Job Discussion Forums

ap4058 · Joined: 20 Mar 2009 Posts: 84

Just wandering of all the teachers that have come over to the UAE how many havent made it through their probation period?

johnkg · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 127

In my experience, it is quite unusual for someone not to make it through their probation. The employer pays a lot of money to get the employee, therefore something very serious would have to happen for that employer to terminate a contract. Add to that the havoc it creates in terms of scheduling.

I know of two people out of several hundred new hires at my college who failed their probation - both for "inappropriate" conduct with female students.

newtogolf · Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Posts: 49

Could you elaborate on the "inappropriate conduct" that led to failure in probation?

What is appropriate in one culture might be somewhat/very inappropriate in another. For example, keeping eye contact with your females students in the US or Uk would be appropriate; doing the same here will be, I assume, inappropriate. As a result, the culprit will be fired. Is that so?

Should we be very cautious and conscious about teaching females students? I don't want my teaching to be a nerve-breaking experience. Very Happy

Zoot · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 408

I know of one woman who didn't make it through her probation period with ADEC. She had a higher level position, but don't know what it was.

johnkg · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 127

jdl · Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 632 Location: cyberspace

I know no one who has not survived the probationary period. This includes instructors of all sexes who: have refused to seek or take medical advice for mental health issues; been unable to control/resolve personal difficulties with alcohol, drugs, sexual preferences/activity; were openly insubordinate; were habitually tardy or absent. Several however were not allowed to complete the contract and were 'whisked' from the country; while others were 'counselled out' or constructively dismissed. Others 'just left'. None were offered a second contract. I have found that most terminations have a political aspect in that the action 'not to terminate' becomes less attractive than termination in spite of all the good financial points raised by johnkg. As Tony Soprano says, "It's just business"

Most inappropriate activity i.e. activity which does not have dire political implications for the employer/college, if done out of ignorance and followed with much humility and apology is forgiven. It is never forgotten however and may be used in the future to shore up a case.

It is a wonderful sense of Kharma.

Advice? ...... Watch, listen, seek first to understand and be very aware of the Newton's third law of motion, noting that reaction may not be immediate but 'stored' for a potentially explosive reaction triggered by what many would regard as a trivial action on in the 'inappropriate scale'

Ah, the Middle East...politics at its best. So good that most 'outsiders' never know what hits us/them. It is a truly wonderful cultural learning experience.

007 · Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 5:04 pm Post subject:

jdl · Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 632 Location: cyberspace

To misquote Lyle and Britten; "What's God got to do with it"?

We do live in such an interdisciplinary time where the 'shadows on the cave wall' when viewed from a variety of perspectives and through a variety of filters reveal something closer to the 'form'. Plato meets Hans Selye.

jdl · Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Posts: 632 Location: cyberspace

and Marshall Mcluhan

007 · Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 9:39 pm Post subject:

Well, as Chesterton writes, �Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead�.

johnslat · Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 10:06 pm Post subject:

Dear 007,
You do seem to have a talent for non-sequiturs, and you do realize, I hope, that the quote from Chesterton ("Orthodoxy") is part of his argument as to why he is a Christian.
Regards,
John