太平洋崇光百貨股份有限公司

Overtime is well compensated, colleagues from other departments are fairly easy to get along with, and the new office is bright and comfortable

Severe office politics. The department that was supposed to be innovative saw nearly an uncountable number of people leave within a year—almost enough to count on both hands, with most of them in positions like mine. Before and after submitting their resignations, everyone says you are highly capable, but after you resign, a certain manager immediately replies on the approval form that everything is fine and that they have worked hard to make adjustments, and that the departing employee lacks ability. Only after leaving did I realize that perhaps 90% of what a certain manager had been saying behind people's backs was untrue.

An expert in managing upward may be a nightmare for newcomers, because the person who repeatedly says they want to help ultimately assigns a somewhat more senior new hire—who is completely unwilling to communicate and, when communication fails, goes straight to their good friend (a certain manager)—to micromanage them.

After only two months on the job, I was criticized by a certain manager for having too little work. But when I asked, it turned out they had not actually thought about assigning any new work to me. The fact is that my original workload was already excessive.

If you’re lucky, you’ll meet colleagues who are easy to get along with.

After only a year at the company, I was tricked into taking an inexplicable position. The actual job responsibilities were completely different from what had originally been promised, and there was no avenue for appeal. Internal factional collusion is rampant, and there are many strange, outdated rules (usually imposed by senior management, who frequently change their orders and then blame employees for not following the rules and for performing poorly). Departments are openly hostile toward one another. If the sales department needs help from accounting, planning, art, engineering, or other departments, it’s best to have personal connections there; otherwise, you can expect to be berated endlessly while the task still doesn’t get done.

The company has no shortage of long-serving employees waiting to retire and workplace newcomers who are experts at dodging responsibility and shirking work. As a result, many capable people who are willing to work and learn leave after a short time because they can’t stand the excessive workload (one person often has to do more because those who don’t work simply refuse to do so), so the company is constantly hiring.

The company’s senior management has an inflated sense of self-importance and may demand that you handle strange tasks—or even tasks outside the scope of a workplace role—or you will be made to suffer at every turn. (I was once asked during work hours to go to my supervisor’s office and use the induction cooker, cookware, and ingredients that the supervisor had brought to cook a sesame-oil chicken hot pot for them. After finishing the cooking, I also had to immediately update my work progress; I was not allowed to let cooking the sesame-oil chicken affect my work progress.)

The company is profitable, the benefits are good, and the salary is average.

The facilities are outdated, and General Affairs is extremely stingy. Many pieces of equipment are left to deteriorate rather than being replaced. Once, a department's phone was damaged after a drink was spilled on it, but they still refused to replace it and insisted that the Engineering Department repair it. I think that phone was older than I am. Poor thing.

There are many cliques, and the system is very Japanese in style. There are more supervisors than subordinates, and the hierarchy is pronounced. Newcomers are pitiful and have endless work to do. Remember to get on the right people's good side.

There are many long-serving employees in the office, most of whom seem to have adopted a retirement mentality: “It’s best if nothing happens, and even if something does, don’t come to me.” When I resigned, the computer system encountered an error, and a supervisor in HR yelled at me and told me to contact the IT Department to handle it. I was truly stunned—it was as if that were my job.

You get to see many wealthy people every day, and the basement parking lot also has all kinds of luxury cars.

If you do only this job for your whole life, you will definitely never become wealthy. Even getting a loan to buy a domestically produced car is difficult with the meager salary.

Most people see the gap between themselves and the clients, suffer emotional distress, and resign.

At the time, the building manager's monthly salary was said to be NT$28,000, but NT$2,000 was forcibly deposited into a meal card and could not be withdrawn unless you resigned.

Promotion was extremely difficult because the organization did not have one position for every person; sometimes a department had only one section-level or manager-level position. For example, there might be only one manager or deputy manager. The positions of deputy section chief, section chief, deputy manager, and manager were not all filled. As a result, some senior employees still remained section leaders or deputy section chiefs even after their hair had turned white.

The turnover rate was usually highest at two stages: when newcomers were eliminated during their first year, and when employees became desperate and resigned after working for five years without being promoted to section leader.

Colleagues are around the same age, so it’s easy to get along.

If you really have to work overtime, you can claim overtime pay; they aren’t too strict about it (at least that was the case before).

The supervisor is very good at passing the buck. They may suddenly change things because of upper management’s ideas, but won’t notify the people below who are handling them.

The pay is very low: a take-home salary of 25K per month.

When you’re caught between graphic design, promotions, and front-of-house duties, the supervisor won’t step in to help; you have to figure things out yourself.

You have to tell vendors that we provide them with a lot of internal promotion, but external promotion (online) isn’t something we can offer. You have to find a way to persuade them to collaborate, preferably for free.

You can receive half a month’s salary during the anniversary celebration.

1. The Tienmu store forced an employee to resign during the probationary period (after working only nine days).

They did not ask you to hand over your work either, notifying you only at the very last moment before the end of your shift.

Vice President Chiu may deceive you by saying that this is not termination and that you will not have any unfavorable record.

Ms. Lin (Human Resources) will back this up by saying that this is normal procedure and that they are not terminating you—other such nonsense—and, together with the colleague training you (Ms. Yang), pressure you to write a voluntary resignation letter. Once you sign it, it is over, so be careful !!!!!!!!

Note: Under Taiwan’s current Labor Standards Act, there is no longer a probationary period. I have already confirmed with the Labor Bureau that this constitutes termination, and they should legally provide a certificate of involuntary resignation and severance pay.

2. The salary is structured as a combination: they tell you it is NT$29,000, but the actual base salary is only NT$26,000. Even after adding some bonuses, it is only a little over NT$27,000 per month.

3. The employee meals are unpleasant.

4. Overtime only counts after one hour after the end of the workday.

1. The benefits are great; perks like employee trips aren't offered by every company.

2. The atmosphere is lively.

The industry is becoming increasingly competitive.