Job Discussion Forums

I Rub Ruchi · Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 45 Location: USA

I work as a direct hire at a college in Riyadh and its OK for me. Accommodations are pretty bad, but I like where I work. When I was first hired 6 years ago, all teachers were direct hires, but this is no longer the case. Expat direct hire are 11 in total, of which only 4 are native speakers. The other expat teachers, or 25 in total, are now hired via agencies and only a few are issued work visas, while most work on a business visa and most have never had any classroom experience. Except in very few cases, they don't stay more then two months. It seems that they leave when they don't get paid on time, or leave the Kingdom thinking that they can get their visas renewed. Last year a contracted teacher was in Jordan for over 4 weeks getting a new business visa. I was surprised he returned, but he was so fed up with the system that he left permanently upon returning. Anyway, it's no fun to be in KSA, but if you are a contracted employee, it's only tolerable for a very short time. The work climate has created an atmosphere where new employees aren't really acknowledged as teachers by students. I guess they get treated like middle school substitute teachers. I have heard that contract teachers at Aramco get fair treatment, but it is no fun there either.

nickelgoat · Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:48 am Post subject:

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scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

The only winner in this setup is the contracting company. It is bad for the teachers, bad for the students and certainly does not help Saudi top develop the skills of its workforce.

Lots of money is made in awarding those contracts ! Palms are greased and some fatcats are happy !

cleverclogs · Joined: 06 Aug 2013 Posts: 4

Hi there,
I worked for AETG for over a year, and they are the worst employer in Saudi. Stay well away from them.
For starters, they are the lowest paying amongst all agencies. They have recently had a new guy as executive vice president who has brought in a lot of even more negative changes. They are all compulsive liars.
I will advise everyone to ask for a contract copy before signing anything, this is a standard procedure amongst other agencies, but AETG will never send you one.
They operate on a split-shift basis, you will be working 8-12 and 5-9pm there is no choice.
They have recently lost all the contracts with good universities of Saudi, and only have one or two contracts in the furthest corners of the country and they will send you there or threaten to sack you if you don't want to go.
They also refuse to pay people any housing allowances and will try to force you to live in their accommodation.
The first guy to watch out for is MOD EDIT, he is a recruitment manager, and will tell you what you want to hear. When you go to him for whatever he promised he will simply say, the company policy has now changed and there is nothing he can do to help. A friend of mine was personally told by the VP, called MOD EDIT, that don’t listen to anyone else they don’t know anything about company policies.
When I worked for them they broke every promise they ever made, the managers are called MOD EDIT. He is actually the worst of them all. They will all tell you different lies and then refute each other.
Things to note in the contract: there will be a clause that if you leave in the middle of the contract, you will pay them one month’s wage, which is not normal practice. Also, you will not be paid housing allowance, they will make you live in their housing which at the moment is in a secluded place out of the city. They will also dock three days pay of you are absent for a day without reason (they will choose to accept or not to accept the reason you give them).
They will also keep two months pay if you want to leave the country for whatever reason other than your annual holiday, no other company will do this. I can go on forever. These are just the highlights to be honest. My advice is to just avoid them, ask around especially people who know anything about ESL in Saudi, and definitely don't sign on anything until you get a copy of the contract.
I had heard bad things, but went ahead thinking it’s just internet negativity, but they turned out to be worse than I heard.

BEWARE - THEY DON'T HAVE ANY CONTRACTS WITH PNU
THEY DON'T PAY WOMEN HOUSING ALLOWANCE, EVER
THEY LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING
THEY WILL NEVER BRING YOUR FAMILY OVER
THEY CAN LITERALLY GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING

DON'T EVEN GET YOURSELF INTO THIS UNSTABLE/DODGY COMPANY TO TEST THE WATERS

IT'S NOT WORTH IT