Experience with a small Taiwanese company [Warning]

[quote=“yeti”]
Seriously though, haven’t these buffoons worked out the megalomaniac approach just loses all their best staff?[/quote]

Well… The ‘largest’ translation company in Taiwan has been doing just that for many years now. They never caught on. And it shows. :laughing:

No.

When asked if the loss of a very good assistant wasn’t a reason to worry, I was told that “we just hire somebody else, no problem”.

That’s the local attitude.

I think that is :loco:

In my experience, they preferred to lose their staff after one year (workers were intimidated into signing illegal one-year contracts), as otherwise they might start demanding outrageous things like a slight pay raise or a couple of days off. New recruits would never be so presumptuous.

This thread is so full of stereotyping its frightening.

A fair swag of foreigners (or at least those not sent here on expat packages) end up working for smaller Taiwan companies more often than they would work for similar companies back in their home country. From this, they garner conclusions based on small unrepresentative samples. This is stereotyping as far as I am concerned. Yes He and santoine got screwed, but to turn these personal experiences - no matter how painful - into sweeping statements about the overall state of Taiwan industry is mad.

I was totally screwed by a small Oz professional services firm, does this mean the entire Oz economy is inefficent and f#cked? Erm, no of course not.

Hey, could we jsut keep this to foreign experiences in smaller local firms?

Not that I don’t like Burma, BUT…

I lived that life. Almost the exact same thing… including a co-worker who would try to sabotage progress so he could spend six months playing on the internet and downloading porn. The Taiwanese don’t seem to fire people as much as relegate the bad ones to some useless position until they drift away…leaving an office full of uselss baddies. I was also asked to help a co-worker start up a clandestine venture to under-cut the boss…all operated from within the company.
Tell your boss the situation and if nothing comes about then leave.

The problem was the boss…

Good idea. For reference: [url=Warning: "Interface Global" “Interface Global”[/url]

I think the problem with smaller local firms here is mainly the family-style managment. The company is based on the family moral but not the logical management. I worked with this fast growing firm for a year, it was totally a family business to me as they truely dont expect anyone who doesnt belong to the family would stay. Although they claimed that they are going “internationally” but the owner doesnt even trust the VP they hire, any tiny entertainment bill or stationary request must be approved by the owner, no management at all.

Well, its sad to realize that there are just MANY family-owned companies here in Taiwan, and this small firms are the ones who created economy for Taiwan…

What’s up with the umlauts over the "

[quote=“LM”]I think the problem with smaller local firms here is mainly the family-style managment. The company is based on the family moral but not the logical management. I worked with this fast growing firm for a year, it was totally a family business to me as they truely dont expect anyone who doesnt belong to the family would stay. Although they claimed that they are going “internationally” but the owner doesnt even trust the VP they hire, any tiny entertainment bill or stationary request must be approved by the owner, no management at all.

Well, its sad to realize that there are just MANY family-owned companies here in Taiwan, and this small firms are the ones who created economy for Taiwan…[/quote]

The some of the MNC’s here are becoming “localized” themselves. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Twittiness in business settings abounds across all cultures. Some in Taiwan are just a bit more exasperating than what is normally found say in North American companies. I’m building a library full of them – my Dilbert Winners - Taiwan style and Idiot awards.

[quote=“TommySmarts”]What’s up with the umlauts over the "

[quote=“lsieh”][quote=“LM”]I think the problem with smaller local firms here is mainly the family-style managment. The company is based on the family moral but not the logical management. I worked with this fast growing firm for a year, it was totally a family business to me as they truely dont expect anyone who doesnt belong to the family would stay. Although they claimed that they are going “internationally” but the owner doesnt even trust the VP they hire, any tiny entertainment bill or stationary request must be approved by the owner, no management at all.

Well, its sad to realize that there are just MANY family-owned companies here in Taiwan, and this small firms are the ones who created economy for Taiwan…[/quote]

The some of the MNC’s here are becoming “localized” themselves. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Twittiness in business settings abounds across all cultures. Some in Taiwan are just a bit more exasperating than what is normally found say in North American companies. I’m building a library full of them – my Dilbert Winners - Taiwan style and Idiot awards.[/quote]

Isieh, Look forward to sharing the Dilbert Winners library! :bravo: :slight_smile:

[quote]What’s up with the umlauts over the "

The biggest problem in the small Taiwanese company I work for is the boss’ wife who is our receptionist, head of adminstration and “financial controller”.
In particular the latter makes it often difficult to get things done because they usually cost money, and working in a high-tech industry they cost a lot of money. As well I normally choose quality / functionality etc. over lower price, a concept that people here don’t really seem to comprehend.
But I can’t talk to my boss about her views on those things as I would about someone whom he is not directly related to. I usually can convince him though, but I find her “concerns” highly annoying as I always have to explain the reasons for choosing one over the other in detail (which often is beyond her comprehension if it involves technical stuff).

Generally speaking they are quite stingy, in particular when it involves the well-being of the employees, though they treat me otherwise well, better than the locals I would say. (I am the only wai guo ren here.)

i have no real complaints about small local businesses here… the only annoying thing I have found so far is that the project meetings and mass-e-mails are held in Chinese…although everyone understands english…but its kind of hard to expect them to hold it in english for just one person… :s I have done a pretty good job so far of not falling asleep during the meetings, hopefully it lasts.

I would think even in N. America many small mom & pop operations are family businesses, hence the term mom & pop, so I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing, no real generalizations can be made on that one factor as it differs from company to company, but I can defenitely feel for the person having to deal with the owner/bosses wife as it must feel quite frustrating and intimidating at times.

[quote=“iris”] KL

I know you are not making it up. KLuB that is a joke!!!

I remember that my g/f never believed how this company was until she visited me one day and seen how people are in there. I think the words she used where “what is wrong with them, they seem dead”

This is there advert on 104: 104.com.tw/cfdocs/2000/job20 … 4366312000

You have been WARNED

well if they are so bad then how are they staying in busineess? or are they to be soon out of business?