Career Perspective (5) — The Ethical Fading Workplace In Taiwan

Since the 1970-ish, the Taiwanese economy started flying high , that was the time when the small and medium enterprises established. However, in the previous year, building your small company or factory at home was the proper way to boost your business with a low budget. This phenomenon had been teased and called the “family entrepreneur”due to those businessmen who ruined the balance between their work-life and their family hour. That was also the view you wouldn’t miss on the street back in the day. During that period, it was the golden era for the business development of the Taiwanese economy dynamic.

Nowadays, the “family factory” has expanded into the individual factory from those that remain and last since then. For some of the companies with ethical fading culture, we call it the “traditional family company” in a teasing way too. Moreover, the scale expanded and the unethical culture remains, therefore the junior generation runs the company and the senior generation still manipulate the company with the “Responsibility “culture. This refers to the fact that the legal company would run illegally and is the key to gain more profit. Hence, the company won’t pay to complete your overloaded job duty. Because it is your responsibility to finish your job.

The way of running a company like that has unveiled the first chapter of an ethical fading culture in the society. Things like that also happen in other countries in several ways, such as the 996 in China or after-work drinking in Japan. The value also helps those ethical fading companies to not complete the enterprise social responsibility and obligation of taking care of employees as follows the government required. As long as hiring staff with the minimum wage or multi-tasks staff, that is an achievement for the human resource department and the family who owns the company.

Small and medium enterprises are the engines of growth and innovation in the economy. However, ethical lapses can occur anywhere. That allows people to act in unethical ways to promote their interests, often at the expense of others. As long as they can hit the target on a quarterly basis, they don’t care how employees are treated. That explains why the employee turnover rate never goes down in particular companies. Because they will hire new staff after you are wrung to be dry like a towel and ultimately decide to leave. The sad thing is it seems like as the culture has already accepted this in the society since a long time ago.