Job Discussion Forums

[DennisSzilak]

Any way you look at it, most of the problems facing zebras can be expressed in two words: lions & crocodiles

Leave aside the gender wars; and defamation of one�s neighbor as well as teachers, learned at momma�s knee. Student complain letters are inevitable. Mob behavior rules the classrooms, such that students with no complaints whatever will sign on. Your directors and administration will piss all over themselves with self-serving. There are economic and demographic reasons why students entirely unsuitable for academic programs-- plus their parents--get to blame you, the foreigner, for every failure, That�s the way it goes.

Now consider your sponsor. The tiny picture with you in it is that there is no practical way to force Bahwan Cybertek to adhere to terms of a contract. Count on being cheated along the way and especially at settlement. Go tell it to the Omani Labor Court.

In contract suits, whatever the forum, you can only get out of contract the value of the contract. This is chump change for Bahwain. You will be paying the costs of a suit, which deducted from any success, will give you peanuts--even if you are able to haul Bahwain into a western forum. Want to try India?

The bigger picture is that you are in the middle of a gang war. Bahwan got its contract by taking away a big piece from another contractor, CECNE, Toronto. Bahwan has proven incompetence to handle this contract but it has gotten some help from agents of CECNE.

The lady to whom the message below was sent is head of department at Shinas College [near Sohar, Oman] along with being a CECNE recruiter. Bahwan is too dumb to realize that its employees are being systematically discredited and terminated in this scheme of things. The locals don�t know what is going on because, as seen below, who do they get their interpretations from? [ Just because you speak some English doesn�t mean you understand it.] The contractors and their joint venture partners are corrupt as usual, but previously the swill didn�t affect an individual�s contract arrangement.

Welcome to the new world of globalization employment racketeering. Professional level employees are as disposable and interchangeable as the night shift at the sweat shop. This is especially true of ESL teachers who are about the dumbest group of herd animals the syndicates can exploit. There is a Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson. [2007 Off The Wall Calendar for June 22] It shows the head zebra of the herd in the foreground, saying, Let�s move it folks. � Nothing to see here. � It�s all over. � Move it along folks. � Let�s go. Let�s go. In the background a lion is devouring one of their colleagues.

Welcome to the world of
Zebras Needed in Various Locations In Oman
Posted By: Bahwan Cybertek LLC <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, 17 June 2007, at 12:48
We are driven by the philosophy that big fish eat little fish and lions eat vegetarians.

Bahwan Cybertek invites all zebras of English as a foreign language for applying for the September session!!
Welcome to this fascinating Odyssey !

When big women, and we do mean big, threaten me, we tingle all over with excitement.

I have informed the company, CECNE, of its potential liability resulting from the action of its agent, attempting to instigate a criminal action by suggesting to an Omani administrator that a writing dated Friday, June 22, 2007 and distributed Saturday, June 23, 2007 contained language that slandered the Ministry of Manpower of the government of Oman. For pray tell, from whom could he have gotten such a notion, being as the writing contains no mention of the Ministry; the names of no individuals; no identifier of Shinas College; and only references Mussana College as a site where exam scripts were removed from an office some time in October 2006; that also being the place where the distribution of writing titled Control out of Control received some disapproval but failed to elicit the hysteria evidenced by the CECNE agent.

In other words You. Being as the Omani administrator could not have derived any such conclusion on his own; being that the level of vocabulary and rhetorical structure of the writing is beyond the range of an average native speaker of English. Well beyond your range also but it didn�t prevent acting maliciously.

The writing twice refers to a faculty of judgment. The source is also beyond your range but keep working at it.

Kant, INTRO: Of the Transcendental Faculty of Judgment in General

[veiledsentiments]

So... after wading through all that rather turgid prose... you are agreeing with my constant refrain here for many years...

Never take a job through a recruiter or agency in the Gulf unless you are desperate - ie a newbie to the field or trying to get that first Gulf job on your CV... or have been fired by most of the legitimate employers.

VS

[lotsa]

Indeed, I agree, recruiting agents are hacks, avoid at all costs. I don't write much in these forums, but I am of the following opinion.

Look at it in a rational logical way and you won't go wrong, that is, if you are a university graduate you must have at least a few bits of grey matter that will tell you to go look for jobs yourself, go sell yourself direct to learning institutions and put more than 100% into pitching yourself and your credentials and that are verifiable.

The ESL world is not an entity on its own when it comes to overseas employment opportunities, so don't make it into a special case that it is (which appears to me to be an especial trap that many teaching applicants fall into). There is nothing about employment in ESL any different to other occupational fields, and recruiters take many for a ride in those other fields as well!

Cogito ergo sum.

[denise]

[lotsa]

Percentage wise maybe recruiters do help out, but again, if you are a direct-hire from a learning institute who is investing money into you, the teacher (in terms of employment package), and as a sponser, they should come to the party. There are places like this in Oman, for sure, in fact I am fortunate to have everything being done for me by my employers from whoa to go but I fear this may be in the minority!

[veiledsentiments]

Interesting Denise because in 10 years the constant complaint of people who were hired through recruiters was that fact that they got zero help on anything, invariably were put into substandard housing compared to direct hire teachers, and were usually paid less than direct hires... sometimes significantly less. There was nearly a revolution at SQU and they terminated their experiment with recruiters very quickly... ilhamdulillah...

I was always a direct hire, my employers always did everything concerning the paperwork with zero problems (except in infamous Kuwait which is a bureaucratic disaster), and was provided with furnished housing - two employers in Oman and one in the UAE. (granted that benefits and housing are becoming a major issue everywhere in the Gulf as inflation is pushing employers to lower the benefits)

So... your recruiter is very much the exception to the long-term rule. You should probably give the name so that people know that this one is better than the norm.

VS

[denise]

I was hired through CfBT. They've been discussed a few times here and I've answered several PMs about them, so I'd rather not repeat all of the details.

As I've said before, I am happy with them, although I realize that there are different opinions out there (based on different expectations or experiences, different outlooks, etc.).

d

[stoth1972]

[ETG]

I worked in Oman and was hired through CECN and had NO issues with them they were great, supportive, good housing and responsive if any help was needed.
There are good people out there

[denise]

[veiledsentiments]

Up until Denise's posts, the only complaints that I had ever read here about employers not helping with all visas and required paperwork had been about recruiters.

I have never heard of direct hire people ever having problems with this in Oman or the UAE. Even the small private college I last worked in handled this with head-spinning efficiency in Oman. Before the end of the first full week, I had the phone, bank account, internet, medicals, driving license, fingerprints, and my shipping was in my flat and the car from Kuwait was registered in Oman... all this on my tourist visa. It took another week or so to get the labor card.

The problems seem to have popped up since this bunch of small branch universities in Oman that had been under the Ministry (and very efficiently run with great benefits) suddenly switched over to outside managements of the language centers and recruiters. That is when this branch of the board started to fill with complaints.

The biggest mistake that Oman made in their tertiary education was not duplicating the SQU system throughout the whole country. They should have cloned off branches to the villages rather than trying to do it on the cheap.

VS

[denise]

I didn't say it couldn't be done.

My purpose for posting was sort of to defend the good recruiters out there. I would expect them to take care of my visa. The other paperwork-related things--well, maybe I am just too humble, but I don't see how them helping me get a road pass or a liquor license is necessarily their responsibility. I am happy that they do.

And as I've said, the main benefit is the assistance with housing. They could give us an allowance and leave us on our own to find and furnish a place, deal with rental increases, etc., or they could give us furnished housing (and presumably deal with rental increases, if they come up). Again, I'm happy they do the work.

I'm glad you were happy with your experience, VS, but please don't assume that all of us who are not direct hires are unhappy.

d

[veiledsentiments]

One must never make too many assumptions in the gulf. Nor about recruiters... Good news that CfBT cleaned up their act in Oman as they got very bad press on here at the beginning. I am always happy to see that attention is paid when valid criticism shows up. Now if only they all would do the same. (I won't hold my breath...)

BTW... IMHO, it is very much the responsibility of your employer to provide the proper paperwork required to for anything that involves the government... and that would definitely include road passes and liquor licenses - along with those needed for the driving license and telephone/internet along with work visas and labor cards. That is very much standard operating procedure in Oman and has been for 20 years.

VS

[Duffy]

VS,

I am not in anyway involved with CfBT, but, having seen the way they have looked after their employees here in Salalah, I consider it a job well done.

I think in all fairness, employers should be responsible for housing, and ancilliary matters. Liqour license?? Is this not a personal thing and therefore should not the employee make his/her own personal application?

Road licences, as the employees of CfBT are individuals and can choose how they want to use their spare time, why should the agents bear the cost and time to apply for road licenses, see "Bjorn's xanga" site, here he has travelled to Dubai and other places on his own, without relying on his agents.

Also Internet/ telephone-? Again this is an individual choice, I agree that agents should be there to help and advise, but arrange installation etc?? what if an employee does not want one? Are they to have it pressed upon them?

Work visas and labour cards, YES!! that is what they are there for, if nothing else.

Duffy

[veiledsentiments]

By helping out I mean providing the government required paperwork... not paying for it. But every step of the way of everything requires a certain paper or letter from the employer plus the usual handful of photos. Whether one requests the papers and gets them is, of course, ones own choice. When I registered my imported car in Oman, it took 3 incarnations of the employer letter before the DMV were happy - since I was still on my tourist visa. I was teaching a class as it was done by an Omani. I never got a liquor license in any country I lived in.

With both employers in Oman. they got the road passes for me (once they finally became available for women - which they were not for many years... only married women could ride with their husbands to Dubai.) If there was any charge to them, I never knew about it. Both employers took me to the phone company with the proper paperwork, though I paid all charges. the same with the driving license... Some people even managed to get a ride to the liquor license place, though the Omani 'fixer' didn't enter with them.

If an employer brings a foreign teacher in, I think it is their responsibility to smooth the way and show them the ropes of the local system.

VS