Job Discussion Forums

[Mydnight]

I would say: Great!!! I'm going to get paid a HUUUGGGEEE salary for all those extra office hours!

I'm sure they'll forget about the whole thing after that. heh.

[Guest]

So far we are all ignoring the subject. I am under strict instuctions to do so from the younger teachers. There is a new computer on "my" desk in the office, but I have not been back into the office to see if it is connected yet. I am avoiding the office like plague.

The new girl who was told to be in her office from 9 a.m. has not been doing so and so far nobody has mentioned anything to her.

So, maybe burying your head in the sand is the way to go in China, but I have never been a person to do that. I would rather face up to whatever it is and reach a compromise. However I will do what I am told for the time being.

[tofuman]

Rhonda,

Unless your contract specifically binds you to office time, just say NO.

If my school told me that I must sit in the office several hours a day, I would refuse and if they insisted, I would tell them that since it is not in my contract, I can't do it this year, but they can put it in the contract for next year. Then decide what you want to do. Buy yourself some time.

Your biggest problem is that you want to stay at your school. Of course you don't want to offend anyone, but that is a position of weakness which will be exploited to your loss.


I can not get anything here by being "nice."

The "face" game in China is degrading for any person with, dare I say it, integrity. You can agree to follow your bosses directive, save his face, and just don't do it. But do you want to become a "liar" for the sake of his "face"?

[kev7161]

I'm having problems with a "special" English class I'm teaching. We have a new director in our Senior department this semester. Today I had only one scheduled class in the afternoon. The director wanted to meet with me about the problems with this class - - this morning. I bumped into the Chinese English teacher that translates for me and he told me the director was "very angry" because they couldn't find me! (!!!) So, I have to go through the whole thing (again . . . *sigh!*) that my contract doesn't stipulate office hours.

You would think he would have called our FAO and a) asked about why I wasn't in the office or b) what my home phone number was. I would have been happy to come in for a meeting if they would have called me and let me know. By the way, I hung out for a few minutes after my afternoon class, but nobody came to me to arrange another meeting or to even inquire about my whereabouts. Sometimes it's the blind leading the blind.

[Guest]

All is quiet on the Eastern front. I have not gone into "my" office for two weeks now - even though I know there is a nice new computer sitting on "my" desk.

I am obeying the instructions of the young teachers here and ignoring the whole "office time" thing. It seems to be working. It is now over two weeks since the subject was raised and not another word has been spoken to any of us.

Generally, I do not approve of "burying your head in the sand" as the younger teachers here wish me to do, but I will go along with them and await the final outcome.

I really think that the Headmaster should wait until the new Semester commences to enforce any changes to our lifestyle. That way he can start off fresh with any new teachers, but I will be warning any teachers thinking of coming here to be on their guard, as we do not want to end up having to sit in an office all day surrounded by Chinese teachers who mainly talk around us and ignore us.

[beck's]

I think that you are handling this situation very well. You are ignoring the office rule without getting into direct confrontation. I think that directly saying, "no" to your bosses would lead to problems of "face."

I had a similar situation in Korea when I taught there several years ago. The boss wanted us all to remove our "indoor slippers" and teach in our stocking feet. I ignored the order but did not get into any confrontation. When the boss happened to come into my classroom, I respectfully removed my indoor slippers until he was gone. Then I put them back on. It worked fine for me. Western teachers who confronted him on the issue began to have job/housing related problems and their lives became miserable.

[Austrian]

Personally I would try to find a way to tell your headmaster that 24 office hours versus 11 teaching hours for the same pay are simply not acceptable. What will be next - weekend classes, evening tuition, filling in for an ill gatekeeper? You dilemma is, as one poster said, that you do want to stay at the school. But assuming that the school wants you to stay as well, I'd challenge them.

I see a problem with agreeing but not actually putting into practice their new rule. It is not sth that you can overlook and it passes by. The rule stays and might be called upon at will any day.

If you agree at one point, this means that you have agreed and subsequently would have to change your own agreement/rule if in some future you needed to refuse the headmaster's rule more officially. So why have you agreed in first place, your HM could ask? Even if he didn't, I wouldn't want him to have that option!

Second, you let the younger teachers handle the situation - but they all leave at the end of the term as I understand? So, even they might get by, by not implementing this new rule for themselves for the remaining months, you will stay and might be called upon to perform your office hours at a later stage?

I would make very, very sure that this is a No-No, maybe offer 2-3 office hours a week, but also make clear that any such thing cannot be part of a future contract. Whatever they do to their Chinese teachers, if they have them sit round the clock at the office or dance boogie-woogie in the schoolyard at a random whistle from the HM, is entirely up to them. As I understand they want FTs for one single purpose - to improve their students' English capabilities and as we all come from countries with a certain lifestyle and income level, they have to adapt to this in some respect. (Ok, they also want the white faces, but they cannot own these

I think, you'd need to put your foot down unless it's too late by now already?

[struelle]

Obviously I'm going to side with those who say resist this office 'face time' policy. But what concerns me is the increase in the number of times I've seen this clause appear in new contracts.

Perhaps employers are catching on: 15-20 teaching hours a week is easy living, and teachers can either chill out, moonlight, or do so something else in the day while not teaching. But I mean really, this is not rocket science. For years employers have been able to contrast our easy life and high salaries with the long and hard hours that the Chinese teachers put in.

I don't think this is fair, but what baffles me is how, in the past, employers have failed to bring this issue up. Anyone can figure this out: there is a HUGE contrast in the work that we do compared to what the Chinese teachers do. Most Chinese employers are intelligent, but even the slow ones could figure this out right away. As well, they can easily figure out that teaching in our home countries is much more stressful than the FT lifestyle in China.

In my case, I am working on my practicum and am pretty much doing the same stuff that Chinese teachers do (prep, marking, report cards, parents, extra-curriculucal stuff). I'm almost as busy as they are. And, like them, should I choose to nip outside the office during a prep block, the consequences are severe. My faculty advisor reamed me out about this last week: If I nip outside the office or show up late once more during my free block, I fail the program.

So it makes no sense that FAOs have waited for so long and are only now beginning to make a collective stink about our lack of office 'face time'.

Personally, I think that flexible work times are a huge advantage of teaching in China. There is nothing worse than sitting in an office all day doing steady work. I tend to work best in irregular intervals, say a intense bit here, then a break here, etc.

On another note, this relates more to Rhonda's desire to spend a long time in China. While I am highly supportive of her plans, this recent turn of events makes for a strong case against relying too heavily on English teaching or the whims of Chinese authorities for a long-term career.

I would love to do the same thing as Rhonda, but if the powers that be keep on changing the rules all the time, I start questioning how secure this option is in the long-term. Although I'm not exactly thrilled to be back in my home country now, at least I can get more solid credentials here that allow for more 'bargaining power' when I decide to go overseas again.

Steve

[7969]

i think that instead of letting these younger foreign teachers handle this, you should do it. you're older, perhaps a bit wiser (more experienced anyway), and you're the one that has to live with any change in policy, not them. you should all reach a concensus on the problem and then stick to it. but i certainly wouldnt let any foreigner who wasnt hanging around past june, to take care of a problem that might have long term implications for me.

[Roger]

[quote="Austrian"]Personally I would try to find a way to tell your headmaster that 24 office hours versus 11 teaching hours for the same pay are simply not acceptable. What will be next - weekend classes, evening tuition, filling in for an ill gatekeeper? You dilemma is, as one poster said, that you do want to stay at the school. But assuming that the school wants you to stay as well, I'd challenge them.
/quote]

Some of the posters here still don't understand why the school has the right to ask you to spend more time in their office or other premises.
They have the right to force you to "prepare" your lessons. If you claim you can do that in five minutes, they can say, alright, do it IN OUR SCHOOL, not elsewhere.

Some schools actually expect you to put in a certain amount of time - measured in hours rather than minutes - per week preparing your job or reveiwing things.

Our Chinese colleagues have to put up with much more: they have to go to teacher meetings every week.

And the big prize question now is: why?
Answer: the school has the reight to stop you from moonlighting. They know many CHinese teachers do just that. And they suspect foreigners to be wanting to do that too.
It is NOT your right to earn on the side, contrary to many myths bandied around.

[Austrian]

[darkchild]

here's my two cent.
i really think you should inquire about the reason for this sudden change. i don't know much about the chinese system, so i could only guess that it could have something to do with accessibility for the students? if that's the case, i think an hour or two a day should be enough. otherwise, i think you should fight it! what point is there for you to be in the office if all you could do is twiddle your thumbs?

[Roger]

[Roger]

[Austrian]

Estimado Rogelio - this is how they would call you in Cuba, a country I have lived in for 4 years and I still have good friends there, one of them is actually called Roger or Rogelio and they call him Chino because HE has some rather Mexican than Chinese ancestors. Ok, just a little side story
I assume we should switch to pm-ing as we might bore other Dave-oholics with our cross-language-country dialogue?

I hope I have sense of humour - difficult to decide for oneself - as for us people from "Audili", well the Viennese are more known for their "Schmaeh", but again enough of that.

I basically wanted to say 2 things:
1 - Our "gastarbeiter" (foreign workers) are the biggest moonlighters there are, who else would do all the "Pfusch" (iilegal) work? They work in the evenings, on weekends, sometimes even call in sick, if they get a better paid job. No, seriously, on this one I have to correct you, there is no law and no tendency in Austria and probably in no European country which stops people from working a second or third job. The only legal requirement would be to pay taxes!
This brings me to the second point ...

2 - In communist systems there is this phenomenon to tie employees to their workplace as many hours as possible, or if not to their workplace then have them do community work, etc. The reason? It is a political system which is constantly in fear - so the best it to keep everybody busy. Here they seem to tell everybody wherever they are, whoever they work for, it's the best. Kids live in the most beautiful city, even if it's a dump. They are at the best school and have the best teachers. Being as busy as they all are, how would they even be able to find out the truth?
I see this being at the school all day a way to control the people and NOT keep them from moonlighting, but from maybe starting to think!!!

But this is a complex subject. However I will try not to let a future employer control me like this, like 11 teaching hours but still having to sit in the office the rest of the time. This is ridiculous. Give me more teaching hours, pay me more money - I'm also willing to do maybe 1 office hour for every 4 teaching hours if there is a need and I get things to do. And the more FTs resist such nonsense, the less the Chinese employers will be able to implement such rule. And again, I really can't care what their policy is with their own teachers ...

Tschuess, my Mongolan-sino-Korean-Habsburgan pal ))