Job Discussion Forums

[flyingcarpet]

I would like to know the pros and cons of the various HCT locations. For example, does one have much better accommodation, another a better lifestyle?

Thank you!

[helenl]

According to whose yardstick?
Dubai - busy, lots of shopping, traffic, more entertainment options, expensive (taxis, parking, etc.) smaller (but not small) flats for most single, married no kids employees, better but more expensive schools for those with children. You're expected to work hard for every Dirham they pay you.

Fujairah - quiet, larger flats and sometimes singles can get villas. Some can even walk to college when it's cooler - 1 movie theater and any other entertainment is scarce. Shopping, not much choice unless you go to the big city. Still expected to work hard but it's more appreciated there

Ruwais/MZ - accomodation closeby has gotten mixed reviews, if you choose to commute that's at least 2 hours a day but the director has gotten some good reviews - hopefully he'll stay on for a while

Sharjah - a giant parking lot on most roads 90% of the time. Nice flats but the commute sucks big time and the parking situation is worse. The Director can be very "fickle" shall we say in terms of his expectations and behaviour on any given day to any given victim - oops, I mean employee. Nice, supportive one minute, demanding and critical the next (and not in a constructive way).

Abu Dhabi - I hear it depends on which campus whether or not the work environment is encouraging, housing is tight for all employers but HCT generally does a good job no matter where you're located. Parking is another big issue for people in flats as most buildings (as elsewhere in the country) are not required to have dedicated parking for tenants.

RAK and Al Ain both seem to tootle along very nicely thank you - people in Al Ain seem to be the "happiest" whatever that means.

It all depends on YOUR lifestyle and expectations to working environment and accomodation - I don't know you so I can't say.

[adorabilly]

I do think that this is a very "it depends" question. The answer depends on what you mean by better lifestyle.

If your idea of a better lifestyle is the club scene, rock concerts, sporting events, theater (metropolitian lifestyle) then it would be dubai or AD.

If you are more of an outdoors type who like to go hiking, mountain biking, camping, rock climbing, scuba diving then I'd say you may prefer RAK or FUJ because of the different climates available.

If you ware more of a homebody, then it really doesn't matter as long as you have nice accomodiations (which I think RAK's are very large and spacious).

So it really depends.

With that said, I'll tell you a bit more about RAK which is where we live. The villas here are very large. (some say too big) And the possible locations are quite diverse right on the beach (literally), to the base of the mountains. Some are in compounds, and some are nestled in nice arab neighborhoods.

The biggest complaint is that the management of the compounds is the same, and they often take a while to do maintenance. But it is what it is.

As I am not teaching at HCT (not yet), I cannot tell you any thing about office politics other than the normal. Yes there is office politics. Yes there are cliques, yes there is some gossip about people... but that is anywhere in the world you work. The best advice is to stay away from people who are not happy

RAK has a small expat community, but it is growing with different employers bringing different expats.... yesterday for example I was hearing german, tagalog, arabic, italian, french and english at the mall.

And there are all kinds of things to do around rak for singles, couples and families.

Is it perfect here? Heavens no. But is it an absolute backwater filled with nothing? No. I like it. But then again, I'm a homebody who likes the outdoors so it works out well.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[helenl]

I was going to use my string theory question but (I think it was) Noor kind of flattened it for me by finding out how long my string was

The yardstick one is not very exciting so I'll have to try and come up with something new.

[washingtonpost]

Fujairah so far so good.

[secretsquirrel]

The one to avoid right now appears to be the women's college in abu dhabi. several people have been sacked for quite small reasons recently - things that would have earned you a letter of reprimand in other colleges. all the staff walk in fear of a certain woman on the senior management team there, and the other supervisors are too weak to stand up to her.

staff morale is the lowest it's ever been, and teachers have been banned from soliciting transfers to other colleges in the hct system. that's about as bad as it gets, i reckon!

just pm me if you want further details.

ss

[squareandfair]

[quote="secretsquirrel"]The one to avoid right now appears to be the women's college in abu dhabi. several people have been sacked for quite small reasons recently - things that would have earned you a letter of reprimand in other colleges. all the staff walk in fear of a certain woman on the senior management team there, and the other supervisors are too weak to stand up to her.

staff morale is the lowest it's ever been, and teachers have been banned from soliciting transfers to other colleges in the hct system. that's about as bad as it gets, i reckon![/quote]

This is absolutely correct. She's a nasty bully who clawed her way to the top. She's ruthless and has no interpersonal skills. She should be fired instead of firing good teachers.

[squareandfair]

Mequite who has had a terrible experience with a management bully said this:
[/quote]Why is it some heads and colleagues seem to think bullying, either overtly or covertly, is the way to manage staff? Surely there are better ways to deal with personnel. Overt bullying in the form of humiliation (both public and private) should be a no-go area, particularly when students are witnesses to the bullying. How tacky can you get!!!! Covert, behind your back bullying, is another sneaky tactic some managers and colleagues seem to enjoy. Why can't people be more up front and respectful to their colleagues? It seems to me that bullying is becoming a big problem. From my experience, people sometimes let power go to their heads; maybe it makes them feel big. But in fact it shows just how small they really are. Bullying just drives teachers away; good teachers -those who can afford to- leave; others have no choice but to put up with it.[/quote]