Job Discussion Forums

[DenUk]

What's going to happen to all the existing Bell staff that are in management?? go back to teaching? I doubt it!

How are Ex. Experts and AETG doing? Any feedback from the teachers recruited by them working at the University?

"With each passing day Bell seems to be loosing the grip of majority at KSU " - I think Bell know this too. Having said that will the other recruitment companies be any better or even worse than Bell??? Time shall tell.

[boysfromtheblackstuff]

Firstly, I think it was veiled sentiments who pointed out my shocking spelling in my last post in December, I've always had a problem with lose/loose and chose/choose. Just one of those things and writing very late at night with content not form on my mind....it happens!

Anyhow, in response to MiBoo, good post, but she sounds like a new teacher who didn't read her contract carefully enough, as it was made clear at the end of the 09/10 year what was going to happen re holidays, and I am now happy to reveal the reason behind all this.

and I have to do it without mentioning any names....tricky.

OK in the 09/10 yearthe dean of the PYP on the male campus, who shares a name with the King of KSA, seemed to be in total thrall to one of the KSU Co-ordinators on the female campus. (she had been the first supervisor with Bell/Obeikan, and was sacked, and then pops up again as a KSU co-ordinator effectively telling the Bell/Obeikan management what to do. Hows that for good client/contractor relations). Her name rhymes with dealer and is the australian slang term for woman. Anyway, one day, just before one of the university holidays, she was working with one of the supervisors from Bell/Obeikan, as they were chatting the supervisor said that she was looking forward to her holiday as she was going to ....... to see her family. The KSU woman said that she didn't get a holiday, and she had to work while the students were away. Now this woman was probably the most vindictive and borderline insane, that I've ever come across. (the last I heard was that she was sacked at the end of the 09/10 term). In my opinion it was she who persudaded the dean to enforce this as part of the contract terms with Bell/Obeikan.

As you know, these rules have nothing to do with what is right or sensible or good. (despite this woman being an ultra-conservative muslim). Its all to do with power and control. They will make you come in when the law says you should be at home because of safety reasons because they can! Likewise KSU will make the teachers come to work everyday to do nothing, because they can.

If KSU are going to take over the running of the project then it will undoubtedly get worse. Bell are totally inept, but as someone pointed out, they didn't understand what KSU wanted of them, but then again KSU doesn't know either.

A management consultant brought in by Bell at great expense, to find out what any teacher could have told them, ie. What was going wrong with the project. told me that KSU saw this whole 'contracting out' thing as a money saving exercise!

And the contract between KSU and Bell/Obeikan was written along the lines of a contract one makes for constructing an office block. ie with no regard to the special nature of teaching.

Finally, from what I've heard from inside the female campus, sounds like it has gone back to the bad old days of 08/09 when it was run almost as a gang culture with teachers being punished or promoted on the whims of a certain clique of supervisors.

Fin

[zippy2k]

[johnslat]

Dear zippy2k,

You may well be right about this:

"Unfortunately Obeikan are, actually breaking Saudi Law because they do not have the right to hold a passport in the first place and they certainly don't have the right to hold it when the holder asks for it back...they also show disregard for international law. Bell are being very foolish in their complicity with OE on this issue - it will backfire on them one day as it did on an American company in 2006. However teachers who naively play the slave game by giving OE their passports are just as foolish."

although I'm not sure, having never seen the relevant Saudi law (though I assume that you have.) However, since even government institutions hold on to teachers' passports, I am doubtful that Bell will suffer for doing the same. As for the teachers' being naive, well, when you're in their ballpark, you can either play by their rules or go home.
Or, I suppose, you could hire a lawyer and take them to Saudi court - if you do, I wish you all the best.

Regards,
John

[teach star]

Regarding the illegality of employers retaining passports �or else�, as Obeikan does, the current issue of the EL Gazette is running a story about this in light of the current situation in the Middle East: http://mag.digitalpc.co.uk/Olive/ODE/ELGAZETTE/

The article is in the EL Prospects section, entitled "Hold on to your lifeline: Matt Salusbury on why keeping your passport in the Middle East is more vital than ever."

EL Gazette found that �under the laws of most Middle Eastern countries, it is illegal for bosses to retain passports.�

In the same article: �Saudi courts seem to take dim view of employers retaining passports. To everybody�s surprise, an Indian oil worker who was recently denied his passport by his boss went to the Saudi courts and won.� (EL Gazette May 2011)

Blackorchid says that �Bell does indicate in their recruitment documents that passports will be held by the employer,� and that �the holding of passports was explained to all employees prior to taking the contract...� But I never found a word about this in any of their recruitments documents.

So, Blackorchid, could you kindly scan and upload the documents you�re referring to, or at least remind me of the titles and dates of the documents?

[DenUk]

Nice to read Bell and their Saudi counterpart haven't changed...

Going back to my question are there any Ex. Experts and AETG Teacher working at the KSU?

Any feedback from the teachers recruited by them would be nice.

[Linguist]

From a private source of information, I learnt that Bell never ran the project as it should. In the first two years, the first managers who were brought in were backpackers who were more eager to furnish their houses in some South-Asian countries than doing the job. On the female campus, things were worse, apparently. They brought a brainsick sapphic bulldog from Polska and a corpse from down under and put them in charge of the program. Hormonal fighting was a daily scene. That led to two female supervisors to resign in the course of the year. On the male campus, the atmosphere was toxic too with teachers claiming their rights while the managers and supervisors were crushing them to the limits. One male manager resigned as well in the midst of the year.

A lot of the unworthy and 'unemployables' (for lack of a better word) are still managers at Bell. Put them in a professional environment, they would not be trusted with trash and garbage. Yet, they are given the responsibility to run a language programme. One they brought was an unqualified backpacker living in an Asian country, again more concerned with sucking the riyals out for his own silly company than doing the job.

KSU, has been gradually, according to the grapevine, trying to take more control of the situation since last year. Bell cleaned some of the trash on the female campus and sacked loads in the female management team, and later even recruited an Arab manager on the female campus for PR reasons, believing that she would help ease out the situation. However, the story went on. Teachers are still being lied to all the time and some resort to emailing the KSU chair and coordinators to seek the truth from the lies that are fed to them. On both campuses, Bell recruited people who were unqualified to be supervisors and managers, and conducted mock interviews to ease out the tension that was building among the qualified teachers who wanted these positions.

Lesson: this company is not worth working for. They get people who are money-lovers to work for them and ask those who have some ethical ideals to put them aside. Many teachers, supervisors, coordinators, and managers resigned because of that. I have met with a few of the those who left Bell for good reasons and they have been accused of all possible lies by Bell lackeys so that a pristine and immaculate reputation of Bell is propagated.

[JK01]

A colleague recently interviewed for an English teaching position with KSU as a direct hire.

It was a surprise when the management offered a substantially lower salary and benefits package compared to the one offered by Bell.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this an exception or the norm?

regards

JK

[Deeman15]

Really? That's strange. I would think a direct hire would get paid more, no?

[7168Riyadh]

Direct hire never meant more money, but may have been a better bet...anyway, my sources at KSU tell me that Bell are history there. Just to let you know. Others, better informed, may be able to tell you more...

[Grendal]

[7168Riyadh]

Actually, I was the one who (very accurately) predicted Bell's demise at KSU: obvious to anyone in situ.
It is also the case that Bell's managers (on the male side at least) in the first two years of the project were very good. The problems really went critical mass after Keith, Richard et al "left"; several people on this forum have said nothing informed about what is going on at KSU, confusing individual performance and corporate incompetence. However, the "managers" who took over in '09 were rubbish it must be said.
I have received a private message from an informant confirming Bell are out--an email went out to all staff last night; my informant wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
This is all I can tell you. I could be wrong, and I feel it is up to others, in situ., to comment further.
BTW, Bell have stopped advertising for teachers ref. Saudi Arabia--a sure sign?

[johnslat]

I'll probably regret this, but . . . . .

Ask not for whom Bell toils, it does not toil for thee.

Regards,
John

[7168Riyadh]

Regrettable only in the sense it's unoriginal, but worth repeating, I suppose.

[johnslat]

Dear 7168Riyadh,

Darn - I thought I was the original. Would you mind pointing me to the source (not John Donne, of course?)

Regards,
John