Job Discussion Forums

[lall]

[Duffy]

FB,

Of course the revealing of a medical condition suffered by one party to another via the medical practicionary is unforgivable in any culture, I think what is missing here is the matter of human fallibility.

I am no Phsycologist, but I am sure that this person had some reason for imparting the medical problems of another person, whether to gain some kind of Kudos from having "secret" knowledge and imarting it to you, or perhaps he was just trying to prove that he was a "real doctor". Of course to me, you and others from other countries, it is a totally unacceptable practice, yet, I think we have to take into account the personality of people here.

I am sure you will have heard of the long standing joke about a person who does not measure up as having obtained his or her diploma "in the local market in Bombay or Marrakesh or any other "Degree mill" around the world.

Perhaps this "doctor" was one of this ilk, he might have had some medical training and decided to take a shortcut and this being compounded by his employers, one of them being a very "iffy" recruiter going by the name of Majali, not checking said paperwork before employment.

All in all FB, it was about the worst introduction to Oman that you could ever have had. It is not like this throughout the rest of the country, there are better employers and I hope that one day, after recovering from this debacle, you might reconsider returning to a more stable educational environment, like here in Salalah.

Duffy

[lall]

[Duffy]

[veiledsentiments]

Yes, but this is OUR board. If they want to talk trash about us, they must go and start their own board.

But seriously, in a PM flutter told me more of the details of this case and a thought occurred to me about it and why he may have said something to her. The condition he imparted to her was quite a serious illness... not contagious or liable to cause imminent death. But, it was a serious condition that could have effect in the workplace. He may have looked at flutter as a mature Western woman who could perhaps do something... get the other person to go back home or contact the family... just speculating here. There are so many cultural issues in play here... from so many cultures...

But it sounded like such an odd situation... not something that surprised me though...

VS

[flutterbayou]

About this recruiter thing:

I was told by one of our moderators that the intention of this board is to answer questions of people who consider teaching in the area. I'ts okay to warn people, or to encourage people, as the cases arise.

I don't ascribe to bashing recruiters for the sake of airing dirty laundry, but the recruiter who sponsored me makes conscious decisions to exploit his recruits, and I care to warn others of his ways. Had I known more (tho' I investigated for more than a few months), I would not have signed up with this person but would have gone with an entirely reputable group such as CECNE.

To add, locally in Sur, it is common knowledge that he owns the hotel, is co-chairman of the private hospital, pays poorly, does not fulfill his contractual promises, places his people in substandard housing (sometimes) after leaving them in hotels for more than 8 weeks, deducts fees from their salaries without the employee's advance approval or having been properly invoiced.

He tends to verbally abuse his teachers on the telephone after his afternoon cocktail lunches, appoints his undertrained secretary to mediate disputes of which he has no intention of resolving, and often places people in colleges without checking out the credibility of their educational background.

But the discussion of the past few days also intends to alert people to the fact that, as co-chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hospital, he calls upon himself to decide whether a teacher can receive in-patient care, and has contradicted physicians orders on more than one occasion. As well, the hospital care is substandard and should be of concern to families with young children.

This is not bashing. If someone writes in here to ask what it would be like to work for Hawthorn, then the question can be fairly answered in detail.

And it is the final remark I shall make on the reputation of Abdul Majid Majali. In the future, people can simply do a search. That is a promise.

[lall]

[bruceoman]

Have been working for Abdul Majali thru the college in sur and feel that some things really should be clarified here as there are without doubt some postings made by people who do have a bit of an agenda when it comes to our beloved Mr Majali! The problem with Majali isn't that he blatently rips his teachers off (Well, no more than any other agent), it is that he just doesn't actually do very much. It seems that in general, once he has got you to a college he basically does very little in terms of following up to make sure that things are ok, and can be reluctant to answer e-mails or your phone calls. The claims about the sub-standard housing here in Sur are way over the mark however, as are the comments about people being under-payed. As far as I am aware almost every teacher here is more than happy with the standard of housing supplied, and in fact is far better than what most were expecting. Some have had to spend a long time in hotel but this has been due to a number of factors, for example, they have been changing their minds about whether or not they were going to stay here, which may have made Majali think he would keep the apartments for people he assumed would stay. Some teachers are also to blame because it seemed they thought they were deserving of palatial type accomodation.
With regards to ripping teachers off financially I would like to point out that in the time I have been here (over 1 year), not one person has been paid less than what they were contracted for, and also, salaries have always been paid on time (exception being one month when it was 2 days late for some, but this was because of a glitch in Bank Muscat rather than Majali's fault).
As for the comments about his involvement at the hospital, I can't say I know a lot about that, however I do know that there were a few teachers who almost lived in the hospital and who were driving hospital staff crazy with their demands and were an embarrassment to most of the teachers at the college. This doesn't excuse Majali from having some say over whether or not they could get treatment, however, these teachers also needed to shoulder some blame. There are legitmate reasons to have a go at our friend Mr Majali, but it really seems that some people go overboard in their complaints and at times make claims that are just not true. By all means complain, there are certainly enough things to complain about, just don't exagerate them, or invent others.
Could it be that one of the people making some of these claims is also the teacher who was subject to a complaint being lodged by most foreign staff as to her behaviour and rudeness towards other staff? I wonder.

[taurus_oman]

CECNE started classifying people according to their colour of passport and ethnic background. They are following the current. Thats a great loss on our part though.

[Duffy]

t_o,

Would you care to elucidate??

Remember, there are people reading this who might be considering a job offer from CECNE.

Duffy

[taurus_oman]

They informed their staff that pay scale will be restructured according to their country of origin instead of giving priority to their qualifications as to whether you are a TEFL trained teacher with MA's or PhD. They also realized India as a source of "cheaper" teachers. When things are not ok with your college, they will simply ignore you, not return your calls or emails at which time you need their emotional support. They are easily manipulated by "more equal" teachers as to whether the contract should be renewed. There are more to tell but that should be enough.

[flutterbayou]

Oman Bruce.

You have just joined this forum and yet have a lot to say about Majali that softens his edge. Could it be that you have been asked by our friend Abdul to post something at a time when he wants a clean slate of opportunity to recruit new people? From your candor I hear familiar rings of. . . .

He has been advertising for new office personnel in Muscat and it seems strange that someone would revive an old post in such a timely fashion.

And you have supposed wrongly not only about the ID, but about various issues of money and banking, specifically which ONLY staff of Abdul Majali would have addressed here at this forum.

I do believe Majali has made his wish come true: he has found an anonymous voice to speak for him on this Forum. Sorry, Abdul, this place is for teachers.

[bruceoman]

Flutterbayou,
Sorry, but you are wrong. I am a teacher at the college and in no way am I an apologist for Majali (as I thought would have been obvious by my sarcastic referal to him as "our beloved Mr Majali"), as like I said there are many legitimate complaints that could be made about him, namely his uncanny ability to hire teachers who are either alcoholic, neurotic, or who have no idea about what is required to get by in a location such as Sur. Plus as I pointed out, he basically just doesn't seem to do anything once teachers are safely ensconsed in Sur.
I do however stand by my comments that some of the complaints you in particular have made are over the top. Complain, but complain about things that actually do happen and not just because of you own bitterness.
You also claim that I was wrong when I guessed about your id. Are you sure about this? from what you have said about the incidence in the hospital I would be quite confident of assuming that you were the subject of a petition made out by teachers concerning your behaviour, but I notice you never mention this in your postings.
Anyway, the main point about this before it descends into a slanging match is that I was not asked by Majali to "soften his image". I would be more than happy to see Hawthorn being made to act in a more professional manner, and as I said would support a lot of complaints made about him. However, the complaints about the housing here are just plain wrong, as are accusations about him ripping off teachers financially. The reason why I know that there was one instance of payment being 2 days late due to a glitch at Bank Muscat, is because Majali made one of his few forays down to Sur for a meeting with staff and was questioned on that subject. It only happened once, and since then pay has been on time again.
If I was staying in Sur or any other place in Oman, it would not be thru Majali, and wouldn't blame others for looking at other alternatives to him, but it just isn't because of the poor housing or him supposedly ripping us all off financially.