act.

(Although complying with the law should be a given, considering how many exploitative bosses there are, let's count full compliance with the Labor Standards Act as one of the advantages!)

At present, promotions within the company are actually relatively easy. The starting salary is generally around NT$27,000, depending on how you join the company and the position you apply for. If you become a full-time employee after working part-time, the salary is relatively low. There is no performance pressure.

Bonuses are paid every six months. The amount depends on your performance evaluation and the type of contract you signed. General-track employees, who can be transferred nationwide, naturally receive larger bonuses, while regional-track employees automatically receive half as much. However, the actual bonus is still determined by the supervisor's performance evaluation.

Although the salary is not particularly generous, the compensation is relatively good for a service-industry job at the beginning of one's career. There is also a fair amount of time off, and overtime must be paid whenever it is worked.

Although the basic salary is fairly decent, in recent years the company has made major cuts to personnel expenses, making it very difficult for salaries to increase. This has also led to a continuing shortage of warehouse staff.

The allowance for entry-level supervisors at ordinary stores is very small, but once someone takes on a supervisory position, the workload immediately doubles. At understaffed stores, ordinary entry-level employees end up acting as supervisors, taking on more work without receiving additional pay. In recent years, vacancies have often been left unfilled, with the company asking employees to endure the difficulties together; this went on for nearly a year. The staffing shortage has become increasingly serious, and the company has even simplified new-employee training, leaving newcomers with completely insufficient basic knowledge.

Basically, store employees have a very heavy workload. Some administrative departments at headquarters even dump unnecessary tasks on the stores for their own convenience, so store employees now have to handle far more than they did in the early days.

Moreover, most department managers lack communication skills, meaning that frontline workers in stores often have to repeat tasks. Supervisors, including store managers and above, hardly communicate at all and simply gloss over problems to maintain the appearance of peace. As a result, the workload for entry-level employees has become increasingly heavy. Combined with the prolonged staffing shortage, the workload for experienced frontline employees has become even more burdensome. Supervisors also often disregard the rules and undermine frontline employees when dealing with unreasonable customer demands. In the long run, many experienced employees have left in large numbers, yet the company shows no sign of self-reflection and always uses the excuse that turnover is naturally high in the service industry.

Basically, the worst aspect of this job is that senior management is seriously lacking in communication, the administrative departments have no understanding of how the stores operate, and middle management spends all day glossing over problems and creating the false impression that everything is fine at the frontline level.

There is basically nothing wrong with the company's systems, but the incompetence and inaction of those in power are what make this company a poor place to work.

If you want to live a stable, uneventful life here, that is actually possible. However, if you want to take your work seriously and gain a sense of accomplishment, please think carefully.