[quote=“headhonchoII”]Goose part of the problem is that most employers don’t give paid leave for the first year and then it starts at 7 days (or 5?) for the second year.
So you are stuck using unpaid leave.[/quote]
You are right. When I asked my HR Director about our Leave Policy, she pointed out to me what you said and that our company was unusual because we provided paid leave for new hires from Day 1 (she’s relatively new to the company and has mentioned to me several times how a lot of our company policies are “unusually” generous - I’m now afraid she’s going to “fix” them 
)
Yes this is often a good way for a new HR director to score brownie points with management. I see paid leave starting from day 1 at a growing number of foreign and taiwanese companies who are the better sort of employer.
Some local companies are really intransigent about this point. I was discussing a position a while back and the salary and bonus were pretty good given its Taiwan, but they didn’t seem prepared to budge on the leave.
If they had given me more generous holiday leave I would most likely have joined them at the time, they just don’t get it that people can have better options sometimes.
They usually resort to the old ‘we abide by Taiwan’s labour law’ ditty…then you know it’s going to be a hard fight 
.
This poor chap is learning the hard way how many local managers operate.
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtop … 1&t=125107
FFS