Job Discussion Forums

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

If she has such a good CV, why is she taking jobs with marginal employers like this? I have similar credentials and wouldn't touch a one of them... wouldn't even apply. These recruiter jobs in Oman are for newbies... and/or those desperate for a job because the better employers won't hire them for whatever reason.

VS

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

La Reve · Joined: 30 Jun 2012 Posts: 75 Location: Ici

Unfortunately, once a person is over 60, job openings are scarce around the world. U of Buraimi has hired many teachers in my position. And many teachers simply with a BA who are over the moon to be teaching at a university without credentials.

Thank you, Steakinator, for your support. I also returned to college at the age of 40 to get a teacher's license in English, with ESL k-12 on it. I already had a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. So it's not like I don't have the credentials. It's the age thingy.

La Reve · Joined: 30 Jun 2012 Posts: 75 Location: Ici

Now my two court cases - sexual harassment and employment contract- have been continued again to Sept.2nd, when I am to start a new job in another country.

Ramadan? Or an effort by the opposing parties to 'starve the opposition" + 'ruin their life as much as possible' legal technique?

According to Labor Law, Labor disputes are to be settled in a timely fashion.

Veiled Sentiments, whoever your friends are here, some may have rosy glasses and some may be delusional. The reality is Oman is becoming the same kind of workplace most of South Korea is - 90% dodegy. The amount of corruption I've seen in the past 10 years here is outrageous. Students have gone from polite and nice to disrespectful. The Arab Spring flooded young people into the colleges to keep them off the streets. Most of them should not be in an educational system since they probably failed at their secondary schools. I even had to tell them to open their books - individually, standing by their desks after the class had already started 10 minutes earlier.

And recruiters, owned and overseen by Omanis, are greed factories.

And the law.... well the law around the world is easily corrupted, especially when foreigners are involved.

FarGone · Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Posts: 97

I would contact the Judge-in-question; inform the Judge that "in a
timely fashion" has not been proven to be true in your case, and that
you move for an immediate finding/judgement OR insist that the Omani
Labor Court funds your return flight back to Oman when the case is
ready to be heard (plus lodgings).

They might laugh; they might move for an immediate finding. But it
doesn't hurt to poke at the sore that is Omani "law."

Also, I would recommend composing your most snark-free, well-constructed and concise summary and sending it to all Omani media outlets (there are a few expat-tourist-related magazines in Muscat; do a Google search for "English language newspapers in Oman." (Subsitute "magazines" and "media," alternately, instead of "newspapers" to increase your Google findings.

Get noisy about it; embarrass the hell out of ELS and UoB. The time has come.

The Steakinator · Joined: 13 Apr 2012 Posts: 71 Location: Oman

The Steakinator · Joined: 13 Apr 2012 Posts: 71 Location: Oman

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

There is no question that Oman is in for a rough ride the next few years. The situation has been totally predictable and probably unavoidable. When Qaboos took the throne in 1970 his first goals were to build an educational system and the health system... and this was basically from nothing. Slowly and gradually he integrated a modern educational system... even convincing the fathers to let their girls go to school.

The much improved health system meant that suddenly, instead of losing near half of their babies, nearly all survived. It is a baby boom writ large in such a small country. Even in the '90s articles were starting to appear questioning the jobs issue for graduates and the boom babies were just starting to hit university age.

So now what we have is all these boys with an uncertain future and grandiose, unrealistic expectations of what their government can give them - based on what the rich Emiratis can get from theirs. It was already showing up with the Buraimi boys when SQU was just opened. Even when I taught at a private college in 2001, many of the boys told me that they knew that they would have to leave Oman for work just as their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had had to do.

Eighteen year olds around the world are not known for their maturity or common sense. It has always been part of our job to help that process along at the same time as we teach them English. When I arrived in Oman in 1988, I was aware that part of my job was to teach them to come on time, bring their book, bring a pencil. and generally jolly them into acting like grown-ups. This is one reason that I think "mature" women tend to have an easier time getting them to behave. Too many younger male teachers try to use force, shaming, or too much "macho" to try to "show them." They turn it into a battle of wills, and the local students will always win.

Just as the US did, there are two ways to keep your kids out of the job market as long as possible. One choice is a military draft, and once that is gone, you try to push everyone into university for as long as possible. The US now has a glut of MAs and PhDs. Oman has a large military and police, but now the excess is being pushed into the college system. SQU couldn't take them. Not enough families can afford tuition at the private colleges. So, the Ministries set up all of these colleges to siphon them off the streets.

It is easy for us to see what has been done wrong in this. The use of recruiters and their lack of vetting of candidates means that we have too many marginal teachers trying to deal with marginally academic students. They had a successful system at SQU to mirror - have a good HR department and have knowledgeable people in each department handle the interviewing and hiring process. They mostly hired teachers who were married and/or over the age of 35-40. This meant that they have managed to keep a relatively stable TEFL department for going over 25 years now. (with some of the same teachers!) It isn't nirvana, but it has stayed one of the more pleasant places to work in the Gulf.

Teachers who take these recruiter based jobs need to decide before they go whether they will be part of the problem or part of the solution. And being part of the solution is NOT constantly telling them what they are doing wrong in the system. The solution is doing your best job to convince your students that an education is the best thing for both them and their country and that you are there to help them. Whinging on Dave's doesn't help you or them...

VS

March Hare · Joined: 16 Oct 2010 Posts: 21 Location: S. Korea

The job market is awful, and many, many people now have to settle for less than they are qualified for.

I have to agree with La Reve's general comments. Unfortunately, teachers pointing this out on Dave's forum won't change things. Oman needs someone--with a loud enough voice and a tall enough soapbox--to proclaim that the emperor is not only naked but shamefully under-endowed.