Job Discussion Forums

[Rooster_2006]

You guys must have "regular" status, because I have never had to make up holidays on Saturdays.

How does a person get "regular" status, anyway, just out of curiosity?

Like, at my next interview, could I just tell them "I want to be a regular employee, not a contract employee, and I'll take 350 an hour?"

Why would a company want to give an employee regular status? It seems to confer so many special rights on the employee, I don't understand how it could be in a company's best interest...

[steve_c]

[yamahuh]

[JZer]

I doubt it really matters if you are being paid by the hour or a salary. Sometimes if there is a holiday on Thursday the government will give Friday off to make a four day weekend. That Friday needs to be made up by most workers the following Saturday making the following week a six day work week. When that happens even government offices are open on Saturday. I have never seen such a thing in another country.

[yamahuh]

Hmmm not sure about that - not saying you're wrong, just saying I've not experienced it that I can remember. However I have had first hand (infuriating) experience with the "We'll give you a holiday this week and take away your Saturday next week" twisted logic...

I've always worked for a salary so I thought that might be the difference, although now I think about it, I haven't had to make up any holidays at this particular job. Guess it probably depends on the employer?

I know in some instances the parents take exception to their kids missing classes due to holidays. They've paid for a certain amount of classes and they don't want to get stiffed, so they insisit that the school make them up. Quite often hard to do during the week so guess what - there goes your Saturday...

[scarab1169]

At my previous school(infamous chain school) we had "make-up " classes for everything = from typhoon days to holidays. It sucked big time, because the kids usually had to go to Chinese school in the morning and then we had to make up the missed classes on a Saturday night.The worst was when I had to work 2 Saturday afternoons in row to make up for the fact that we had "started" too late on the new semester.The one session was a hellish 3 hours long. Brrr..

A bit of topic.

My BIGGEST pet hate of Taiwan. Driving habits! And the fact that you kind of endanger your life going out into the streets because of the bad driving habits of people here.

[JZer]

In regards to driving I love everyone's I am in a hurry approach which just slows down traffic and makes traffic slower. People just pull out of side street, parking lots, etc and cause other cars to stop or slow down which inevitably makes things slower for everyone.

[yamahuh]

I taught Motorcycle Rider Training for the Canada Safety Council back home. Trust me when I tell you that the driving here makes me absolutely furious. I have never EVER seen such incompetence behind the wheels or handlebars of vehicles.

I'm going to post a link to a travelblog page where I wrote two articles about it (if the mods don't mind) The most recent one got published by Cycla Canda in its May issue.

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yamahuh/1/1265971372/tpod.html

[Rooster_2006]

[zipper]

I don�t like the birds that yak all night long. What kind of birds are they, anyway?

Drivers, particularly scooter drivers that pull out without looking to their left and right. They just look in the direction that they are going.

[yamahuh]

[phdinfunk]

Don't like

10 ) I agree, the utter lack of public trashcans sucks. I feel like an irresponsible citizen when I ask someone at a 7-11 to take my trash.

9 ) Drivers who want to kill me.

8 ) The overt racism some of even my sweetest students displayed. People's attitudes towards darker skin made me cringe.

7 ) Being effectively illiterate

6 ) The difficulty sometimes in even getting the most basic things done. Sometimes I don't want to spend half my Saturday shopping for something I'd be able to get in 20 minutes almost anywhere in the states. I gues this is a relatively small complaint, but the slowness of finding and getting things is occasionally very discouraging, and it's something that on any given day may not be such a big deal, but seems to build frustration over months.

5 ) Whiney Taiwanese children

4 ) Whinier Taiwanese parents

3 ) Inept management. In the states, yea, sometimes someone wants to make sure we know who is boss. But in Taiwan, far too many interactions are about that and it cuts productivity a lot. You want to assign me a project? Okay, cool, then let me specify what I need to get it done and don't make out like you can just browbeat us until we make miracles happen.

2 ) The fact that one can nod and agree with the boss and hardly ever change anything and that's what's ACTUALLY expected. This breeds a lot of passive aggressive behavior and lack of clarity of expectations. Everything being indirect is fine until we actually need to get a specific thing done. Not a good way to run a business, IMHO. Downright senseless.

1 ) Seeing a lot of really good, engaged, and intelligent teachers get burned out at crappy crappy schools (Example: Uncle Sam was nearby me, and I had several friends and a lover that worked there. I saw some very creative and bright people break contracts or else just fold inwards and not give a damn anymore. Very sad to see).

[zipper]

3. I loath the unfathomable experience of having a two wheel mechanical smoke bomb putt lazily by me spewing bellows of choking blue exhaust particulates into my immediate atmosphere while I am strenuously engaged in a heart pounding and suffocating activity of jogging up an incline. All I just want is to be able to do my 5 kilometer run without having to hold my aching breath until the blue intoxicating smoke drifts away. Now, am I asking for too much for crying out loud? Not to mention, the operators driving these smoke bombs find it difficult to drive by me without slowing down to smile and talk to me; even though it is painfully obvious that I am gasping for breath.

[Rooster_2006]

[zipper]