beware 'steve in taiwan'.
i did a tv commercial thru him and never got paid.

Did you at least get some peanuts?

bobepine

Hmmmmmm.... Peanuts.....

Most Taiwanese I know are called Andy. So it should be easy to distinguish this one from the others...

How long has it been? Sometimes it takes a couple months to get paid from commercials. The agent is the last person to be paid. While some agencies have investors who help the agency to promptly pay the talents, some agencies don't. And these have to wait for their pay before you can get yours.
If you went though Steve (directly through) and not through an agency, then you likely need to wait for him to be paid. Which can take months.

And it's exactly this type of sloppy, slovenly BS that's going to hold Taiwan back as an economy. The concept of paying on time is not grasped by too many Taiwanese. Back home in modern, developed countries, if someone says they're going to pay on the 5th, they're going to pay on the 5th - not this, "Oh! I forgot to go to the bank today!" ?! Imagine if back home at some business the boss just "forgets" to pay his employees on payday. He'd have to quell a riot. But here, people just meekly accept it as normal. Not even the Taiwan government can get its act together and pay employees on time - I'm working for a public high school now, and they say, "We don't know exactly when we'll get your pay to you. It depends on the effeciency of cutting through the red tape. Maybe one or two months from now, you will get paid." Again - it is crazy to expect people to wait two months overdue just to get paid the money owed them. It creates a vicious cycle of late payments - y'know, if I don't get my salary, I have to tell my landlord I can't pay my rent until two months from now, which pisses him off. All because the sloppy, slovenly morons who typically run Taiwanese businesses can't be bothered to do their proper paperwork - y'know, do their job - and pay me when I'm supposed to be paid. This kind of crap would be totally unacceptable in most developed economies, and if Taiwanese continue to take such a devil may care attitude towards punctuality, then Taiwan will never become a truly developed economy. The careless, "chabuduo, mei guanxi," unprofessional, slacker attitude towards their work, and everything else in life - "mei guanxi", which I suspect translates as "who cares?" is their philosophy of life.

gee, you must have been lucky

I know plenty (and have worked for a few) Australian and US companies that havent paid on time, have forgotten to do the banking etc etc. Its an SME issue. If their clients dont pay on time then often they cant pay on time. Its sloppy business practice, not sloppy Taiwan only business practice.

e.g. one former boss owes US$100's of 1000's to former employees in back salary, expenses etc.

often, no, actually, VERY often clients dont pay on time (the 5th as you put it). Suppliers push for extensions to pay etc etc.

currently I am working for a company full of driven, inspired individuals both foreign and taiwanese alike. mod lang, your generalisations about taiwanese work practices are a little over the top.

Then ...


Sir, step out of the vee-hick-el. License and registration please.

Huh?

Mr. AWOL, do you know why I've stopped you today? Well, your message exceeded the PC limit. Yep, that's right.

Is that right? Well, I had no idea.

Sir, you know that companies in western countries pay their employees on time as a rule, that everyone expects it, and some of those same countries even set the practical standard for global punctuality. Furthermore, you know that as a rule, this does not occur in Taiwan.

Well, officer, now that you put it that way ...

Ok, Sir, have a nice day. Drive safely.

I'm not talking about clients and suppliers in the business trade chain. That is expected in that industry. I'm talking about normal, salaried (or hourly) employees at companies.

If you work for the government, is it standard practice for them to say that they don't know when they're going to pay you? The Australian government is regularly two months late with its pay to employees?

I have been working in the entertainment industry for 20 years. And no matter which country my ass has been unfortunate to land in, payments were late.
In this case it is not a matter of a busted ass country, it is a matter of a busted ass industry.

Don't get me wrong, it is a busted ass industry that I LOVE. But damned if it isn't one hell of a busted ass industry.
So that is why I say, in this case don't blame the Steve. And don't blame the Taiwan. Blame the job.