Job Discussion Forums

[haopengyou]

I am not going to continue teaching in my present school next year. My new school has asked me to get some documents from my old school so that they can extend my present visa or fec or something. I read once that if certain papers are signed, then my present school is released from certain financial obligations...at any rate, I would like to know more about this process - even in an indepth level. Do I need to be careful at some point? Is it all mechanical or is there some way that I might be shafted? or come out ahead? I welcome any comments, or references to other websites.

I now live in Shenzhen and must say that the FAO's in the schools here are not very knowledgeable about this topic.

[Bud Powell]

Yes, there's always the possibility of getting shafted by an employer, no matter how good your relationship might have been and no matter how good a job you did.


If you haven't given notice, do it NOW. Ask for a letter of release AND a letter of recommendation NOW. (It seems that that the Letter of Recommendation is required in some places. To my knowledge, it really isn't, but it doesn't hurt to have a piece of paper from a former employer that says nice things about you).

If you haven't given notice, your current employer may have stupidly ASSUMED that you would renew your contract, even though it is actually incumbent upon the employer to broach the subject. This is what can happen if your employer gets p*ssed if you tell him that you won't renew the contract:

Scenario #1 He'll do everything to get your passport and FEC so that he can have your residence permit changed to a tourist visa. You will then have to return home. This may not be too bad a deal if you have somewhere to return to and your new employer will reimburse airfare in and pay for your departure. As I understand it, you won't need any paperwork from your former employer if you do return home and reapply for a Z visa.

Scenario #2 Your employer won't issue a letter of release and will withhold flight reimbursement and require you to work your contract to the very last day of your contract, thus making it difficult for you to line up another job AND return home. Without that letter of release, you may have great difficulty securing a job elsewhere not only for lack of the letter, but also for time constraints. I say MAY because there are always exceptions.

In China, relationships with employers can go south abruptly for unknown reasons. At one school, I was offered a five-year contract one semester, then the following semester, I found myself in Scenario #1, even though (in my perception) nothing had changed.

How old is your FAO? Your FAO can pick up the phone and call the City FAO and find out what must be done. Clueless FAO's are worrisome creatures, especially if they are young. Twenty-something female FAO's fear losing face and won't call the City FAO to ask questions, largely because they got their FAO position through political connections and don't want to reveal their incompetence.

Use the search function to find out what other delights may await you. I've given you the worst case scenarios. You may have better luck.

[dongbei united]

This comes up so often. A Chinese person wants you, an English speaker, to request something not referenced in daily conversation to another Chinese person who has to not only understand what you are talking about, but they have to translate back to Chinese whatever it was you were instructed in English the Chinese authorities want.

What if we do something crazy and take out the English speaker from the equation? Have Chinese person 1 ask Chinese person 2 for what Chinese person 1 needs?

Have your new school email specifically what they want and put it in Chinese. After 2 or 3 failed attempts and the new school still needs something, give them a phone number.

We don't have to be part of the equation. If the school has something against you, it's easy for them to be difficult with you, but if another school is willing to take over their perceived "problems" (being you though it may have been them in reality) they are more likely to do what is requested just to get rid of you.