Job Discussion Forums

[mateacher]

I read on the Qatar board that teachers who have taught in KSA didn't like the conditions at unis in the UAE and Qatar. This was due to the holidays and having to be on campus from 8-5. Is there truth to this?
It was also stated that UAE unis look down on teachers who have taught in KSA.

[veiledsentiments]

Both true... have been since I got there in the 80s.

That said, they are generalizations. Many ex-KSA teachers do fine in the rest of the Gulf... those who prefer the lifestyle outside of the college to the short hours and long vacations of many Saudi jobs.

VS

[D. Merit]

I've worked with a few ex-KSA teachers over the years here in Abu Dhabi. Not one of them has ever expressed any desire to return to Saudi.

[Solar Strength]

So do the employers like Higher Colleges of Technology in the UAE expect teachers to sit at their desks from 8:30am to 4:00pm every day, even if they're not teaching?

Or can teachers go home if they don't have any classes or meetings to attend?

I've worked at several universities that let teachers work from home when they're not teaching and a couple that expected teachers to come in at 9:00am and stay until 5:00pm, ideally and staff monitored teachers for this.

At one school, I even watched people sneak off campus and take the long way to get to the bus stop so that staff would not see them. It was ridiculous.

[D. Merit]

Well, lets's just say that some jackets and jumpers would need carbon dating to establish when they were first placed on a workstation chair and the corresponding laptop is invariably never turned off.

[veiledsentiments]

[Solar Strength]

[johnslat]

Dear Solar Strength,

I'm not VS (as you probably noticed), but if I may:

"Would you say that Saudi has a similar culture with having instructors sit at their desks all day even when not teaching?

In my experience, most definitely yes.

Regards,
John

[Solar Strength]

I see. Thanks.

[scot47]

Only place in KSA where I did not have this problem was at KFUPM - and constituent community colleges. In other places I had to be "on seat" when not teaching. "Horsenuts," to quote my former colleague from Oklahoma.

[Solar Strength]

I started off in TEFL moving out of the corporate world back home. That meant going from a 50 - 60 hour work week to a 25 hour work week in a hogwan in South Korea.

Then I went back to school to get a CELTA and a master's in TESOL and later returning to Asia.

That bumped me down to a 10 - 12 hour work week at a university and from 12 days annual paid vacation at a hogwan to about 5 months annual paid vacation at the university.

So, the last thing I would want to do is move to the UAE and go back to the 40 hour work week or desk warming scenario, even it meant a few thousand more dollars per-year saved in the bank.

I don't want to be tied to a desk throughout the day. that's why I left home and a career for overseas TEFL life.

Or do I have it all wrong and it's just the Higher Colleges of Technology that require teachers to put in a 9 - 5 shift each day?

[nomad soul]

[D. Merit]

[Solar Strength]

[auhruh]

So you'd rather go home and take a nap than work? Lazy sod.