慈恩園寶塔諴業股份有限公司

At lunchtime, you are not allowed to go out and can only order a boxed meal. Even when going to the restroom, someone accompanies you.

I saw an advertisement in the newspaper recruiting customer service and store trainee management positions. When I went for the interview, they told me there was a base salary but did not tell me how much it was. After reporting for work, they told me that I had to take an exam four days later and pass it to become a formal employee. At first, I thought I would give it a try, but it turned out that I was constantly memorizing their materials, activities, and products. They would not let me do anything else. You might think this was great—getting paid without having to do anything—but the real ordeal came later: one oral and written test after another, one hurdle after another. After passing the exam four days later, they asked me to sign an agreement stating that I would automatically resign after 15 days and receive no pay. They told me that within 15 days I had to sell one item worth NT$210,000. Strangely, I had applied for a customer service position, so why did I also have to meet sales targets? Their explanation was that this was the only way to find out whether I understood. I see. They said that if I did not pass the assessment within 15 days, I could not answer calls, because there would be incoming calls through the 0800 number. They told me how good it was to be a formal employee and that there were resources, so I would not have to worry about sales performance. Strange—I applied for customer service. Wasn’t it supposed to be at a store? Did this mean I had to go out and solicit sales? Perhaps they would ask me to develop connections—meaning finding relatives and friends to buy. As for where the store was, they gave me an address that was still under renovation (it is now 2013, and that address still has not opened). So, within 15 days, you had to grow quickly. During this period, a designated person accompanied you, you always ate boxed meals, and you could not go out to eat because they were afraid you would run away. Every day they criticized your clothing and appearance. You had to pay for work clothes, get a haircut, and spend money on stationery. Every day consisted of looking at materials and being brainwashed. If you asked questions about your own rights, such as the base salary or bonuses, they would tell you that you were not yet a formal employee, so you had no right and no need to know. If you could not sell it within 15 days, you could not become a formal employee. In short, I never received any money; all that intensive studying beforehand was useless, and I was really angry. Believe me, it felt terrible. I was too kind and did not report them to the labor bureau. I am really angry. You had to sell one end-of-life contract plus a pagoda package worth NT$210,000 within 15 days. Suppose you worked for a month and earned NT$30,000—but the problem is that there was no NT$30,000 base salary; it was only NT$14,000. NT$210,000 divided by NT$14,000 equals 15 months. If you quit within those 15 months, it meant you had worked for nothing. So, newspaper recruitment = company sales performance = free labor for the company. Moreover, the company even sent out part-time workers specifically to create webpages to whitewash the company’s negative publicity.