Job Discussion Forums

[bloggs34]

TATI are an honest company but the key person in the Muscat office is dangerously incompetent. He is a bit of a joke with the teachers - if we wanted to be sure of something we would go over his head and contact his boss, who got so fed up he stopped taking our calls and referred us back to this human disaster. The guy is not, I don't think, intentionally bad at his job, just absurdly incapable of saying or doing anything that makes any sense. He will lose your papers, get times and dates wrong, help you to miss your flight home or final settlement payment - yet tell you to your face that everything is in order and you shouldn't worry. Please BE CAREFUL if you go to work for TATI.

[Middle East Beast]

You've listed some serious issues that, if this guy messes 'em up, could produce serious consequences.

These aren't things to take lightly.

MEB

[bloggs34]

ABSOLUTELY - At best the stress of speaking wit him's gonna take a year or two off your life.

[bloggs34]

ABSOLUTELY - At best the stress of speaking wit him's gonna take a year or two off your life..

[urbanversion]

Well I recently finished up with TATI, and got 2 months full salary and one way airfare out. Bit of a hassle hanging around in Muscat waiting for them to pony up the cash, that and the fact they wont put it in the bank, but they didn't screw me as such in the end.

A tad busy and disorganized, yes, but in my humble opinion....cheaters, not really!

[happyroofus]

Thanks Urban.
I'm considering them. Would you recommend them, and how long do they take to fly you in?

HR

[Middle East Beast]

[runninggirl]

Last year upon arriving I was taken around by vehicle to get my papers dr. appt. etc. While in the back seat papers begin blowing all around when the recruiter rolled his window down.

When I gathered them up, except the one that blew out the window I realized that they were people's passports with visas tucked in the pages!

I've always wondered whose that was that flew out the window. The recruiter was not in the least bit razzeled by any of this. Later when we got out of the car a few fell on the ground. He did throw those back inside.

Weeks later when they told me they needed me to turn over my pp I would not do it. Instead I told them that when they are ready to go to get my visa that I would go with them and we can do it together. They were mad at me but that is how we did it.

[Middle East Beast]

[urbanversion]

[lecturer]

TATI has been a very reliable company. They will deposit your salary on time and pay any additional they say they will. I have a friend who left Oman and she was actually pleasantly surprised during the final settlement with TATI. A good company for sure.

[aummua]

The following is my experience with TATI. I found out about them a few years back (2010) on this site, and I have been watching this discussion board since then.

My experience with TATI was very negative, beginning with the airport pick-up. They will tell you that a PRO (aka "driver") will be at the airport to greet you and take you to your hotel. I arrived at 11pm at no one was there at the airport to greet me or to take me to my hotel, so I had to do it on my own (after waiting for two hours and calling the three contact phone numbers I was given and receiving no answer). I later found out that this is a typical method they use in the hopes that you will find (and pay for) your own accommodation.

The next day I am asked to come into the office to sign the contract, even though I already signed one weeks earlier. This new contract includes a 50% reduced bonus and other discrepancies from the original. I inform them of this, and they say I am mistaken. I show them the contract they sent and I signed a month earlier, and they call it a "forgery" (not by me, but rather another, nameless employee who has conveniently "stopped working"). I tell them regardless of this, I will not be signing any contract that differs from the one that brought me to their company initially.

This causes a stir in the office, and eventually a man named Khilan comes out and says he really needs my help in cooperating. I tell him I am not signing a different contract.

He says "Fine, we'll do it your way, Superman. But if you want an advance on pay we need to hold onto your passport."

I tell him I am in no need of an advance on my salary.

"Every teacher gets an advance," he says.

"And I assume every teacher relinquishes their passport?" I ask. This makes him FURIOUS! Here's where red flares go off all over the place. These guys are acting vindictive toward their teachers because of their own mistakes, and they get even more pissed off when they find they can't hold their teachers hostage. I find out that this is a trend with TATI.

I explain that I am jet-lagged and would like to go home to the hotel I am personally paying for, and since I am not being paid until I start working at the college, I ask about the time frame. I am told that I will have my residency card within 5 days and will start working then, but that I need to get my medical done that same day. I wait around the horribly disorganized office for 3 hours before we go to the clinic and discover it is closed. I have a feeling that in as much time that TATI has been doing the recruitment game (5+ years) they know darn well what the hours of operation are for the clinic they use.

I am supposed to have started working at the Shinas College of Technology by September 15th. Delay after delay with TATI pushed my fly-out date all the way to October 7th, with very poor communications in the interim. It is now the 9th of October, and I still don't have my medical or residency established, and they want me to not earn a wage until the 14th, nearly a month after our initial agreement? This is a big problem, but I figure I will give them the 5 days, which are now going to be 6 days.

Wednesday the 10th arrives and I get a phone call from a man with an accent so strong I cannot understand him. And then someone is slamming on my hotel room door. I open it to a drunk man screaming at me to go get a medical examination. It's 11 in the morning and this guy reeks of whiskey. He doesn't identify himself or who he works for. I tell him I am not going anywhere with him because I don't know who he is and also he is very drunk.

I don't hear anything from TATI the rest of Wedensday, over the weekend, or on Saturday. No contact from my employer for 4 days. I go online and read more horror stories about this horrible company, and decide that I should just take my losses and split. How do I know when I will even start working? What will my housing be in Shinas? Will I even get paid on time and will I receive my bonus? Will Khilan continue to be vindictive toward me, or will I receive half my entitled bonus and be told to "deal with it, Superman"?

Don't even give these guys the time of day. They'll keep you on the back burner before and after you arrive, and they will lie to you the whole time too.

[FarGone]

As time=money, I calculate all of the hours that I waste on Recruiter errors; put it in a simple spreadsheet and, then, reduce my teaching hours to equal the time that Recruiter hath wasted of mine life.

And I explain these things as teaching lessons to my students. It's fun. & effective. (That hotel that you paid for + taxi to the hotel = also reduced teaching hours.)

[aummua]

That just means the recruiter's incompetence get passed on to the student though, right?

[FarGone]