8 hours only: firm calls time on office taboo

Sunny Han routinely worked more than 12 hours a day at Asustek Computer to manage the Taiwanese PC maker's marketing and publicity machine. He would often leave the office after 10pm, joining throngs of white-collar workers in Taipei and other Asian cities where, while the written rules call for eight-hour shifts, the unspoken rule is to show loyalty by staying into the night.

The issue of overwork in Taiwan is a hot topic now, catalysing protests by labour groups to draw attention to fatigue, illness and the suspected death last year of an IT company employee. Plus, Taiwanese companies rarely pay overtime. The government's Council of Labour Affairs has pledged more oversight.

Han, after nine years at Asustek, left in 2008 to join TeamChem, inventor and producer of conductive film, solder mass and other materials for mobile phones. The small firm has NT$30 million (HK$8 million) in annual revenue. It's profitable and has a surprisingly low staff turnover rate for a hi-tech company.

Todd Yeh, who founded the company in 2001 and named it TeamChem to emphasise teamwork and team spirit, had knocked off daily at about 5pm when he worked for a materials firm in the United States.

He and Han, TeamChem's general manager, make their 17 employees quit at 5.30pm each day to ensure they report to work the next day with the energy to excel in their research, development and factory jobs. The workers arrive at 8am and get a one-hour lunch break. Quitting time is 5pm, and they get half an hour's grace to leave the building.

Yeh, who is chairman of the company, follows suit to make sure he's at his creative best the next day. And Han, interviewed below, leaves at the same hour to spend some quality time with his four-year-old son.