Job Discussion Forums

[theworldinagrainofsand]

I used to find such comments on low wages tiresome but now they just amuse me.

I remember I instigated a bonus scheme to help people realise that if they did what only what they were contractually obliged to do, they could earn a little more. As I could have predicted when you give staff more for them doing what they have always done they become less happy. Why? Well, I�ll let you work that one out. In one instance of a teacher who was always late, got miffed because he didn�t get any bonus for the punctuality element. Can you believe it!

See if you can disagree with any of this

Most people who enter efl are young graduates who have very little ambition or skills and don�t have any prospect of a good career in the UK commensurate with their perceived value as a graduate so gain a cert to go and live abroad for a while. It has been a truism for at least two hundred years that if you can�t make it in the home country you go abroad. They go abroad and work for low wages which they don�t really care about as it seems like an extended holiday and are glad to have the chance to survive in a foreign country/culture. They are now qualified (long expensive training gives them a professional status as an efl teacher � well 4 weeks and �800).

They return for summer school work for a few years and then they start to think they are not really getting anywhere so they�ll return to the UK to make some real money commensurate with their value as a professional, qualified, experienced graduate.

Of course permanent posts are quite rare and almost all are poorly paid. Why is that? Because every year there are more and more �qualified teachers� (remember that long and expensive professional training?). For supposed graduates the fact that almost all of them have no grasp of the basic laws of supply and demand says something doesn�t it.

Remember however that the longer one stays in this business as a teacher the more entrenched in a losing mindset you will become. Hey presto the only outlet is to complain about how other people don�t give you things (higher wages) which are your birthright as a professional, qualified, experienced graduate. So wearying, so sad.

That is not to say there aren�t some nice people in the business but the overwhelming majority are those who have abjectly failed in their other chosen pursuit (usually artistic) and are complete losers in every way, boring, lazy and lacking ambition.

I think the apotheosis of this type is Sandy Mcmanus. If I didn�t have better things to do I would start a website to name and shame all the useless twats I have had to deal with, but why bother? It won�t improve my life. What will such people ever understand about working for six months, 15 hours a day, 7 days a week for no money at all, and you have had to remortgage to pay wages to the sort of �professionals� who walk off the job, don't turn up on time, can't fill in basic paperwork, disappear for days without informing anyone etc etc etc.


I�ve met hundreds of these types. Indeed I was one myself. Although I don�t remember complaining about how other people didn�t give me more money. My first efl job at the age of 26 paid �60 per week. That was in 1994. I have been in EFL since then and worked hard. Pay attention to that last sentence. My last job as a teacher in 2002 paid �1000 in a good week. In 2005 I earned �77,000. I once had a school but left that business as being honest and decent and trying to make everyone happy and at the same time having to deal with all the criminals, shysters and useless teachers stressed me out too much. Still in EFL but do not own a language school (thank God). How much do I earn now? about �11,000 per month. If my financial predictions pan out in about 15 months it should be about �66,000 per month.

I can hear the gasps of disbelief. Funny thing is, it isn�t that much. Loads of people in the City earn these sorts of figures. �Why, How?� Oh how I wish the Guardian would teach readers the basics of supply and demand, even a short article on working hard instead of waiting for handouts would be helpful

In case any of you think this is a silly boast, think again. Apart from the fact none of you know me, nor are you ever likely to, money in fact means very little. Making it is just a game. And no, I�m not going to tell you how. Just like wisdom, all the answers are out there, you�ve just got to work it out for yourself. Unfortunately very few of you will. I can guarantee that anyone who complains about how other people won�t give them something for free is unlikely ever to learn anything, which will ever help them get out of such a situation. The essence of success (if that is what you choose to call it, btw why are you all so avaricious?) is to work out how to give more to people while they give you less. Ok, I�m sure many of you didn�t know that, although I am confident that giving away that little secret will not help any of you. Stony ground.

Remember 95% (exactly) of the population will never amount to anything. Do you know why? I hope there will be a post with the correct answer. If there is, I will respond to it. Indeed if someone does come up with the correct answer and they need a leg up financially or in any other way, I�ll help them. I can guarantee however that almost all responses to this post will be negative and there ye shall remain. I�m rambling a little here but I haven�t quite lost faith in people yet. I am in fact looking for someone to do a job for me in EFL. Quite easy, quite a lot of admin, a little travelling, based in the beautiful English countryside and 40k for the right person.

None of you who work in schools and complain about your wages have ever spotted a decent employer and said to them, �I am going to do something for you for free because I like working here�, or �I want to be paid less� If any of you have any balls, just try it and see what happens. Those with the right attitude are always spotted sooner or later and given a chance to better themselves. There are many who started at the bottom with nothing and went right to the top. Do you think they got there by saying to those who mattered, I�m going to do less but I want more from you?

I expect you�ll all be posting how bad I am. I can�t see that I am but no doubt you�ll find something to bleat about. But before you do, consider who creates jobs, pays taxes which run the country and pays for all the health and education you lot consume. And who pays to look after the old and the sick? and gives more money away to charity than you lot earn in a year? What do you contribute?"

[lolwhites]

[SueH]

Hi lol,

Thanks for the post, always useful as ever. Happened to be in France today, at La Rosiere after I skied across from Italy. Gorgeous day, and the snow is still great. Even got a compliment for my French from a lady on a chairlift, which aint bad for 'O' level 35+ years ago..

Perhaps I won't go back to do a summer school, you never know what self-delusional, patronising, self-congratulatory employer you might meet. Far worse than I experienced in many years in IT.

[lolwhites]

The original post is taken verbatim from a comment left on the TEFL Blacklist. Go there to see the responses, and the Inspector's nomination for the original author.

[theworldinagrainofsand]

[theworldinagrainofsand]

[theworldinagrainofsand]

[Algo5]

[lolwhites]

Algo - I suggest we just ignore him, he's obviously only come to pick a fight and he may not even be the original author of the message since it's been copied and pasted from another site. The faster this thread sinks, the better.