Job Discussion Forums

tmac-100 · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 137

[quote="metateacher"]......Now with oil at $42 a barrel expect more of the same....quote]

Are you suggesting (perhaps) that we MAY also see reductions in salaries/benefits/.....???

OR, is your comment just fanning one of the conspiracy theories that keep swirling about the UAE?

You realize (of course) that the Abu Dhabi government (which essentially funds the HCT) has over $1 TRILLION USD in cash/near cash equivalent available/on hand on a daily basis.....

That is a million, million USD Smile

adorabilly · Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 430 Location: Ras Al Khaimah

Hey Tmac.

I must not have been clear enough (actually looking back, I wasn't).

Here is what I meant. When you are assigned that 24 hours a week in the first semester, you can't refuse it (usually, not without good cause). So one of the things you look forward to is getting those extra 4 hours of OT per week that accrues. And lets be honest, 24 hours is and can be incredibly draining and rather backbreaking.

So when that second semester comes around, and the supervisor/dean/chair decides that they want to balance out the budget to avoid paying OT to you (the instructors who earned it) by giving you less hours, that SUCKS. You were the one that busted your rear for 16 weeks, doing all the extra work.

So in effect you lose out on that salary that you earned, and were burned out working so a director can have their balance sheet look better.

Now in the states you will often have this "flex time" on a biweekly pay period. so one one week you work 50 hours, and the next week you work 30 hours so you don't get paid overtime. But doing overtime like that in a two week period is vastly different than working 24 contact hours per week for 16 straight weeks.

In my humble opinion that is poor management, and causes burned out staff, thus a higher staff turnover.

So while it is true that the average load is 20 hours (24 hours first semester and 16 second semester), you still have to be on campus at many HCT branches for 35 to 40 hours a week. So first semester you are worked to death, and the second semester you have to come up with busy work. So for the year it averages out, but it leaves lots of burned out staff who feel under appreciated and screwed over by HR/admin who are nickeling and diming the teachers to death.

helenl · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 1202

In addition to Adorabilly's comments - there are usually teachers in the first semester who "only" have 16 hours - for whatever reason, but their salaries are not adjusted accordingly if they fail to meet the 20 hour yearly average applied to overtime - probably because they'd leave.

It does drain you mentally and physically to work the overtime and to have your OT hours "stolen" from you is morale destroying.

HCT should play it one way (reduced teaching load? reduced pay - and watch people leave) or pay the OT for the semester in which it was earned - morale boosting, increased job satisfaction (OB 101 in other words)

tmac-100 · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 137

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

What cursing, sex-crazed addicts in what home country? Not in any college or university I've seen in my particular home country. At least not in class.

tmac-100 · Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 137

ckhl · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Posts: 214 Location: SE Asia

Fortunately during my long stint at the HCT I never had to teach 24 hours in a semester. If I had had to, however, I know that I would not have been able to contest it without putting in jeopardy my job or the prospects of that ever-looming "contract renewal", which, seems to dangle above the heads of most faculty. So....if you have to teach 24 hours, you device your own coping stratgies. For example, set work as much as possible in class; give at least one test/quiz a week, during which you essentially invigilate for the class hour. When the test is over, class is over. If you see a class for a double block, imperceptibly extend that "five-minute" break to fifteen, or better, twenty minutes...there are others, but these should help.

helenl · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 1202

As you say Tmac - if one is unhappy, one should take a long hard look at their situation and make a decision to put up (and hopefully shut up for the sake of their colleagues) or resign.

I entered the discussion originally to let newbies know that the OT they work in semester 1 may not result in actual $$ at the end of semester 2 - then I allowed myself to have that "western moment" Shocked

that I usually get slapped for by my friends. Laughing

About complaining to the department of labour - I don't think that they would view the OT issue as an issue under the UAE labour laws - we'd have to work far more hours in order to qualify for OT under the UAE labour statutes.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

"western moment" Laughing

love it...

VS

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

Western moment harahm!!!

TruthHurtsButIstheBest · Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 5

I can only comment about Sharjah colleges and truth be told after you have put up with traffic and Mosaic, you will be in no shape to look for extra work.

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

I know what you're thinking...did I teach six classes, or was it only five? Well with the excitement and all, I sort of lost track myself. But seeing as how Mosaic is the most powerful curriculum in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you have to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?