Job Discussion Forums

[mdk]

The year before I did my first winter in Siberia, a teacher had hung himself in his room. I think the school would have much preferred him to have gone home instead.

I remember that first winter I went several months without being able to converse freely in my native english. When you do that, perhaps combined with a touch of seasonal affective disorder from the short days and cabin fever, it can get rough.

[coffeedrinker]

[naturegirl321]

If you're in a professional environment and you're the problem, then it's bad to break the contract. If however, the school is not professional or not carrying through with what they promised you, then it's ok to break the contract, not good, but acceptable.
Let's say that the school promises you 20 hours a week and you're paid by the hour, but you're only working 3, and only getting paid for three. THen in this situation, I would break the contract.

[gaijinalways]

[ktodba]

A contract should be an agreement between two parties as to what will be exchanged for what. If you agree to work for someone under certain conditions and they meet those conditions then you are at fault. If they don't meet the conditions then they have failed to meet the terms of the contract anf can act accordingly - you might want to get some evidence though for future use if possible.

At the end of the day I've had jobs I didn't like but I signed the contract and if I'm honest I could have done more research or asked for a probationary period as there were elements of the job I wasn't 100% sure I could do well. I convinced myself that it would be alright teaching a completely new age group in a new country for part of my timetable and signed the contract. I hated the first few months and wrote my letter of resignation 3 times but I at no time did I feel that I could break my contract as my employer had done what they said they would do. I eventually saw out my contract and actually did an extra 3 months for the school as I had adapted to the requirements of the situation.

I have worked on both sides as an employer and employee and ultimately for me the case is simple, if you agree to do something then you do it - if you make a bad agreement then you learn from it and research jobs / applicants more carefully in future. If they break the agreement then it's up to you if you continue or not but if you do continue be aware that you have set a precedent. This cuts both ways.

[dolmie]

Thanks Ktodba,

There's a dignity to what we do--we're not saving lives--but career teachers have chosen to give a lot of themselves and honour their commitments. Part of that, I think, is accepting sometimes that situations are not ideal. You really said something important in your post about knowing the risks, which comes down to this: "The writing was on the wall when I accepted this job." My eyes were open when I signed, I knew of some risk, I'll ride it out and accept that in risk there is payoff and sometimes loss.

If you are doing longterm damage to yourself, as in the post on suicide, you have to take care of yourself. Again, death in the family, pregnancy, serious illness, serious risk to self, bad management, no pay (except in places you can figure it out for a few weeks)--all of these excepted, hang in there. Take your lumps as an adult, then move on...

[merlin]

Breaking a contract is a legal issue.
Morality has nothing to do with it.

Students come and students go. Teachers come and teachers go. What's the big deal? It's not like you're married to the students. One week they have you and the next they have a substitute - just like if the teacher were sick.

[dolmie]

Sorry mate,

I'm not in it for me--I don't meet a lot of career teachers who are in it for themselves.

Educative systems are often immoral as large entities--morality comes from the teachers and drifts upwards. It doesn't go the other way...

Sorry, teaching philosophy aside, I can't see how you're right about the morality issue. Maybe you can clarify...

[Justin Trullinger]

I agree that if a school shows no interest meeting their end of the contract, then a teacher, if her or his grievances are not responded to, has a right to leave.

This is not why they seem to leave here, though. They leave for the darndest reasons:

"I'm tired of being whistled at on the street." (If you did your homework, you'd have known. Many people learn to put up with it.)

"I've inherited some money from my grandmother and want to go travelling" (Maybe after the school year?)

"I just can't get used to how badly behaved the kids sometimes are." (You take a 3rd grade position, you kindof expect to deal with discipline, dontcha?)

"Ecuadorians aren't trustworthy." (WHAT!?)

"I just can't get by on the salary." (Salary and expense info is never a surprise.)

I have heard all of these excuses and more, in places I've worked, and the school I now run. It doesn't say much for the people they come from, frankly.

Best,
Justin

[merlin]

[dolmie]

Merlin, you really want to be right, don't you? You want to know that it is okay for a teacher to walk out on a kindergarten class or on a high school class in the middle of prepping for a good university? I'm sorry--you're not going to get it here.

I never said striking was immoral--that's a separate issue, which I already discussed--nor did I say it was immoral in all cases to break a contract. I've stated my reasons for breaking contracts before, and like Justin, who has been on the recieving end of people sloughing off their work on their colleagues, it's at your students and colleagues' expense.

Moreover, if you are attempting to say that there is no code of ethics in business, perhaps you have missed the trials of Enron Execs, Martha Stewart and Conrad Black or the recent suicide of a crooked CEO in Japan. I still do not concede your argument there--it is apples and oranges. A contract to do with dollars is different than a contract that deals with teachers and students. Yes, the dollars on some empty ontract between merchants also has to do with buyers who have families, etc. and so on. Like it or not, Merlin, teachers are among firefighters, nurses, doctors and other care providers who are often essential.

Furthermore, if you are suggesting that our legal code does not date back to religious codes of conduct such as the Code of Hammurabi or the Mosaic codes based on the Old Testament, you need to read more.

[TravellingAround]

[TravellingAround]

[denise]

I think there are a couple of different discussions going on here. I see a world of difference between the excuses given by Justin and the talk of firefighters, etc. going on strike. I'm going to assume that firefighters wouldn't simply walk out on a raging fire the way some teachers simply walk out on schools. A strike is generally planned for in advance and enjoys the support of most of the police/firefighters/teachers. The administration has an opportunity beforehand to listen to and meet their demands.

A teacher simply leaving because she (I assume it's a she) has gotten whistled at a few too many times on the streets of Latin America--that, to me, is a personal problem--the teacher's problem, one that she should have anticipated or that she should be able to deal with on her own. Chances are she's not going to get loads of teachers to back her up if she wants to strike.

Most EFL teachers (and I say most because there are surely unfortunate exceptions--people who are truly being exploited) are fairly privileged. Our salaries, even if paltry by Western standards, are usually higher than the average local salary. We can have comfortable lives pretty much anywhere, and we have the option of going home or moving on to another country at any time. Most of our "problems" (again, see Justin's examples) are things that we can either work out or live through for a few more months. At the very least, if we want to leave, contracts generally tell us how much notice we must give. The least we can do if we can't cope is give the required two-week or one-month notice.

d

[Justin Trullinger]