After a fashion. But not.
Sorry, I get that now.
Yes. Self employed. Looooong hours and hard, but truly love it. know many foreigners who are self run with similar attitude. Frankly, same as locals. freedom is nicer but harder.
Almost all of them love the job. I don’t think many people decide to fly just to pay the bills because, well, it doesn’t pay that well especially in consideration of what they have to do on a daily basis (being responsible for 300 lives sounds rough). So they might love the job but not the compensation.
Running your own business doesn’t mean you are free either. That’s comes with a lot of responsibilities and stresses and limits on time. The most free people are those who don’t need to work for a living.
Sure, definitelynot. but I was saying freedom, not free. it’s way harder and obviously more responsibility, but self employed has freedoms (as in being the boss/decision maker) that being an employee just doesnt come close to.
I couldnt ever work for the typical companies in my field. just based on ethics, never mind down time and benefits.
Many people have quite easy jobs and plenty of time off to follow their hobbies. So freedom is a varied concept.
Plus once a business fails you can be in deep doo doo. All depends on the finances. Ever know anybody with debts in Taiwan from a failed business?
Let me tell you it can be brutal. Gangsters following the family for years.
i knew a foreign guy used to love give the spiel about being an entrepeneur blah blah, following the dreams, doing his own thing, talking how great he was, his business failed and he skipped town overnight leaving his debts here and a bad rep for the rest of us.
That’s true. so I i only speak for how i choose to organize my work and company. i am very happy here. i was miserable in canada running business there. at the end of the day, i suppose the benefit of being self employed are choices. choices not seen when working for someone else. we are free to fail as well 
Yes you are free to fail in Taiwan but its not like Canada or the US , they send the local hoodlums after you here if you owe money. The banks will even sell the debt to debt collection companies that use gangsters. I was threatened by those gangsters once (not my debt but whatever…).
Anyway I agree we should talk on an invidiuval basis of our own motivations and circumstances, generalisations don’t work very well.
We have the hell’s Angel’s where I am from. bad business decisions and stupid lending practices happened there too. that’s where I learned not to do that, so when I came to Taiwan I was well aware not to be so naive. everyone learns once, I’m not sure that is really too unique to Taiwan. though it certainly is common here. But I put the blame on the person borrowing money from such places. That’s just common sense really. That is to say, usually easy to avoid. the US sells debt as well. i find it better here to be honest, as far as proper banks.
as for normal businesses, I find it quite happy here. bad decisions end badly. good decisions end goodly. try to make more good ones and dont get greedy. no shame.in taking it slow and steady. for me anyways. but I dont like stress and bullshit, so I risk very little.
Yep agree 100% . Hows the weather in Taitung, nice breeze here in KHH.
Worked an office job in Finance at a multinational in Taiwan, enjoyed the work but the long hours and backwards culture made it less fulfilling.
Invaluable experience and had the opportunity to do new things that I had not done before in a professional context.
Once the ceiling of progression was hit and life in Taiwan started getting a bit meh (For me it was 5 years of living there) I moved.
There were a lot of Taiwanese arrested in Europe, doing calling scame. I think many were forced to pay debt their families have in Taiwan.
How probably this goes in Taiwan is, banks sell debt (for lower rate) to debtors, who operate in gray area and they ask back for original price + their service fee?
I didn’t have bancrupty with business, but business partners owned me cash. I got part of this money back with external assistance. We worked like crazy, 400 hous per month, you have to postpone salaries, than pay it from your pocket. We provided IT apps, B to B, and as well B to C. We’re pushed out of business. A bit of politics mix with our stupidity. We have never show proper gratitude to big bosses, looking back. Neither had resources to compete with stronger, bigger teams. At one time we could sell it for few millions and I would walked away with a million. Sooner or later most business fail. Yes you can grow, however with more people, more problems. Being able to cash out is super important skill. But ego gets involve, we can do this on our own la la la Funny thing I learn programming after it.
Having office job is playing life on easy mode. I have 25 paid days off, plus sick leave. Work like 35 hours weekly. Could get loan, maternity leave, there will be humble public pension.
It’s really life on easy mode
strong UV. am in Ktown now though, hot n sticky, but less sunburn. the freedom in work allows me to schedule a mountain run tomorrow and enjoy the teens/low 20s for the afternoon 
Slow and painful as they may be, there are numerous reasons I tend to stick with Bank of Taiwan in modern day society 
I found that too. The first 5 years was great, after became meh. But I’m like that anywhere I live so…
Moving cities every so often helped.
Being responsible for people’s lives is a negative factor in job satisfaction? What about medical personnel? Do they all hate their job?
Besides with pilots if they fail at their job they die with everyone else so it’s not like they’d feel the guilt afterwards.
I’ve experienced burnout before. Now I work a salaried job and I have a great work/life balance.
The “secret” is simple - discuss overtime expectations in the interview. There’s often an unspoken rule that you’ll work unpaid overtime - best to make it explicit in the interview that you won’t ever do that. Then it’s their choice to hire you or not on this basis.
If you consider major stress a negative job aspect, yes? Difference is at least doctors get paid better
Depends. Much like pilots and lawyers are all different, so are medical personnel