Job Discussion Forums

[MIKEBUCHAN]

Thanks all for your comments. I got an email yesterday from the Project Officer - a very short Philippina - asking if I would come back! I did answer her email and ask her for a completed, signed, stamped and sealed contract and a residence permit to be sent to me ASAP to my address of record.

As you might imagine - no answer. And I have been gone for more than a month!

[letitslidedude]

That Philippina lady is just a poor secretary and a really nice lady, unfortunately the orders come from the Project Manager who is running about 350 projects in the same time. Does he have time to listen to you and satisfy your needs? the answer is: NO NO NO! You don't take the job, there are about 20 unqualified teachers waiting at the door and mostly from sub-continent countries.

My advice is look somewherelese!

[nomadykaty]

My question to all, do the recruiters (i.e. Griffith University) know what's going on? Or are they a part of the cr@p that happens there?

I ask because a new institute is opening up in the UAE (maybe it has already) called UAE Academy and they are going through the University of Washington (Seattle) to recruit their teachers. UW is a great university, I'd hate to see them end up like Griffith getting trashed on this forum.

[letitslidedude]

They are forced to be part of the scam. Why? Last year Griffith university sent a representative to QP in order to investigate. This gentlmen took teachers out for meals and beers in order to get the inside scoop. He did it for 3 weeks (Doha) and went back to Australia. Nothing happened??????????? Could he have done something? No No No??? Why?

The Sudanese and the Syrian mafias are blocking the way and the only thing they do is PAY Griffith!

Money money money and zip it POLICY!

Removing those 2 mafias, in my opinion, is the key of success.

Got me?

[veiledsentiments]

In most cases, hiring agents get trashed if they do not tell the people they hire the truth, pay them less than the going rate, and/or don't know the process to get people into the country and legal...

Just because a place is a good university back home doesn't mean that they have the slightest idea what they are doing in the Gulf. A perfect example is George Mason University, who are involved with a place in Ras Al Khaima. It took them a couple years to fix the problems that their lack of experience caused in the beginning. But they are a bit more active in the management, not just hiring agents.

Only time will tell if UW gets to join the ranks of the regularly trashed here.

VS

[dmb]

Sounds as if QP made a mistake getting rid of Malachy.

[MIKEBUCHAN]

That Philippina lies through her teeth and smiles all the while. And ALL of the rest of that office staff in that office has no idea what the truth is either.

There is one Project Operations Manager for GSSG and on the back of his card RMIT International (some university according to his card?) and Grifffith University -- this is the one that demanded a 600 QR bribe so that I could get my RP --- no bribe and no RP. When I complained - I became the evil problem and Safa (chief at RAA and about the only one that I liked) made me write this rear-end plug an aploogy!

dmb - QP has made just about one mistake too many. A friend of mine from Oz and a direct hire (about 8 years ago) just emailed me to tell me that not only are the native English teachers quitting --- the English speaking process teachers are bailing out too. And he wrote that the infighting between the two mafias is the main reason. AND, he says that the only new hires are from the respective mafia families - no more native English, So, IF all this is true then QP gets exactly what they want and deserve.

[dmb]

What happened to the writing team? Did these books ever get finished and if so were they an improvement on the pilot ones?

[MIKEBUCHAN]

dmb - You have been gone for some time, I think??? As of the end of February 2007 those pilot books were still being used and are not complete. I was writing the Unit 7 & 8 exams myself. The text writers were shamed as one woman (whom I only heard about from my friend from Oz and has worked there for 8 years) wrote texts that were much better and in no time at all - they, on the other hand, had spent a couple of years and a couple of million dollars and nothing was finished.

The only man that I found there that was worth anything was Safa, he was the chief teacher at RAA and had no power at all. He could move you from class to class and room to room and maybe even from site to site but that was it.

Another thing that I heard about GSSG - they are giving 1 and 2 month vacations and considering raising the salary from 9000 QR to something... I read in the Gulf Tribune before I left that salarys must go up by 35% just to keep up with costs. Fat chance GSSG will raise salaries even 10%

[dmb]

[MIKEBUCHAN]

That chant left when you left, I think! With few Westerners and far too many Middle Easterners as English teachers, and all new hires are related to the mafias, no one does anything out of line. Tow the mark or go home!

[dmb]

It was the students who used to chant it. They'd see him out the window and off they'd go.

[MIKEBUCHAN]

I think you missed my point -- Tow the mark or go home! Serious stuff now.

[dmb]

Got you. I think it has always been a case of tow the mark though. Sounds as if it is just a different mark.

[Stephen Jones]

It's toe the line.

If you tow the mark you're moving it to where you want it, which is the opposite of the intended meaning.