Job Discussion Forums

Renata · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 48 Location: Poland

Wow, Chthon...

Although I do not consider applying for a job in Al Shabaka, I have read your post twice and I am amazed how you managed to sound objective and reasonable...There are so many teachers here, whose main goal is to complain, seethe with anger and show everything in darkest colours possible.
Very few decide to write something positive or at least neutral.
It's good to know that there are still posters like you here Wink

desultude · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 614

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

Does Shabaka have anything to do with PMU or were you just generalizing?

VS

Renata · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 48 Location: Poland

No, I am not looking for any nice stories with only positive comments and tearful histories about friends, unicorns and pink colour.
Why can't you praise people here if everything was ok? It is easier to transfer your anger and dissapointment towards your employer than to praise the one who really helped you and made your work easier, isn't it?

You are here to report facts, just like Chthon, right? Well, it's helpful to get a balanced view of the situation, not just the negative facts.
I am not on anyone's side in this discussion, I haven't even been to KSA before, so I know nothing about teaching there, that is why I found this thread so useful.

desultude · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 614

destionable · Joined: 11 Aug 2009 Posts: 46 Location: wherever

I see CYTHON'S comments confirm what I had to report about Al Shabakah's illegal contract conditions. I reported these for the benefit of other job seekers. As he/she said...if you have any doubts don't apply to Al Shabakah. Regarding Cython's comment about people from QUEBEC, would he/she be francophobic? Not very nice for a so called educated person!

Chthon · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 54

Chthon · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 54

veiled sentiments,

Fair enough. What I said is based on my experience here - my family connections I mentioned, in addition to my fiance being from here, my best friend being from here, most of my close American friends working here, and my father being the PhD dissertation adviser for many people now working as professors in this region.

I have also followed your posts for a while and you have more experience than me in this region on a personal level. I could be wrong and you could be right, but I can only base my comments on what I have experienced and seen myself.

Renata,

I try my best. I don't care if anybody here decides to work for Shabaka or not...I live my life, you live yours. But I come from a working class background (my father was an engineering professor but my mother got custody and I grew up poor) and I had to work blue collar jobs to get myself through college. The point is, maybe I'm just old fashioned in my work ethic and my belief that you shouldn't slander a man or a company's reputation and you shouldn't run around shouting something (on the internet, in the break room, or otherwise) that you wouldn't have the balls to say personally. And the crap sheikher and destionable are saying here, is crap that I know not a single one of the teachers who left unhappy this year would say to my face or anybody else's face here. It just bothers me.

desultude,

I can see where you're coming from. A good friend of mine is one of the survivors at PMU and I know what happens there and at other universities in this country as well. I've visited that mess of a compound a few times, too. All I'm saying is specific to Shabakah. People should make an informed decision, but the rantings of two disgruntled former employees are not what I would consider good information in this specific case. (Short version: I see your point.)

destionable · Joined: 11 Aug 2009 Posts: 46 Location: wherever

Thank you for that Chthon....I mean about not being francophobic. I certainly agree with you Chthon...it's not only Al Shabakah...I'd say with all these new SAUDI recruiting agencies....working conditions in the Kingdom are deteriorating by the second. I've now seen some recruiters that don't even offer housing....a salary and that's it!! Soon they will request that we pay them to teach in the Kingdom!! Saudi Arabia is fast becoming one of the LEAST desirable countries in which to work!

Grendal · Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:10 pm Post subject:

Hi Chthon,

I still do not know who sheikher is but I have a fairly good idea of who it could be. I read the previous posts on other threads, the locked one especially, and he seems to attack other posters too. He may be a little disturbed and I suggest you/we ignore his dementia.

G

pegycove · Joined: 07 Aug 2009 Posts: 17 Location: saudi arabia

Thanks Irnoue:

I edited it. Try saying that three times fast.

PC

pegycove · Joined: 07 Aug 2009 Posts: 17 Location: saudi arabia

Hi Chthon,

My sources say that you are right and I am confirming that what you say is true. Although life is not fair it is even more not fair in The Majyk Kindom.

Dear Grendal,

I'm sure sheikher will attack you too. Just don't meet him in an abandoned meadhall he may rip your arm off and hang it from the rafters like a trophy.

PC

Chthon · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 54

Grendal,

I am fairly sure of who sheikher is due to the information he had - specifically, the personal insult he aimed at 12monkeys (who was formerly Matthew156 or something).

I was the second teacher to arrive here; the first was a normal teacher who took initiative and began acting as the program director since he was alone initially. I and the others assumed he was, before finding out that he had no decision making power. He tried to jump over the heads of UCW and Shabakah in negotiating the curriculum and schedule with the university and got "demoted" or to be more correct, reminded that he was never the director. He then refused to teach a full day, forcing the rest of us to cover for him. He ultimately got fired and tried to sue Shabakah and, after realizing that his case was baseless, settled for a plane ticket to Beruit. He then proceeded to email the university stories about UCW going bankrupt to scare them about Shabakah out of his pettiness. We checked his references and he was fired from his last job before this for similar stuff.

Another early teacher had a tendency to cuss out the other teachers over small things. He is older and I suspect he has dementia. The new director - not the fake one mentioned above, but the actual appointed one - tried to give him a handout for his students one day and this guy shoved the director out of the classroom in full view of dozens of students. He then tried to sue the director for assault, and the above mentioned guy helped him out since they both wanted to sue. This guy's case fell through as well, so he appealed and it is not at an appeals court in Riyadh. By Saudi law Shabakah must provide him with housing and he is still here in our apartments, behaving in a crazed manner. He was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital here in Saudi Arabia and appears to be severely depressed. I don't think he has any family to return to.

My theory is that sheikher is either:

The first guy who got fired as he posted some of the same "inside information" that guy emailed to KFU to scare them up. That would mean he gets his current information from the second guy as I know they were in cahoots with the initial lawsuit.

Or he is the second guy, as all I ever see him doing is shambling around in a depressed manner and using the internet in our common area.

They're both disgruntled former employees who displayed varying degrees of manic depression and anti-social personalities and who both have reasons to come here trying to scare others away.

Look, it's not a perfect job here, I have no problem saying that. But if anybody decides not to come here, they should base that decision on legitimate issues with the job, not the rantings of some kook.

Chthon · Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 54

Peggy,

Foreigners in general are treated like crap in Saudi Arabia. We as Westerners (and especially white people) are not treated so bad - I have laborer friends (who again are the overwhelming majority of foreigners here) who don't get vacations at all.

Anyway, the three month visa thing sucks but from what I see, Saudi universities are slowly moving toward outsourcing ESL programs and many of these companies (most in what I've seen personally) use these visas at some point. In Shabakah's defense, they mandated that all teachers must be on the year long work visas next year. Mine was already actually granted already and I will be returning in the US in a few days to get it.

As a side note, another teacher and I checked the Saudi labor law last night. Sheikher was right in saying that one month's paid vacation is required; after one year of service. Contracts with Shabakah and most other contracting companies I have seen are for eleven months, not one year. Obviously I would love to get a contract for one year, but to say the contracts here are illegal or even abnormal is just more of the aforementioned disgruntled rambling.