Job Discussion Forums

[pencilead]

All new teachers can email me for information on housing and management.

[email protected]

[scot47]

Do not go to Qatar. All the padlocks are made in China.

[veiledsentiments]

It is part of the current Qatar contract... look under special benefits...

VS

[veiledsentiments]

Since it is summer and everyone is probably on leave, how can there be useful updates until the next academic year when it can be ascertained if anything has changed or not?

This is the time of year when the Gulf goes into limbo... and a whole new set of problems can show up with the new staff in the autumn.

VS

[yellofello]

Another topic locked. Poor alphabetagamma. What is provoking his outrage and hostility?

I can't believe this person is female - maybe some gender confusion or misogynistic tendencies.

It also seems very probable that this person worked at U of Q and suffered some sort of traumatic situation - fired perhaps? With that recitation of nationalities working there, he clearly has a grievance against those people for whatever reason. Granted the Head may have personal problems, but then who doesn't. No need to attack his orientation. Let the guy alone. He didn't seem too bad at the interview.

One question, do we get a choice of shifts or is it arbitrary? Are the teachers' personal circumstances taken into consideration when assigned a particular shift? One of my previous jobs did this and we had a fairly happy working crew. I'm worried about this team player thing mentioned. I hope it means that there is fair play.

Could someone just provide the real positives and negatives about working at U of Q? A balanced perspective, puhleese.

alphabetagamma, puhleese do not reply to this.

[yellofello]

Thanks pencilead for your useful information. That's more like it. Too bad the other topic got locked. I specifically asked alphabetagamma not to sabotage the topic. I hope he doesn't do it on this one. Most of us just want some facts.

Some other questions:
1. Where is Garffa? Is it an area or the name of a compound? ditto for Alwab.
2. Have you lived in either of these places?
3. What do you mean by cardboard furniture?
4. How far is Garffa from the university? ditto for Alwab.
5. Do the villas have gardens? - is there a gardening team?
6. what about security? Do they have entry guards?


Having lived in Saudi, security is an important concern for me.

VS had some questions that would be worth answering. Especially the one about the electricity and appliances.

[pencilead]

. Where is Garffa? Is it an area or the name of a compound? ditto for Alwab.
Gharaffa is a roundabout. It is much closer to the school. Al-Waab is a compound and it is much farther away from the school.
2. Have you lived in either of these places? I have no choice.

3. What do you mean by cardboard furniture? The furniture is made of pressed cardboard and stapled together. No, that is not a joke.

4. How far is Garffa from the university? ditto for Alwab. You don't measure distance by kilometers, you measure it by time. 20 minutes from Garaffa and much longer from Al-Waab despite what Mr. Fixit says.


5. Do the villas have gardens? - is there a gardening team? If you are lucky and get a villa you will receive a patch of sand along with it. No there is no team.
6. what about security? Do they have entry guards? If you can call them guards.

[veiledsentiments]

Who's Mr Fixit?

Yellofello... to put things into a Gulf perspective. I really have to laugh about this cardboard furniture... one wonders why such parsimonious activities from a university in a country where they are rolling in money. I must say that this does make them look foolish and I would hope that the public airing of this fact will lead them to replace it. In the long run, having to replace it between every tenant will probably be more expensive. (since they are likely being totally ripped off by some company that they contracted to do this... who probably charged them big bucks for this stuff)

To put things into perspective in the Gulf context, some employers make you live in their housing, some only give housing allowances and you are on your own, and some give you the choice... even within countries. This sounds like new construction, so if gardens arrive, it will be later. Remember that you 'are' in the desert. Some countries like Oman and the Emirates seem more directed towards providing gardens than places like Qatar and Kuwait. When I lived on a campus, there were gardens - off campus, no.

As to security, I rarely had it wherever I lived and fortunately never needed it. The vast majority of expats in the Gulf... outside of Saudi... live with no security in their residences and rarely worry about it.

VS

[Balzac]

Hi there,

"Could someone just provide the real positives and negatives about working at U of Q? A balanced perspective, puhleese."

I'm afraid I can't, but see my new thread about the "recruitment process at Qatar University" which should give you sn idea about the way things are done there. Needless to say, I won't be joining the new crew.

cheers

Balzac

[redsoxman]

Hey yellofello I see the same thing happened to you last week. Here today - gone tomorrow. That's what made me reject the offer. No transparency. I made some useful comments and abracadarra - gone. Whizzing through the boards, last week saw your comments - and then abracadabra - within a few hours later they gone too. I had wanted to reply but gone to who knows where. Why wasn't I surprized? If people can't be straightforward, open and admit there are flaws and problems and have to resort to lurking about and pulling the old david Copperfield routine, then can you expect respect and transparency? Something kept bugging me about the comings and goings of some of the U of Q boards. This coming and going routine helped me make my final decision to reject their offer. I decided that I wanted to be in a place where they allow their warts to show. If people have something to say, let them say it. Only when you admit that you have warts, can you go in for treatment. A place that has to continuously worry about image sounds problematic. If things are so rosy, why are so many people upset, threatened and worried? I've taken a chance on another place - that also seems to have a lot of warts but no-one seems to be playing david copperfield there.

Now someone says there is shifting management. Always a bad sign when its a mass turnover. Divided loyalties? Not enough subservience.
Well good luck to the guys who're going there.

If my place turns out to be bad, I can always relax and go rock climing - that is a great stress reliever. All I can say, yellofello is be careful.

[veiledsentiments]

As I said on the other thread, you shouldn't make your decisions on the fact that QU has produced some very... shall we say... erratic and often nasty posters. Not only nasty about their employer, but nasty to other posters who don't agree with them.

The pulling and locking of posts on this board have absolutely zero to do with QU, as they have no say. There are still plenty of negative threads left here about QU so anyone who reads here is aware that there are problems.

Choose your employer by weighing the information... and how sensible the sources here sound... not based on the policies of a public discussion board as to what gets pulled.

VS