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My School Is Trying To Make Me Work As Much As Possible
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water rat



Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica

PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah SearchingChina. So young, so cynical... Crying or Very sad
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SearchingChina



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 54

PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

water rat wrote:
Ah SearchingChina. So young, so cynical... Crying or Very sad


I guess before I just didn't see the reason to act like that...but if Chinese employers are like that, so be it, I'll give as good as I get, I'm sure.

BTW along these same lines, does this mean you should always get schedules written down in the contract before you sign it? For instance, a 15 classes a week contract could mean 1 class from 8-9am, one class from 11-12, and one class at 4-5, for 5 days a week, which ruins your time off completely.

Given that it seems that you can expect to be pushed to the very limit of what you 'agreed', does this mean you need to get something in the contract like 'classes shall be placed no more than 30 minutes apart from each other on any given working day'?

Will be my first time in China so I'd like to know what to expect. Razz
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asiannationmc



Joined: 13 Aug 2014
Posts: 1342

PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Poor pronoun reference, buddy. Who? Anyway, it sounds like you're agreeing with me...


RAT, I am never pronoun, mostly anti-noun. As far as agreeing with you, I guess you may be right in a "transcend dental medication" kind of way.

Who? yur asking who, in Japan. Since 1995, there has been a law agin this sort of thing yet you can't swing a clouded eye'd tuna around without hitting a sign denying foreigners entrance into some place or other.
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water rat



Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica

PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

asiannationmc wrote:
Quote:
Poor pronoun reference, buddy. Who? Anyway, it sounds like you're agreeing with me...


RAT, I am never pronoun, mostly anti-noun. As far as agreeing with you, I guess you may be right in a "transcend dental medication" kind of way.

Who? your asking who, in Japan. Since 1995, there has been a law agin this sort of thing yet you can't swing a clouded eye'd tuna around without hitting a sign denying foreigners entrance into some place or other.
Wow. Shocked I didn't know that. I didn't think you meant Montana or China though. It's hard to imagine the Chinese being that intolerant (Or Montanans...). I was in Japan back in the late eighties. Things certainly have changed then. Sorry, didn't mean to sidetrack the OP.
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toteach



Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 273

PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 2:40 am    Post subject: Re: Hi Reply with quote

water rat wrote:
JRJohn wrote:
One day it will be like living in Tokyo.
What are you implying? An Imperial Japanese invasion!? Living anywhere in China will never be like living in Tokyo. You may as well say Butte (pronounced 'butt', I believe) Montana will someday be like Tokyo. Laughing


It's in my neck of the woods and pronounced 'beaut' not 'butt.' But you're right: It will NEVER be like Tokyo in any sense, ever.
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Scrabble King



Joined: 25 Dec 2014
Posts: 91

PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nano wrote:
SearchingChina wrote:
I kinda get where the OP is coming from. It doesn't sound like there's a genuine need for more classes, just the director has decided the foreigner needs to work for the sake of working. I mean, doubling the class load because of 1 extra student?

Yes it's in the contract but this falls under the universal rule of 'don't be a dick'. It's a bit like if your contract says there are no office hours, you finish a class, but right when you step out the door a student asks you a question about the material that would take you 20 seconds to answer. Would it be OK for the teacher to say 'sorry, not working now, class is over'? By the contract that's your right, but...

This whole thing seems to be a way for the other staff to have less work.

It's not that I have to teach 25 classes, it's the fact that they make sure I teach as much as possible so that they don't have to do as much work. Recently the director told the admin staff that they have to monitor the students during independent study time. The less classes I teach, the more they need to monitor. So since this happened recently, the evidence shows that they are trying to give me as many classes as possible, so that they don't have to do any monitoring and can sit in the office with more free time.

The demand to teach this many classes is not coming from the director. It seems to be the result of the director demanding more work to be done by admin staff so the admin staff wants to throw as much work as legally possible so they don't have to do it.


My experience has been that the new guy in the classroom is always tested by admin to see what your limit is. How much work can they give you until you scream "Enough". This is why in your NEXT job you should get a clearly defined job description with a cap on teaching hours and distance yourself from admin and marketing duties and activities.
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Nano



Joined: 10 Jun 2014
Posts: 58
Location: Qinhuangdao, China

PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 3:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scrabble King wrote:
Nano wrote:
SearchingChina wrote:
I kinda get where the OP is coming from. It doesn't sound like there's a genuine need for more classes, just the director has decided the foreigner needs to work for the sake of working. I mean, doubling the class load because of 1 extra student?

Yes it's in the contract but this falls under the universal rule of 'don't be a dick'. It's a bit like if your contract says there are no office hours, you finish a class, but right when you step out the door a student asks you a question about the material that would take you 20 seconds to answer. Would it be OK for the teacher to say 'sorry, not working now, class is over'? By the contract that's your right, but...

This whole thing seems to be a way for the other staff to have less work.

It's not that I have to teach 25 classes, it's the fact that they make sure I teach as much as possible so that they don't have to do as much work. Recently the director told the admin staff that they have to monitor the students during independent study time. The less classes I teach, the more they need to monitor. So since this happened recently, the evidence shows that they are trying to give me as many classes as possible, so that they don't have to do any monitoring and can sit in the office with more free time.

The demand to teach this many classes is not coming from the director. It seems to be the result of the director demanding more work to be done by admin staff so the admin staff wants to throw as much work as legally possible so they don't have to do it.


My experience has been that the new guy in the classroom is always tested by admin to see what your limit is. How much work can they give you until you scream "Enough". This is why in your NEXT job you should get a clearly defined job description with a cap on teaching hours and distance yourself from admin and marketing duties and activities.

They were just trying to get as much out of me to save themselves. I confronted them on Friday and now I'm teaching 14 classes a week as per my demand.

I'm not going to let people walk all over me in the name of "well I signed a contract so now I am obligated to do as they say" Come on people, I wouldn't be surprised if my director has used his copy of the contract as toilet paper already. If he wanted to he could refuse to even pay me for no reason and what could I do? Get on here and cry about it, waste time, money, get a headache trying to sue him in a country I don't even know the language?

Imagine a class that needs 30 hours of teaching and you have 2 teachers. Now lets say one of the teachers is in charge of making the schedule and allocates 25 hours to you and only 5 hours to them. Would you honestly sit there and accept that because you signed a contract that says you can teach up to 25 hours? Clearly the distribution of work is unfair.
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litterascriptor



Joined: 17 Jan 2013
Posts: 360

PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 5:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm glad to see it worked out for you, never hurts to ask.
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