台灣娜珂黛肌美容事業有限公司

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1. The supervisor is in Japan and is Chinese. They are extremely emotional, speak without thinking, and shift the blame to subordinates whenever problems arise.

2. The company sells sleepwear and tells customers that items cannot be returned but can be exchanged. In reality, customers can return them if they contact the Consumer Protection Council. Returned or exchanged items are rolled with a lint roller and then put up for sale on an online platform.

3. Being understaffed and working overtime are the norm. The scheduled finishing time is 6:30 p.m., but new employees can usually only leave around 7:30 p.m.; experienced employees need not be mentioned—they leave around 9:00 p.m.

4. There are occasional group dinners, with a budget of around 200 per person. Because of the pandemic, these dinners are held in the meeting room. Since the supervisor is in Japan, everyone connects remotely and has to accompany the supervisor in singing online with an app (全民K歌) and playing Pictionary-style games to compare scores. It is extremely awkward, but the experienced employees enthusiastically play along and become completely absorbed in it. Each time, it usually lasts until after 9:30 p.m.

5. As for the challenges of the work itself... I don't think there really are any. The company makes it sound good, saying that everyone can express their opinions, but in reality, suggestions are often refuted after being raised. Most of the work involves customer service, dealing with difficult customers and the like. Because of the staff shortage, customer service takes up most of the working hours, while inventory management is not systematized either; receiving times and quantities are calculated manually, which is extremely inefficient.

6. The company environment is relatively bright, but there is no cleaning staff, so employees basically need to maintain the cleanliness themselves.

7. There is no overtime pay. The supervisor even said: “Wouldn’t some things be done if you just worked a little overtime?”

Overall, it is a company that wastes your life. I strongly advise against joining.

Because I personally do not like jobs without any challenges, I really appreciate that the company gives people opportunities to learn and create their own value. It is very fulfilling to learn new things while also contributing to the company’s growth.

Salaries are adjusted twice a year, and each increase is fairly substantial. The specific amount is mainly based on an evaluation of one’s attitude and performance. Employees can rate themselves, and their supervisors also provide ratings; the results are considered together to determine the level of the salary increase. The rules for this process are very clear.

The work atmosphere involves everyone discussing and solving problems together. No one has to take on all the responsibility alone; team members help one another.

The company values personality and attitude more than work ability. No one is treated differently for not knowing how to do something or for lacking experience.

There is a bonus when the team achieves its performance targets (I think the amount is quite generous).

Although I am a junior employee, I can share my ideas at any time, and there is a lot of room to make an impact. Compared with passively receiving instructions, there are many opportunities to come up with ideas independently.

The learning approach is mostly learning by doing, so at the beginning it is easy to be afraid of making mistakes or heading in the wrong direction.

The work is not clearly divided, so employees need to be responsible for different types of tasks.

The Taiwan office does not have its own human resources or general affairs departments; these functions are handled by employees of the Japanese company.

There are no bonuses for the three traditional festivals.

During the pandemic, the workload suddenly increased, and employees had to work overtime continuously under a responsibility-based work system. The company’s response and recruitment of additional staff were not very prompt, and the issue was only resolved after working from home ended.

Many work methods are still being adjusted and tested, so employees need to adapt.

Academic qualifications are not particularly important in the company’s hiring decisions. For each type of business, employees are guided only by people with experience; there are no true specialists leading the work. For example, customer service responses often rely on judgment based on experience, and there are no standard answers.

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It is a company with virtually no systems or established procedures.

Although it is normal for smaller companies to have less-developed systems than larger companies, this company essentially has no systems at all.

The company sells Japanese good-night lingerie.

First, regarding the overall atmosphere: Japanese companies place great importance on the company atmosphere, so on the surface everything does indeed look peaceful and harmonious, but there are actually many problems⋯

The headquarters is in Tokyo, Japan. There is no manager in Taiwan; the manager is a Chinese employee based in Tokyo and is not in Taiwan.

The Mainland Chinese manager is rather self-centered and does not listen to others’ opinions. Despite the lack of manpower, the company is unwilling to hire more people and unwilling to spend more money optimizing its systems and operations. Many tasks have to be handled using forms. The work itself is not difficult⋯but the operating system has limited functionality, so many things have to be entered manually. Internally, the company is divided into part-time workers and full-time employees, and the work allocation is extremely chaotic. Full-time employees routinely work overtime until eight or nine o’clock.

There are no clear SOPs for customer service or other processes. There is one long-term CS employee in Taiwan who has been there for more than three years. This person is rather emotional, and the handling of customer returns and exchanges depends entirely on this employee’s mood.

There is some workplace bullying. For example, new employees may be asked why they did something or what they were thinking when doing it even when they did nothing wrong (they followed the instructed work procedures but were still questioned). The company’s philosophy is never to give up on employees and to require them to think independently, but in reality, all work still has to be done according to the ideas of the long-term employee mentioned above, and so on. There are many similar situations, making it feel as though your hands are constantly tied when trying to get things done.

In terms of benefits, strictly speaking, there are almost none⋯you do not have to make up work when others do (this is the only benefit I have encountered so far), and there are health checkups (but they were postponed because of the pandemic, and the decision to postpone them was also up to the long-term employee mentioned above, since there is no manager in Taiwan).

As for salary adjustments, there is no probationary period after joining the company, so there is no salary adjustment after the probationary period either. You can only follow the company’s annual salary adjustment schedule in April and October.