A Personal View of Work Culture in Taiwan
I have been living in Taiwan for more than three years now. It is an amazing country. Overall, things are good. But the working culture over here leaves me flabbergasted until this very day. In fact, if there is one thing that makes me want to leave this country, it is the work culture in Taiwan.
I guess I was lucky to get my current position. But I did have some bad experiences until I got here. Last year, I already wrote about working in Taiwan. But this time, I want to take a different approach and give you an idea of what kind of working culture challenges you find in Taiwan.
This blog post is an exception. I usually write about Kinmen Island and traveling in Taiwan. However, this topic is important to me on a personal level. Also, I want to point out that everything in this blog is based on my personal experience alone: take it with a grain of salt.
Limited Exposure to Work Culture in Taiwan
I worked for four different Taiwanese companies and have now been with my current company for almost two years. Before that, I spent around 15 years working in Germany in various organizations. Mostly in PR and content marketing roles, and always in international companies.
Of course, I understood that I needed to adjust. Many expats work in completely different sectors. Larger Taiwanese companies often look for engineers and developers, for example. And most foreigners from “the west” married to Taiwanese partners that I have met either work as teachers or in sales. And some even manage to build up their own business.
I see myself as an “average guy.” A job should pay my bills, but money alone has never been my main motivation. I also value stability, respect, and opportunities to grow. In retrospect, that made me a bit naive, because I was not critical enough in my job search. I assumed that once I started working, I would naturally integrate.
Why I Am Struggling with Taiwan’s Work Culture
I quit two jobs in Taiwan because I could not deal with the working environment. I also went through many job interviews. After leaving my first job rather quickly (just a few days), I became much more critical during interviews and turned down several offers. Sometimes I even left mid-interview.
The main issue I have found is that the marketing directors hiring you often have no relevant marketing experience, especially when it comes to content marketing. This, combined with the complete dependency on your supervisor and the overall management culture in Taiwan, is a key challenge.
Of course, you can find unsuitable managers anywhere in the world. But I think Taiwanese companies stand out for their special middle management. C-level executives value loyalty and personal networks over skill. The managers I met lacked practical experience, as well as management and people skills. But they usually knew someone in the leadership team for a long time.
That is also the reason why I decided to always insist on a phone interview before having a meeting in person. And if I notice red flags, I choose to leave the interview, as mentioned. I mean, if your driving instructor tried to fuel the car with battery acid, you would leave that driving school too, right?
Your supervisor decides how your day is structured
Again, harsh words. And I do get that there is a stereotype of the overly direct German who has no hesitation about sharing his thoughts without much moderation. Maybe the inside of my head really does look like an Excel sheet. And maybe my thoughts do come with a built-in speakerphone function.
But seriously, none of the companies I worked for in the past had structured operational processes. The manager calls a weekly meeting, and that is it. No personal feedback, no jour fixes, no review. Or even worse, the manager tries to use a tool or a process that he/she does not understand.
One company had a weekly meeting scheduled, but it never had an agenda. If the manager shows up, he/she is the agenda. If she/he does not join, you have small talk and then leave. Sometimes someone cancelled the meeting. At best, it was highly inefficient due to the fact that no one had prepared anything. Like a two-hour meeting that could have been done in 20 minutes.
But when worse comes to worst, you sit there all day without a decision. Or the manager shames you or/and/or your colleagues in front of everyone with a lot of shouting and blaming.
Work outside of Office Hours is Part of the Working Culture
It often happens that you get called without any preparation. One of my managers at the time even once called me at 8:00 AM while I was still at home and ordered me to be at the Taipei office by 8:30 AM. Our workday usually starts at 9:00 AM. I rushed to the office and made it in time, thinking there must be a serious situation. But when I arrived, no one was there. I messaged my supervisor, and he/she called again and asked me to carry his/her bag from the office to the train station as soon as possible.
I met him/her there, and we took the train from Taipei to the Hsinchu office together. And then? Well, nothing. Nothing was prepared. My colleagues did not even make it to the train station in time due to the short notice. My supervisor called them as well and shouted at them. I said in the lunch room of the office and continued working on my laptop. My supervisor messed up, but in Taiwan, you do not dare to say that. My point is that your supervisor in Taiwan can do such things to the employees anytime, anywhere.
Management Culture in Taiwanese Companies
Of course, this would not be an issue if your manager were competent and understood that such practices do not sit well with anyone. But many of the managers I met in my previous companies, and during interviews, lacked real experience and skills. Their LinkedIn profiles looked polished, but in practice, they turned out to be bogus.
This is a bold statement for someone who just called himself an “average guy.” In my other blog post about working in Taiwan, I mentioned several awkward situations that led me to this conclusion. But just to give two examples of how childish things can become:
One of my former supervisors once requested a press release for an upcoming event. I drafted it, as I always did for events. Yet out of nowhere, he/she canceled it. The marketing director claimed he/she had never asked for the release in the first place. This was despite having requested it in an email and in two separate meetings. But in Taiwan, the boss is always right.
Another experience was the claim of a marketing director who said he/she had single-handedly implemented Salesforce. I was part of a CRM migration once, and it took a team of developers, product owners, and marketers several months to get APIs working, migrate contracts, move customer data, and fix bugs. But this director claimed to have done all of that alone.
Work Culture Shock: How to Get Promoted in Taiwan
Maybe I am just unlucky and have met the wrong managers, or it is just the normal marketing madness. After all, I pointed out that I am happy now, right? Well, I am convinced that this is also part of the broader working culture in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese companies generally do not value marketing. It is often viewed as a the department that wastes money. On the other hand, sales is the department that brings in revenue, for example.
As a result, senior-level marketing managers are rarely expected to show a real track record. They can simply claim they have the experience. Also, do not expect a pay rise or a seat in decision-making just because you perform well. Within all the companies I interviewed with (around 10 during my first job search), there is no real performance evaluation for marketing roles. What matters far more is knowing how to bond with managers and executives. Show loyalty, or even better, have a personal relationship, and you can get promoted.
A marketing director position is often a convenient spot for a friend of an investor or another stakeholder. From a C-level perspective, it is not considered critical, and it becomes an easy way to return a favor to a business buddy.
I feel that such favoritism is embedded in Taiwan’s work culture. For example, I once organized a retrospective at a former employer to review the previous quarter. When we discussed the question “What worked well?”, half the staff simply wrote down the supervisor’s name to demonstrate loyalty. In fact, employees are expected to protect and cover for their manager, even when that manager fails.
False Stereotypes of Working Culture in Taiwan
There are a few aspects of Taiwan’s work culture that I expected before coming here, but that I actually cannot confirm. The first is a heavy workload and unreasonable overtime. I never experienced either. On one hand, the lack of structure sometimes means you spend days just sitting around. On the other hand, aside from trade shows, I never had to stay late. And I feel my workload is reasonable. None of my supervisors ever monitored when I arrived or left the office.
I try to do meaningful work, but I have learned that you have to be careful when talking to a supervisor. They call you, not the other way around. I am still trying to find the balance.
On one hand, I want to act proactively, but that also means I sometimes do work in vain because management is not interested. On the other hand, I am still learning to accept that KPIs, OKRs, and quantitative targets are generally less of a priority in Taiwan. That is unusual for marketing, of course.
I also feel that the language barrier is much less of an issue in the office. It exists, but more so when trying to make Taiwanese friends, applying for a driver’s license, and so on. If you bring skills to the table, you can find a job in Taiwan.
Working Culture in Taiwan Is More Similar Than You Think
You will face the general struggles of the “working man,” as I would call it. Those contribute to my challenge of adapting to the Taiwanese labor market. For example, in the first draft of a new job contract, HR denied me the legally required minimum annual leave. PTO in Taiwan is already small, but they actually tried to have me sign a contract with no paid leave at all. Not because they are Taiwanese, but because HR departments around the world stand united in their mission to protect employers. Not job applicants and not employees.
And yes, the recruiting hell exists in Taiwan, too. Be prepared for recruiters to downplay your experience and skills. For instance, despite having an English blog and travel vlog, I was told my English was not good enough. I was also informed that I lacked management experience and content-creation skills, of course. But the company was generous and still made me an offer with a low-ball salary. They use every possible argument to push you into a desperate position.
And of course, you will meet coworkers. I have met some of the most positive, diligent people in Taiwan. Folks who go the extra mile every single day. Colleagues you want to work with, really undervalued people. On the other hand, you will also find weirdos of all kinds.
How to Deal With the Working Culture in Taiwan
I cannot offer a magic solution to these problems. Personally, I have become more willing to leave a company if necessary. I also tried accepting things, swallowing frustrations, and coping with predictable failures while staying out of trouble. Sometimes issues do get resolved, but if they do, it usually happens quietly and without acknowledgment.
I have started to be more straightforward and confident, as well. For example, I now take a critical look at a company’s website and content before applying. I also ask about KPIs, tech stacks, and day-to-day operations. Many Taiwanese companies have terrible websites, and it is no surprise their marketing teams generate almost no leads.
Leaving also includes moving out of the country, as mentioned at the beginning. If I end up losing my current job, I would probably prefer to leave Taiwan rather than go through the stressful experience I had. Thank you so much for reading this long article. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn and share your feedback.
Leave a Reply