Job Discussion Forums

[Stephen Jones]

Yea, great fun. An American fluid ounce is round about 3% bigger than a British fluid ounce.

And just to confuse matters even more the Americans call their measurements 'English measurements' even though they are different from what the English use.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Can anybody say "Let's hijack a board?" What was the original topic again?

NCTBA

[scot47]

The 70% that Gringos will not get.

[Nat2]

[veiledsentiments]

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Well put by both.

NCTBA

[al bidarnd]

most colleges and universities in the uae provide housing, long holidays, tuition for kids etc. as well as sunny weather, so HCT is nothing special in that respect

most of the places i've worked around the world have had outstanding coworkers and even more outstanding students and have been a privilige to work there so hct again is not special in that respect

in every other place i've worked there have been very few negatives to manage so hct is special because there are so many negatives to manage

delaney is an exception - most of the staff I know at HCT are fed up with the place and many are leaving or want to leave - staff turnover is the highest i've ever experienced anywhere and would be higher if the contract wasn't so long - there are now more universities here that offer much more money and better conditions than HCT

VS as usual picks the one thing she wants to scorn others - she was here in better times - HCT used to be a great place to work and prices were much lower. She's out of touch being away from the UAE in one of her retirement homes - a 10% increase in gas prices is a relevant cause for concern - not sure why she gets on her high horse to tell people they are whining when higher uae inflation and lower hct salary raises no longer affect her????

getting back to the original post - HCT teachers want some of this 70% because they are also federal workers - to not get anything is rubbing salt in teachers wounds after HCT bonuses went down from 6% to 4% - that's making people want to leave.

[Longton]

Buried deep in the business pages of today's Gulf News are a couple of lines about the recent 70% pay award - it is only for the 60,000 Federal Government employees at the Ministry of Interior. It is not for local government employees. So we won't be getting an increase!

[veiledsentiments]

As usual, anyone on this board who posts anything positive is considered some kind of exception. Delaney is no exception. It is just that people like her/him just get on with things. Interesting that I get attacked for pointing out that Delaney's experience matches mine... again showing how little has changed. Yup... prices have gone up since I was there. So have salaries. And obviously, so have people's expectations of what they deserve.

Of course I was there in better times, but it was not economically speaking, it was that the system was smaller.

A quick reminder would be to look at the situation back in your home countries. If you want to see plenty of inflation - a doubling in petrol prices here for instance - and truly stagnant low wages, look at education back home where ESL teachers with MAs are at an economic level more equivalent to the burger flippers at McDonalds.

If you are unhappy in your job and can do so much better elsewhere... resign now. There is no obligation to complete those 3 year contracts. There is a notice procedure and you can leave in a semester.

VS

[al bidarnd]

the thread is about the 70% raise for federal workers, which got sidetracked into the 4% HCT annual salary increase plus people's real concerns about inflation which includes petrol prices - to say people are "whining" because they are voicing their worries about all kinds of prices going up is not on. The government has even put freefone numbers in the papers so consumers can report traders who are putting prices up too much! You need to read more carefully VS - you weren't "attacked" for agreeing with delaney but for yourself "attacking" the people who are not happy with price rises - the whiners

[mishmumkin]

[housecat]

I haven't been to the Mid. East yet. I'm simply planning and hoping to go to UAE in a year or so. Why? Well, why did any of you go? I want to earn enough money to live and save.

I read these forums a lot as part of my planning process and the only thing at all that gives me second thoughts about going is the whinning that people do about inflation and how their salaries aren't keeping up. Now, I understand that it would not feel very good to look at it like you are doing the same amount of work, and putting up with the same amount of management problems for less pay, or the same pay that is effectivly worth less in the inflated ecconomy. But really, you're still okay, and as Mishmumkin asks, where are you going to go to earn more than what you've got now?

VS is correct that for most of your credentials you'd get only a step or two above what a burger flipper gets in the States. I think that is wrong in many ways, but it's true. And the US ecconomy is very inflated. And you have to pay your own housing expenses and your have to put your kids into public schools or pay for their private education youself. And health care is criminally expensive, even with insurance. And there is no 60 days or more of vacation time to fly off on non-existant cheap flights to other near by countries. And you work eight hours a day, five days a week. And you have no cheap household help or nanny care.

And this loss of perspective and whinning make me a little shy about moving there as I don't want my son to grow up with these skewed values that people seem to develope living over there.

Come on guys, I'm sorry that your salary isn't going up as fast as inflation. Almost no one in the real world has a salary that competes with inflation any where in the world. That's why, in fact, it's called inflation. But really, you're still pretty darn well off.

[Nat2]

[bje]

[veiledsentiments]