Job Discussion Forums

ntropy · Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba

Hey Wilber, I need some gal pals. Can you lend me some of yours?

Wink

wilberforce · Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 647

wilberforce · Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 647

They are going to get rid of almost half of the teachers. I've heard varying reports of 30-35 out of the almost 80 teachers that slave away here. This is bad news for the guys with families, I feel for them. It's very late for them to start job hunting. The IMTIAZ contract is not going to be renewed (multiple reasons) but the QP chiefs have decided they want to clear out the teaching force and start afresh in their brand new building out near Aspire Zone. They want the people who survive the clearance to reapply. I've heard some people are thinking of just not coming back after Eid, even if they've been renewed because the situation is so insecure and unstable. It would serve them right if people did a runner. It is disgusting to give people notice one or two weeks before the vacation!!!! No respect for the teachers who have really put up with a lot of krappe from the chiefs on top to the boys in the band. This is a nice how-do for all the guys who've busted their guts.

I think I knew the closing of Garvey's was the begining of the end. This has confirmed it for me. Time to move on. Maybe I'll be chopped in the second round of choppees. The first round has already been notified. This whole business is making everyone paranoid, sick and downright angry. And we have a right to be!!!!!! This callous disrepsectful treatment and firing of so many teachers is absolutely disgusting. Nobody feels any loyalty whatsoever to the Gulag chiefs anymore.
Maybe the ones who survive the chopping block should do a runner if they can. Would serve them all right!!!

zeke0606 · Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 3:56 pm Post subject: PM

wilberforce -

I sent you a PM a couple of days ago..................
Let me know what's up - OK?

Zeke

wilberforce · Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 647

The Gulag is over. Today is the last of the Golden Days (and boy is it tarnished!!!!!). Out of the 78 or so teachers (DH and contract) about 35-37 have been pushed out since last January (although a few resigned as well when they saw which way the wind was about to blow). The Gulag has had its ups and downs and its nasty times (poor JC was a classic example). Some of the rougues have survived the clean-up, some haven't. They targeted good teachers for stupid trumped up reasons. Some idiot somewhere advising them to get rid of the best! Uptill now the Gulag hasn't been a bad place to work but the way they have been treating people in the past few months is disgusting and despicable. Some of the Gulagers who have survived this purge may not come back after the Eid. Once I would never have supported this sort of behavior but after what has been happening since June, I say good luck to them.

Goodbye to all my Gulag Pals and Gals. It's been great knowing you. Goodbye to some of my awesome students who helped making the classroom fun. I learned from you and I hope you learned from me.

I will miss Qatar but there have been too many changes. My old watering holes down at the Oasis, Garvey's and soon the Rugby Club are things of the past. Time to move on for many of us before we get stuck in a rut. The Gulag was a nice place to hole up in for more than 10 years but time for me to move on. I've got other options. Some of my Gulag buddies don't and were taking by surprise. The way they were treated and the short notice is inexcusable. Anyway, I'm leaving on a jet plane. Won'te be back again.....

Goodbye and good luck.

Too many d--n coverups have left us all feeling the slime.

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

to quote wiberforce:-
"Time to move on for many of us before we get stuck in a rut. The Gulag was a nice place to hole up in for more than 10 years"
Quite.

jdl · Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 632 Location: cyberspace

Seems to be many openings at the 'Gulag"? What is the starting salary? Perhaps a good 'foot in the door' for instructors wishing to begin a 'middle east experience"?

Manuel Geere · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject: QP posts

You seem to think that the recent "cull"of contract teachers means there will be jobs at QP. In fact, the post by manumany on another thread tells the whole story. QP have not managed to get their act together after the end of the contract with Griffith and Imtiaz, so now there is no budget for contract teachers. Direct hire teachers, who previously enjoyed posts as writers or even supervisors, are back in the classroom. The situation will continue like this until a new contractor is appointed "�nshallah"
As for the whinging and whining of our resident guru Wilberforce, the fact that there has not been a citizen of USA employed as contractor at QP for many years might give a clue to the veracity of his posts. He seems to have some fixation with QP, even though he left there about 8 years ago (if my deductions as to his identity are accurate). Oh and "gal pals" would not really figure on his radar - "friends of Dorothy" might though.

zeke0606 · Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:43 pm Post subject: what

Manuel Greere -

I believe you are correct about wilberforce. I still have a friend that is a tech teacher there and direct hire. He is from Oz and writes that the gulag is gone and the Sudan mafia has really taken over.

You are very correct about non-native English teachers working there. Ever back in 2006 - 2007 when I was there -- I could not understand any of the male teachers - most had Irish passports, but were from Libya, Syria, etc. Now the female teachers from those countries spoke like native speakers.....

So much for 'our man on the spot and reporting the news without spin.........'

Zeke

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

mafia? get real

lollaerd · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337

I left QP just over a year ago for another job in Qatar and had no problem with Imtiaz or QP about the NOC. They were OK when I told them I'd found another job so I am still around. I also know one or two teachers who've so far managed to hang on, despite the big chuck-out. Wilbur is more or less correct - these two confirm that over 30 teachers have been chucked, from all QP teaching sectors in the past few months with the biggest number being fired in July at very short notice and it is true, most were fired just before vacation time. Just a few months before I quit, another American had been hired. so it's a joke to say there haven't been any Americans for a while. This was a big burly American guy who used to work somewhere else in Qatar - he was hired two or three months before I left. I've since seen him at the Rugby Club so he might be still around. I don't know if he's been fired or not. Even so. it is correct to say that a lot of people were fired rat-a-tat-tat .

Like slaqdog says - what mafia? OK there were a lot of Sudanese and Jordanians but a mafia? In my time I worked with Australians, New Zealanders, Americans, Irish (so what if some had dual nationality, I think Wilber does too), Serbs, Croats, Kenyans, Bulgarians, South Africans, Pakistanis, Indians, Egyptians, Canadians, Scots, English, Palestinians, Syrians, a Welshman or two, and even a Yemeni at one point and a Portuguese woman. So there happened to be more Sudanese than some other nationalities, but a mafia??? More like group support.

Some people seem to forget that the Gulag isn't the only place contracts and DHs were sent - what about Messaid? Dhukan? The Vocational High School out by QDC? Al Saad TC? Some TEFLers were even sent out to Ras Laffan at one point. There were a lot of teachers farmed out all over the place. What about those math teachers?

The Gulag can refer to both the TC down at Ras Aboud or the whole of the farmed out teachers wherever they were sent. Sure there were a lot of hangers on - but there were just as many toilers, too. Sure the DHs and the writers are back in the class - about time, some of them did very little. On the other hand, what was there for them to do while things were in a state of flux? I started with Malachy and ended up with Imtiaz. Different management styles but basically the same old system. They are probably are figuring out what to do and, as usual, at QP they either want it done by yesterday or they spend months trying to get something approved or they suddenly have a bright idea that circulates for a while and then is chucked due to inertia, lack of approval, lack of response, mangement shifts or disappearances, or just forgotten about. Remember there has been a lot of messing around in HR the past year or two, they keep trying to revamp things. Maybe this revamp is the mother of all revamps.

So is QP hiring? Who knows? Just check the QP website. They keep the ad on whether they are hiring or not. From what I've heard Griffiths is still in the picture. Try their website too. I would wait and see what happens to the TC after they move to their new building. Now is probably not a good time to apply.

Manuel Geere · Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:55 pm Post subject:

lollaerd · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I can't figure out what Manuel's hobbyhorse with attacking Wilbur is about. Thus far nothing that Wilbur has posted here has been shown to be inaccurate. QP axed a significant number (30-40) of its staff with little or no notice to them in what was it... June? July? Those included were justifiably upset. And there is no disputing that it is a piss poor way to deal with your employees, especially those that had been there for many years and had families. There is no excuse for not informing people in December or January of contract terminations or non-renewals so that they are able to even search for new jobs for the next year.

In fact, he is one of the most knowledgeable posters that has shown up on the Qatar boards. He had obviously been there for many years, knows the restaurants, watering holes, and employers because of his social network. He has always been pretty even handed in his critiques... has never attacked another poster. Manual seems to be mostly obsessed with his possible 'american-ness' than the quality of his information. Or perhaps he is with QP management and is upset about how bad their actions has made the whole organization look?

VS