Job Discussion Forums

[booty]

I am currently at a school which will remain nameless where the director bullies her staff, includin the admin staff. Some teachers have been told they are worthless, and admin staff have been driven to tears.
This bully director unfairly treats her staff like dirt. She never acknowledges them and when staff want to approach her to ask her a question she says 'What do you want' or simply 'Sorry?'
When a very professional senior teacher was genuinely ill with a cold, he was told by the director that he was trying to 'pull a fast one' and docked his pay anyway.
Has anoyne else experienced similar unacceptble bullying from directors? If any, what action was taken against them? How did everyone deal with them? :

[denise]

I've never worked for a bully, but I did very briefly have an incompetent director. How did I deal with it? I left and found a better job. I'd recommend that you do the same--there are always decent jobs out there. (Unless you work in a country where your visa is tied to your job...)

d

[ls650]

The one great thing about TEFL is that there are always plenty of other jobs. As denise wrote, if you don't like a job, leave!

[Justin Trullinger]

In many countries, the laws governing workplace conduct are so lax that this kind of behaviour is relatively common. (Not just in TEFL, either.) My experience here in Ecuador is that there is still a feudal mentality- those in charge, like the "patrons" of yesteryear, feel that they rule by divine right, and can do whatever they want. Sadly, the "underlings" in Ecuador also seem to accept this view. (Consciously or unconsciously, I don't know, but it doesn't really matter.)

The only technique of dealing with it that I've seen effective is the grapevine. Word gets around about who is no fun to work for. There are, in most cities, schools that can recruit, and keep, good teachers, and schools that can't. My first recruiting step is always to look through the thick pile of resumes I always have belonging to the employees of a certain competitor. Though I try to discourage anything so dramatic, most of them are willing to leave their current posts with about 6 minutes notice. Turnover in a bad working environment is way too high, and it comes back to haunt the school eventually.

The only other thing I've seen work, in the outlaw world of TEFL, is threats, direct or indirect. I had a boss in Spain who tended to cut corners on pay- until a certain teacher stood in the door of his office- the only exit- until errors were corrected. The implication was that upon attempting to leave without paying correctly, a certain director was going to get his nose permanently reshaped.


Maybe this could work?

Justin

[snorklequeen]

Bullying is fairly common in large business organizations in the US and i've heard that's true in England

There's a book on bullying by Tim Fields in London; it was the classic about 6 years ago; it's called "Bully In Sight"; it may be available now at amazon.com.uk, or you may need to get it from him; just do a Google or other search and you'll run into it

there may still be some web communities for bullying; Tim Fields had one, and there was another one called Nineveh; he had an e-newsletter also

Lotsa luck! it's definitely no fun

Queenie

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

One of the benefits of working in the Gulf is that you never have to experience such behaviour ... whether it be from colleagues, students or locals ..

[expatben]

I worked for a bully once and so I left plain and simple. As other people have wrote there are other jobs in the world, people do not deserve to be bullied in any profession.

[SueH]

Be in a strong enough financial position with rainy day money, which will give you the confidence to stand up to them. Often with bullies they can't cope with a strong response and crack themselves. (But not always, hence the fallback position!)

[SandyMcIvor]

Things tend to happen to unpleasant people. Salt gets dumped into their office plants, all the bolts go missing from their chair and desk, bananas appear in the tailpipe of their car, their cell phone number and home address appear on kinky websites with promises of anything....

So dont worry, karma is a great friend.

[booty]

We have had several meetings about this bully and it has been going on for years since the school opened in 1993. Admin staff, in particular have been really badly bullied.
Apparently, the non-native speakers have been here before, but nothing was done about the woman. They say about the school, situated in the Baltics - is one of the few in the city and they are afraid they'll never be able to get another job. On the other hand, many native speakers barely last 3 months, which is a real shame as the staff are lovely. I'm off soon as I can't hack it.