Job Discussion Forums

[kev7161]

We often grouse about a bad thing our school has done to us, but I bet there are few good stories as well. Here's one:

A couple of days ago, I received a little card for my birthday. I can take this card to a local bakery and get a free birthday cake. I thought, " a free piece of birthday cake, how nice." I asked a CT about the location and also inquired if everyone gets one and she said yes - - - EVERY SINGLE TEACHER ON CAMPUS!! Also, it's not just for a piece of cake - - it's for a WHOLE cake!!

Now that's pretty swell.

[Super Mario]

Endless banquets [ok, they were really for the FAO staff], weekends in Yangshuo, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, day trips around Shanghai........the list goes on.
My first birthday in China all the FTs were taken to a hotel for breakfast and I got the day off. Oh, plus one of those disgusting fake cream sponge birthday cakes. I found some of my students, and they devoured it in seconds.
Of course I did my share of promotional stuff for them too. But I think I came out well ahead.

[Babala]

Twice a year they take all the staff (foriegn and Chinese) on a weekend trip.

I have my own apartment but they run round and pay my bills for me so I don't have to and later I just reimburse them.

They help me book tickets for travelling.

They take us out to nice restaurants every once in awhile.

[Roger]

Every employer has taken me on a trip - usually for a weekend, but in one case even for a whole week to Hainan. Every public school employer that is, not training centres!

One kindergarten handed out grocery supplies before the spring festival holidays: one big drum of cooking oil and a bag of rice (if I remember correctly).

[Babala]

I work for a training center and you can note the first thing I mentioned

[Plan B]

As mentioned above, dinners, and day-trips (although they banned alcohol from the latter, making them less fun). Are teachers' day bonus's standard in most schools?

My boss is from Macau, and grew up in Canada, so he has something resembling a code of ethics. He once lent me 4000 RMB, which was more than the amount I had earned in that pay period. He has also let me change my schedule to suit my needs.

This thread is much too positive for this forum!

We need a "Nice things your school has NOT Done to you" to balance things out.

Nice things my school has NOT done to me
1. Screw me out of money - I even got my end of contract bonus!
2. Send me on unpaid promotional events on my days off
3. Make me work on Christmas Day
4. Sit for an hour in a packed bus to go to company classes

[Shan-Shan]

My school allows me complete freedom in curriculum development, and never makes me feel obliged to attend any dinners, lunches or trips. Quite a nice understanding we have, actually.

[Lobster]

Also allows me free rein in curriculum design and teaching.
Bought AC for the classrooms.
Sends me to some government banquets with great food.
Sends me to meetings, after which I get a present worth at least 500rmb.
Gives me random half days off.
Lets me go home without penalty if I feel ill.

RED

[Yu]

Took all the FTs on a 4 day weekend trip.

Planning to get 2 weeks off next year at Christmas to go back home for a wedding. Was told it should not be a problem.

We had one dinner with all FTs, and two dinners with English department.

Gave me a set of sheets.

Reimbursed me for purchasing the MLA handbook for my class.

Make photocopies on VERY short notice.

Allowed me to contine teaching senior students even though they only have classes for 1/2 the semester. Got paid in full for last 2 months but only taught 2 hours a week. Will get paid over the summer for doing essentially nothing but planning my classes. Am likely to have the similar schedule next year.

Helped me look at a kindergarten for my kid.

[Sinko]

I have only been at this Uni for one semester, but they took us (8 FTs) to the Great Wall one weekend (from Tianjin).

They paid us for July, even though we have already finished classes and the contract finishes on 10th July.

Last term in Hangzhou, my school took us FTs (7 of us and some office staff) to Yanguan to see the Tidal River Bore. This was in mid September at the equinox when the wave was predicted to get up quite high, possibly to a record height of over 9 metres. Well, it was a flop. It got to about 1 - 2 metres. Our bus got back to Hangzhou later where we were ahead of the wave. We stopped and joined a huge crowd along the riverside near the school. (A huge crowd in China means a gigantic crowd). By the time the wave reached that point, it was nothing more than a surge of water. Have you ever heard a large number of Chinese people groan before? I digress.....

BTW Kev, Happy Birthday. Will you reveal to us the total number of annual events of this nature you have had?

[pandasteak]

they gave me a jade horse at the end of the contract. very heavy.

Wonderful for transporting halfway round the world.

ha. gift horse...

[Mpho]

Yes, all the usual stuff from banquets to free rice, oil and flour, pick up at the airport and to the airport at end of contract (3 hours by car).

Gifts of blankets, flowers every so often, let me help the students pick cotton for a day (though I asked for more days), my own office at the school with computer and internet (no other teachers in the room), lent me 7000Y to pay a hospital bill until I could get to the bank, drove me home from the hospital so that I would not have to ride a bus for 3 hours (even though it took 6 hours by car due to snow), hold my mail and packages till next semester even though I am working at another school next term and store things in my old apartment until I return next month to pick them up.

Mpho

[kev7161]

Ugh . . . 45! If I live to be 90 (hey, my grandfather lived past 90 and my great aunt - - from the other side of the family - - is 98, so it's doable), then my life is half over. If I live to be 75, my life is 3/5 over. I think I prefer the 75 however!

[no_exit]

Hmm, my last school (the dreaded EF ) would buy each teacher a cake on his or her birthday, and after the last class of the day they'd gather all the Chinese and Western staff around, sing happy birthday and cut the cake.

They gave us tons of mooncakes (gross as they are, I'm pretty sure they meant well) on Mid-autumn festival. On dragon boat festival we had a meeting, and the Chinese staff prepared a whole bunch of zongzi and other snacks for us to sample. We had Christmas and New Year off, although there was a Christmas party, in the school, complete with liquor and drinking games (the center manager even got in on the action).

The center manager lent me money out of his own pocket when I was low on cash after paying rent and routinely let teachers get advances on paychecks if they were in need. The school also regularly hooked teachers up with visas that covered them through their summer vacations so that they could leave and enter the country without getting new ones.

Of course, the school akways has its reasons for these acts of kindness, and it would be naive to assume they're motivated purely out of the goodness in their hearts, but some of the gestures are nice nonetheless, and the extra stuff did help to make the atmosphere more friendly and pleasant.

[Yu]

My school paid the salary for July and August already.
They give us 50 RMB for each time we go to Minhell (aka Minhang)--the bus fare is 14 round trip... it isnt much but at least the recognize the trouble.
The vacation allowance has also been paid.