Job Discussion Forums

[willowtree]

Hello, I am doing some research for a website that will be launched later this year. This website will do a lot of things differently, one of the key things it will be focused on is teacher retention. The schools that we are going to be working with want to keep teachers for as long as possible.

So I am asking what would make you stay at the same job and in China for several years? I have created a survey which can be found here https://goo.gl/forms/lFPUJn8AnI2Fqs6q2 and also welcome any insight any of you can offer.

Thank you in advance!

[getbehindthemule]

I have been in the same job for three years now, but I can see why a lot of teaching jobs have a short shelf life here. I think I got lucky.

Top 5 reasons for staying (apart from my students) off the top of my head:
1. I have a very open minded principal and I'm treated professionally and with respect by my Chinese work colleagues (a couple of which have become my friends over time).
2. I am not micro managed. (maybe this should me no.1)
3. The holidays - Over 3 months fully paid.
4. I have never had a problem regarding pay, allowances, etc. and get a pay rise every year.
5. When I have needed assitance with some personal problems I have been looked after to the best.

The main personal reasons for staying in China would be the fact I love life here, that I have a long term gf here and the potential for travel on my time off.
The only thing that may drive me to leave in the future is the pollution!

[theoriginalprankster]

GBTM sums it up well.

[asiannationmc]

I stayed 9 years with the same uni.. the reason // it was British and payed in pounds...yearly increases and a retirement fund + insurance. The uni still has a program in Beijing but no longer offers the bennies

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

There is little incentive for me (or anyone who has had similar experiences) to stay at the same public university for years.

1. classrooms (generally) are unheated or air conditioned and access to AV equipment is sometimes forbidden

2. teachers' apartments are often incredibly dirty

3. response to reports of broken pipes, air conditioners/heaters in teachers' apartments are often slow and repairs are often shoddy

4. public universities are increasingly being moved to the boonies as real estate in the city becomes more valuable

5. poor/nonexistent screening of FTs (I've worked with real mental cases)

6. administration is often in shambles due to inexperience, lack of diligence, or general incompetence

7. communication between FTs and administration can be poor at critical times

8. air pollution outside and well-beyond major cities is worsening

9. converting and transferring money in some cities is sometimes impossible without the help of a Chinese friend (see #6)

10. If I weren't using a private server in the U.S., I'd probably add problems with communication with the outside world to the list, but for the past few years I've had few internet problems, though I have found some schools' IT departments to be intrusive.

Not all of these problems have existed at every school that I've worked for, but it becomes tiresome having to deal with problems that could be avoided from Day One if only the administration put themselves in the shoes of the FT. It's really irritating to see the Chinese teachers arrive at work in a brand new luxury bus when I have to walk to the city bus stop in the rain at 6:30 a.m. to catch a bus so I can teach at a new campus that's eight miles away.

[doogsville]

Been at the same uni for five years, this will be the last. What kept me here? Low hours leaving time to pursue other projects. Good relationship with those of the student body that actually value education and want to be here.
Reasonable money, enough to live on day to day and travel but not enough to save or take care of the future. Being largely left alone by the schools admin. Nice apartment provided as part of the package.

Reasons why I'm leaving. Unmotivated lazy students who didn't choose this path and don't want to be here. Foreign teachers are always assigned the most difficult and least popular students while Chinese teachers cherry pick the good un's. Money. Five years later my salary has only increased by 300 rmb a month. That was an increase I asked for in year 3 and only just got. Last year the school discussed a general raise of 300 a month for foreign teachers, the first raise in six years, and turned it down. Boredom. Teaching the same classes for five years means you have minimal preparation time after year one, but it gets repetitive and boring by year five. No chance of any career advancement. I'm here to do a specific job, which is add value for the uni, teach the worst of the students so the Chinese teachers don't have to and smile when trotted out to meet visitors. I am not and never will be part of the team. Which is fair enough, since I don't want to be.

[willowtree]

Thank you so much to everyone who took the survey and for the responses here. I really appreciate everyone taking the time, and I gained a lot of insight. Thank you, you guys are awesome!

[baki]

[baki]

[cbert]

I like a lot of things about my current university position. It's pretty professional, there is financial support for conference presentation and travel, and the students are amazing.

However, for my wife and two young children, there's not much on the table, particularly with regards to education for the kids and health care.

So, for me, what would have kept me here (we leave after the upcoming semester after a 3-year stay), is primarily 1. a real international/English taught school option, 2. Good access to English speaking health care providers.

Beyond that, the things that make it tough to be here are the lack/difficulty of access to nature/recreation, pollution (though the air here is better than many places), and the difficulty in finding quiet, uncrowded places for work, study, and alone time.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

[rogerwilco]

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

I think that most FTs would be ecstatic if they were treated as teachers and if they were accorded the same niceties as Chinese teachers (invitations to faculty parties, sociable behavior of the part of the Chinese staff and faculty) and kept informed of days off and special activities in advance. It just seems that administrators at all levels and all departments that affect FTs' lives have little regard for the FT. (This not true of all schools, just some). I've had ONE FAO who was worth her salt. Almost all of the FTs worshiped the ground upon which she walked.

Keep us informed. Example: Work was to be performed outside the FTs' apartments. We weren't told about it. I opened the steel door of the apartment building that led outside one morning and stepped into a 1'x4'x 10' ditch. One leg in the ditch, one leg at ground level. Ten years later, that injury continues to give me problems. All anyone had to do was to pick up the phone and call the FOUR FTs and tell us to be careful or have someone from the FAO put a sign INSIDE the door to warn us.

Get rid of uncooperative Chinese staff. Example: The idiot who supervised the AV equipment and computer rooms at one school removed parts from the console before FTs arrived in class, making it impossible for us to use the equipment. I knew that he was doing it on purpose because students told me many times that he was taking the components out when they arrived for class. Once, when he couldn't be located, I dismissed class and pulled up a chair outside his locked office and waited for him. Five minutes after the bell rang and all of the students had settled into their other classes, the @!#**# opened his door--- from the inside. I reported him. Nothing happened. (Similar situations have occurred at other schools. It was usually a matter of someone not knowing where the key that turned on the equipment was located at the time).

It would be really nice if the public universities that pay their teachers in cash would remit taxes for the FTs.

Treat the FTs with courtesy. Example: At two schools, school employees took it upon themselves to suddenly stop serving breakfast to us in the cafeteria. The cafeteria manager who held the franchise was also a senior party member, and neither the bimbo 28 year-old FAO nor the dean of the school could do anything about it. The same thing occurred in the commissary. The people behind the counter would walk away after we stood in line for five minutes after they checked out a half dozen students. This made things a bit difficult because the cooking appliances in our apartments didn't work, and the closest restaurant was about a half mile away.

Make school facilities available to FTs. At another school, we had to reserve a room two days in advance to show movies after hours. It was a common occurrence until one night, the staff locked the doors and left, saying that it was quitting time and they didn't have time to open the door for us. (The door was down the hall from the idiot's office).

Pay us on time as per contract and get rid of nasty FAO staff that sit on salaries for ten days before paying the FTs. CTs got paid on the first of the month while FTs had to wait until the tenth of the month or later. At one school that did this EVERY month, we got paid on time ONCE when the regular guy was in the hospital. His replacement paid us a day early!

AND THE BIGGIE: Don't prevail upon the FT that has lived at the school for the longest to snitch on the other FTs. [The reason why one teachers stays at a school for years while the schools enter and exit via a revolving door is that the snitch manipulates the FAO and the FT liaison by lying to get the others fired, thus ensuring the snitch's employment longevity. Two of us got the boot at one school when the snitch posed as us in an EFL forum, telling lies and mentioning names, copying the screen, then deleting the entries. She printed them out and gave them to the FAO who told the dean of the FL dept (a woman with whom I was friends) about the supposedly online posts. I didn't know what hit me when I was called into a meeting and confronted with the "evidence". The effing B had the audacity to admit to doing it, and as I left--- bags in hand--- she told me that my "fatal mistake" was to cross her). After I left, she kept it up, creating a twitter account in my FULL name and posting negative things about the school for about three months. Somebody got her to take the posts down after I called the school and told them what she was doing.

It's usually just a lot of small annoying things that plague the existence of FTs at some public universities, but if the OP has someone's ear, he can pass it along to the Powerz That Bee.