Employers struggle to retain personnel as wage stagnation exacerbates early retirement, and the appeal of flexible work drives young people away from offices.

The 45-minute daily MRT commute to Guandu was finally too much for Steven Lin, a Taipei native whose retirement at age 55 caught many of his co-workers and managers by surprise. Many wondered why Lin would give up his stable, comfortable job as a translator at the Tzu Chi Humanitarian and Culture Center.

Publicly Lin says his decision was based on needing more time to care for his aging parents. Like many his age, he is part of a demographic that has been described as the “sandwich generation,” squeezed between the twin challenges of caring for elderly parents and looking after their own children.

In private, however, Lin admits that two decades of wage stagnation have left workers like him searching for alternative income streams. He began investing in stocks, mutual funds, and bonds 10 years ago. Nowadays, his investments provide him with an income stream on par with his previous salary, making the decision of early retirement all the easier.

“I was inspired by a financial analyst on TV who said owning 700 lots of shares in a domestic bank like Mega Financial Holdings could provide him enough income to live on,” he says. “This opened my eyes, and I began thinking about making some investments to retire early.”

Apart from investments, the rise of the gig economy and part-time jobs – or “side hustles” – has made it easier than ever for workers to drop out of the rat race. And among those staying in the workplace, more workers are participating in what the media has called “quiet quitting.” Despite its name, quiet quitting doesn’t involve quitting at all, but is more about only performing tasks within the scope of your role during scheduled hours.

Lin says he’s fortunate that his parents can cover their own expenses, though he still provides his two children attending university with a monthly stipend of NT$10,000 each. He believes education is worthwhile, himself the holder of a master’s degree in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia.

During his professional career, Lin has mostly worked for one employer as a Chinese-to-English translator for publications and TV programs. Apart from slight heart arrhythmia, his health has been quite good and not a reason for leaving the workforce early – the median retirement age in Taiwan stands at 62.3 for men and 59.7 for women, according to the Ministry of Labor.

“When I told my co-workers that I was retiring, many were surprised,” says Lin. “But they told me that they also wanted to retire and were quite jealous. Some may feel more pressure because my work needs to be shared with them.”

About a month into his retirement, and after a series of departure lunches and dinners, Lin says he feels at ease with his decision and enjoys spending time as he pleases.

A different path

While retiring workers can sit back and relax, the same cannot be said for young people, many of whom feel desolate about extensive work hours, insufficient wages, and repressive management. Some young people in Asia are opting out of the workforce by “lying flat” (躺平). This phenomenon, which involves avoiding work and maintaining the lowest possible standard of living, has been described as fueled by disillusionment with social media posts of fancy dinners and extravagant vacations.

But the main reason prompting many young people to opt out of traditional career paths may be more devious: far from being disillusioned with riches and wealth, many have been enticed by the promise of easy money through self-employment and investments.

“I think millennials and Generation Z are being lured into a false economy,” says Andrew Klerck, founder of the organization Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs. “They think that building a website and selling something like brownies can allow them to just sit back and watch the money roll in. Now there are more online courses allowing one to become a yoga instructor or free-dive instructor, and even online MBAs. This can give many a false sense of achievement.”

An important eye-opener for Klerck was a survey his organization recently carried out online, asking entrepreneurs to note their “light bulb” moment or the book that inspired them to start their own business. To Klerk’s surprise, the title with the most votes was The 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. As an avid reader of business management books, Klerk was amused but not surprised that the public would give preference to an author who dedicates a chapter to “outsourcing life.”

Klerck has even seen similar bravado displayed at entrepreneurial networking and happy hour events. “Someone will say that ‘I’m making US$200,000 from an e-commerce platform.’ And then they all try to outdo each other, which perpetuates the myth that there is an easy life out there. The truth is they are still all sharing a studio apartment.”

While the braggadocio of others may mislead people to believe that running a business in the internet era is an easy feat, an even more volatile pull is cryptocurrency, with many boasting about astronomical annual returns on their crypto investments.

As part of his efforts to help entrepreneurs, Klerck maintains a Facebook page with moderated discussions where visitors can gain vital information about everything from hiring an accounting firm and registering a business to declaring bankruptcy.

“The group takes a lot of time,” he says. “We have nine moderators and fact-check. It takes two moderators to evaluate each discussion as I want a healthy and clean page and no one expressing frustration through the keyboard.”

Klerck currently manages four business enterprises in Taiwan. Surprisingly, closing or winding down businesses is his forte; he first came to Taiwan as a bankruptcy specialist for international accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

“I closed 400 businesses in one year,” he says. “And not one had a value under US$2 million in business. About one-third [of the closures] were associated with COVID, but others had other fundamental problems. Basically, I don’t want people to fail. I don’t want to see someone grind for five years and lose their life savings. It can be small things that cause businesses to fail, but I would say that 99% of the time, it is people doing too much. Delegating is the most important skill [in business].” 

Still, self-employment is a viable option for many. For those considering venturing into the world of entrepreneurship, the first step is registering a business. This can be done easily with the help of a local accounting firm that will also charge a modest monthly fee.

Membership at a coworking space – either for a flexible hot desk at around NT$4,000-6,000, a dedicated desk at NT$7,000, or a dedicated office at around NT$10,000 – brings attractive benefits for small businesses. In addition to providing network opportunities and a sense of community, coworking spaces come with the perk of qualifying as a registered business address, which can confer tax savings of about NT$3,000 a month.

One foreign national, who formerly worked in Hong Kong and moved to Taiwan during the pandemic, continues to work in debt restructuring at The Hive coworking space. He enjoys many of the amenities generally associated with an office, such as fast internet, printing facilities, and mail services. Apart from offering a place to work, The Hive also organizes special monthly events like happy hours, educational talks, and comedy nights, and provides its office residents the opportunity to rent space for events.

He feels the coworking space has been instrumental in allowing him to remain in Taiwan. Despite the discomfort of not having a fixed desk to work at, he is willing to accept the trade-off of having a more flexible schedule, spending more time with his family, and residing in a place of his choice.

Keeping employees happy

While starting a business is risky, being caught in the corporate world can also be a suffocating trap with a low ceiling and seemingly endless days. “My partner works for a chemical company,” says Klerck. “He’s often promoted with a certificate and a higher title, but no salary increases, which is the traditional model Westerners won’t accept.”

Klerck hopes local business culture will soon evolve and change to be more on par with countries like the U.S., but for now, many businesses will simply have no choice but accept the fact that young employees will continue to be attracted by the entrepreneurial promises of freedom and fortune.

Henry Gerard, founder of Dida Creamery, has braved many of the challenges facing entrepreneurs. He says that the most difficult hurdle he has faced wasn’t three years of COVID but a fickle workforce and staffing shortages that threatened to disrupt delivery of his hard-earned business-to-business (B2B) orders.

Located in Taichung, Gerard’s creamery makes artisan cheeses from locally sourced milk. After making multiple trips to Italy to learn the cheese-making craft and adapting European recipes to a tropical climate, Gerard was able to slowly grow his business over the years. His business has transformed from both an in-store shopping experience to a thriving online shop and a bona fide B2B company serving some of Taiwan’s most exclusive restaurants.

While he initially oversaw all aspects of production, from hand-twisting fresh mozzarella to cold smoking it and producing Scamorza, Gerard ultimately decided to hire a half-dozen staff to keep up with the growing number of orders. “Why should I do it all?” he says. “In many cases, my staff does a better job than I do. And they like it when I am not there.”

Gerard says stress levels reached their peak when his best locally trained cheesemaker announced she would be leaving him.

“She was already well compensated at an hourly rate, and we paid her benefits like health and labor insurance, but she was still unhappy,” he says. “It was really frustrating to me, but we transferred her to full-time employee status and had to convince her that it was a better deal than what she would get elsewhere.”

After some convincing, the employee agreed to the terms and remains committed to the company. Making the full-time offer wasn’t initially financially feasible, but it has been an impetus for Gerard to put renewed effort into cultivating the consumer market as many restaurants have been suffering due to COVID. “It’s a good way for us to grow,” he says. “I really think our employees are right for pushing us to offer more benefits, and this will ultimately be better for our company.”