Job Discussion Forums

[squirrel2go]

ah... so its almost legit?? All the better! Or not; kinda liked having a few idiomatic eccentricities in my quiver (quivver? whatever).

"currency even"... hehe, amazing how typos will be overlooked until they are pointed out... i for one never would have even noticed it!

[Master Shake]

To all you naysayers who said I could not live on 2000zl a month, I tell you - it can be done!

No steak and lobster for me, but I do have enough currency to enjoy the occasional slice of pizza or pierogie, go out for drinks a few times a week, etc..

And today I discovered the 'milk bar,' a place where you can buy a full meal for less than the price of one beer.

[Alex Shulgin]

[Master Shake]

[nocturnalme]

Shaker - How's it going over there?
Pay will probably be the same for the next year or so. As you said, Bell wages are pretty standard, about average even.

[Master Shake]

It's going great. We're in the middle of a two-week semester vacation...seems like every other week is vacation here.

Got loads of time but I need some inspiration for daytime things to do. Absinthe (the bar, not the drink) often takes care of the evenings

You still trying to find work over here, nocturnalme?

[nocturnalme]

Yeah, still looking. Been tentatively offered one with ProfiLingua, should hear in the next week or so. If that falls through, I'm pretty screwed for jobs in Gdansk til September, methinks! Plenty of opportunities elsewhere in Poland, but Gdansk's where I want to return. Going stir crazy here!

[marni]

Hey master, as for next year i can give you a few ideas 1. in the tri-cities you should and there are schools that will give you 3500pln a month, 2.i would get out of Bell before Ludka and Jo squeeze the blood outta you espically with their summer camps i remember for 3 years the pay never changed and stayed at 1200 for a fortnight and you worked at least 17hours a day with arrogant teenagers and no support whatsoever, 3.you no longer get youe end of contract bonus its now travel allowance so you only get 1000 but as you've been there less, i would check with Darek what he is planning to give you as the unheard of bills will appear! If you do leave this year please please remember to ask Jo for a written reference as they will refuse to give a reference for you for future jobs and when they do it will be so negative.


Respect to the The Tubular Bells including Vlad the Implayer sorely missed!!

[Candid Kandura]

Yes, that Jo from Bell is definitely one to be avoided - untrustworthy and sneaky (and that's being generous!). I worked with her once on a Bell Summer school, and she wasn't invited back, I can tell you. She was pretty good at looking freaked out, telling others what to do, and then running away from her own responsibilities, though.

Perhaps that's just what Bell wanted?

[nocturnalme]

Hmmm .... makes me glad I quit Bell now I know I'm not the only one who had 'issues' with them! Well, the Gdansk branch, anyway. Bydgoszcz was amazing!

[marni]

funny i just realised we all probably know eachother and should get up our own forum just to bitch about jo and her problems and how Bell are just penny-pinchers!! Scotty got some advice for you 1. i wouldnt bother doing my CELTA at Bell, i would reccommend doing it at IH much better reputation and better opportunities they regularly offer jobs to people that pass, Bell will do the same but send you to places like Lodz or the middle of no where, try IH Bygdgoscz or IH Krakow(best reputation in IH). as for decent schools in the tri-cities for money check out The New School of English owned by two English guys one the Head of Cambridge exams and a company car included in the package, another good one is Distinction School owned by another English guy, to be honest i would steer clear of Bell and Polish owned schools, Empik has a very strange way of paying you, depends on how many students come to class and how many have paid.

IN NEED OF A SELF-HELP BOOK?

[dynow]

Speaking of weird ways of paying, I thought that of Profi-Lingua, and nocturnalme, I was curious as to whether or not you had been offered the job yet and what your opinion was about it, because I surely had some issues with it.

I was offered a job there, and shorty after looking through the contract, I turned it down. They pay according to class attendance as well. It was some strange formula, something about if a certain amount showed up, you were paid the standard pay rate, but if it fell below, you were penalized 20% of your pay rate per hour. It also depended on how long the class was a certain size, meaning if it started too small, there was a cutoff date for you to get paid your standard rate or if you would continue to get paid 20% less. Poor explination, sorry, but it was a total joke to me to have these stipulations with your teachers. It is not the teacher's responsibility to fill the classrooms for each semester.

It's an obvious failsafe for the school in case they agree on a certain pay rate for you and at the same time, they can't get enough students to enroll. Also, every question I had emailed back to them regarding their contract resulted in a short, one line, shoddy explination.

[nocturnalme]

Cheers for that, Dynow. It certainly does seem a bizarre way of paying, definitely covering their backs. No, I haven't been offered a contract yet, it was just a general chat re availability. I don't know much about them so any info is very welcome.

[dynow]

i wish i could give you some more info. on it, but i honestly didn't give that contract too much time to digest. i looked it over, shot back an email with concerns, and was totally disappointed with the responses.

also, Profi pays by the hour, not by the lesson. i currently get paid per lesson and it is the better way to go.


here's one more sketchy thing about the Profi contract: They listed my hourly pay, and then a sentence or two later, it said something along the lines of that if I satisfied all demands of the job, I would get paid 5 zlotych more per hour. that totally through me off and seemed entirely subjective, so I asked about it. The answer was basically if I showed up on time every lesson, did all that was asked of me, I would get the extra 5 zlotych. it's such a sketchy thing, and I wasn't comfortable with somebody looking at my tally of hours at the end of every month and saying, "ok, well, this much for this lesson, this much for this lesson.....only 4 showed up to this class, so 20% off for that.......know what I mean?

Not to mention, with that 5 zlotych detail, it would make me feel like they constantly had an eye on me, every lesson of the day, because let's be honest, they have to justify one way or another whether you are getting your standard pay rate, or the 5 zlotych extra per hour.

I welcome anybody that may have a clearer picture of how Profi works to post something here, if anything for nocturnalme's benefit, because I gave it a fair chance and sent quite an extensive email back to them with questions, and was totally disappointed with their responses. I don't want to go on here talking poorly about a school that maybe I just don't quite understand, but in my defense, I asked many questions about their contract, and there was little effort put forth in attempt to help clarify things.

[scottie1113]

marni-thanks. I interviewed at Bell for the CELTA while I was in Warsaw last August and have already sent them my deposit. I'll be in Gdansk early September to pound the pavement but I'll begin contacting schools this spring in an attempt to pave the way. Thanks for the tips on good schools-I'll be watching these threads very closely to see if any other names pop up.