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kylemcgee
Joined: 04 Nov 2009
Posts: 86
Location: Various..
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 Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:41 am Post subject: Re: Ever left a contract? |
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| kylemcgee wrote: |
Hello -
I am a well qualified teacher who has worked for the British Council for the last several years.
I accepted a 2 month contract in Tunisia for summer school. I was told we would have good conditions in the apartment we would occupy. The accommodation was to be near the ocean and all that we needed was to be supplied.
I arrived to find the apartment in a poor, 'dry' area of town in the industrial area of Tunis. We do not have the basic things we need to live including a washer and there are many cockroaches in the place. They are unwilling/unable to change the situation. I wouldn't mind too much, but the money is very poor and Tunis is expensive.
I am considering leaving and giving some notice to give them some time to find someone new. I have never done this before and I'd prefer not to burn any bridges.
I am curious if anyone else has ever left a contract and if so what the fallout was. Any insight?
Thanks!
Kyle |
Ok. Thanks for the advice. Here's an update if you're interested.
I sent an email to the two people I interviewed with (one of which is dealing with the housing situation) stating my grievances. I listed the main 3 items (location, supplies, and pests). I offered 2 weeks of work to help pay for the flights/insurance.
The manager was 'shocked' and stressed when we met even though I had expressed these problems before. He had two main tactics:
1) Threatening me with lack of future work for the BC and trying to get me to pay for all the flights and insurance they paid for. I have no idea how the BC would legally get me to pay for these expenses. I never even signed a contract though I did agree to the position in multiple emails. Also, they brought us over on a tourist visa which strikes me as illegal?
2) He offered to get all the supplies (including the washer) and get rid of the cockroaches. He even offered to send a cleaning lady over weekly. He starting offering silly things then - giving me a laptop with internet access to borrow and offering to move me to a hotel for a month (still not at the beach, but at least near to society).
In the end, I broke down and accepted the changes. I have nothing in writing which was my mistake. The British Council is a large organization and filing a grievance would have been easy if I had something more concrete to back things up.
Also, the British Council is the world's largest language school (I think?) and it seems foolish to burn a bridge when it could affect my future employment.
I guess the lesson should be that I get everything in writing and be as specific as possible. The BC Morocco did many strange things with my money on another short contract earlier this year. Perhaps I should have learned my lesson.
Kyle |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:05 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for letting us know the outcome - I hope it's really going to be OK!
I think you've probably done the right thing. 2 months isn't really so long in the big picture.
I once got stuck in a direly awful and dangerous neighborhood in Moscow with a 90 minute commute to work for 4 months. The flat itself was nice, though, thankfully. |
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