Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

just found out that one of my chinese colleagues did a midnight run from our middle school. apparently he found a better job somewhere else and just left. our department head doesnt seem to know where he is, at least she claims to not know.

this guy who did the run, was just telling me that he left his last job last year without giving the proper notice so that he could come to this school. and he said he got a letter of reprimand for that one.

what happens to chinese teachers who pull this one off? it's not like he can get out of the country as we could.... i dont think he's making good career moves here.

[echo2004sierra]

I don't know myself what would happen to a Chinese teacher in China if he/she did a midnight run. I guess it would be similar to you doing a midnight run in the USA, you wouldn't get a reference letter, you may owe the school a month's salary, and you could have difficulties finding another post.

A former female Chinese colleague teacher of mine from Sichuan told me that she worked at a school in Zhongshan, Guangdong. She found a better paying job in Shenzhen, but the headmaster of the Zhongshan school wouldn't release her from her job which would have made a midnight run useless because she would have had no change to secure the sought-after job in Shenzhen. Eventually, she had to pay several large bribes (amounting to about RMB7,000) to the Zhongshan headmaster, of course she had to give the money to a friend of hers who gave the money to a friend of the headmaster's. It wasn't a direct transaction and there was no guarantee that the Zhongshan headmaster would release her after she paid the money, there was also no guarantee that the Shenzhen school would hire her either. This was her story. A headmastership is a privileged position.

[struelle]

Wow, that's a gutsy move for a Chinese teacher to pull something like this off. It's the first time to hear something like this, and I wonder if more might try in future. From today's Shanghai Daily, I read of a growing trend of 'voluntary unemployment'. That is, workers quit their jobs out of dissatisfaction, often trivial reasons. They are more selective in which jobs they take, and have good economic conditions already, i.e. they come from wealthy families.

This would make a lot of sense, in that I've known some previous adult students who quit jobs and change them frequently. One told me, and I quote, "I like to change my job every 6 months as I get bored easily."

Well, at least the student is honest!

Steve

[7969]

well, most of the younger teachers at my school, at least all of the ones i am familiar with, dont like being teachers. this guy was one of them. he pulled the midnight run off like a pro, i must say. noone saw it coming. altho i did see him studying some import export handbook lately so i figured he was up to something. he didn't fool me......

seems that its not easy in china for people to change employment, and it should be. job dissatisfaction is one thing in the west, where you're more or less free to change jobs. different story here if you're stuck in a job you hate and can't get out.....

[Roger]

You don't know why this guy absconded, right? Maybe he has debts...

But it is true that for a Chinese to disappear is an option with many imponderables; the new employer might insist on seeing a release letter. Many don't.
Job hopping is becoming very, very normal in the eyes of Chinese, too normal from my angle. But then again, they never identify with their jobs, companies or the service they are offering or products they are selling. They are very single-minded - remuneration matters the most. I guess this is why loyalty to their employer cannot be taken for granted - as many foreign investors have painfully experienced (heard that one about western hotels training their local staff at huge cost, possibly training them ABROAD, then losing them right after they were integrated into their work forces).

This may be the typical kneejerk overreaction of Chinese who for decades had had to bottle up their true feelings; in return they had their iron-rice bowl jobs.
It must be noted that such life-long jobs could not be terminated by either side. I remember my first school had a majority of staff under contract according to this socialist tenet; if they bribed the principal they might be released.
Now too many are jobless... all former employees at SOEs! The pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme!

[denver]

Why not just run away at noon? when everyone's having lunch?

[togusa]

good point....every takes lunch long enough you could at least grab a bit to eat while on the run.

[7969]

it's probably more like the leisurely taxi ride in the middle of tha afternoon, rather than a midnight run. but midnight run has a more exotic feel to it. danger, mystery, and so on.....

[Kurochan]

I knew a middle school teacher who did sort of a midnight run -- he had promised to work at one school, and a few days before the term started, he went to another. I don't know if he ran out on a contract or not. One thing to remember is for primary and middle schools, there's a huge demand for teachers. Maybe someone could be given a job kind of on the sly more easily in an area that lacks teachers. (One interesting note is that one of the best teachers at my old primary school was a woman who studied hotel management at Beijing University but who couldn't get a job because she was a 1988 graduate -- people were afraid she would be a troublemaker. She heard that Shenzhen was desperate for workers, came down, and was hired as an English teacher immediately.) Also, maybe the situation is different based on the kind of teacher the person is. I know there's sort of a "government teacher" whose contract is not easily broken on either side, and then there's a more freelance kind of teacher, who earns more money but who can be more easily fired. I know this is true in Shenzhen, anyway.