Job Discussion Forums

[carlen]

I just heard JR, the ex=director from CfBT got a job with ADEC. CN is already there.
What can I say!!!

[Sunburnt Individual]

There was rumor that one of the SABIS PPP managers hopped over to CfBT. If that's true, that's a REAL indicator of how they company's doing.

[Zoot]

I don't know anything about a Sabis manager jumping over to this organization, but the smell of it is spreading. cfbt has been withdrawn from the banker's list meaning anyone coming in with them had better bring enough $$$$ to buy their own car upfront or be prepared just to hire. When unwitting and unknowing staff come in with this company they don't realize their well-being is in the hands of these unscrupulous ning nongs. If they sack you for whatever trumped up reason they come up with, not only a monthly income is lost but so are kids school fees gone, as is accommodation, medical cover, flights and every other darned thing you've left security in your own country for. They won't be getting me again next year I can tell you. I don't want my life in their hands.

[carlen]

They got me this way. I lost all my belongings, paid my own flight home, had to pay all the fees and court costs required after I found I was illegally in the country, it was a real nightmare. It wasn't until I returned to the country with another company and could threaten them with court action that I even received my last months pay but no other benefits.
As an update someone from the company emailed me just recently and offered to deliver a couple of boxes with my personal belongings. This offer has now been changed to I must pick them up. I am just left in bewilderment with this company. How did they compress a whole apartment of my belongings into two boxes? They are just so vindictive.
I also received documentation from the English tax system telling me I earned wages in England, with of course no tax paid. I have never even worked in England!
Ning Nongs, what a great description.

[Zoot]

carlen, what payment/s did you eventually get from them after having to resort to using the court system? they seem to have a reputation for avoiding payouts because i've heard the same said by others. do you think they do it deliberately or it's a lack of knowledge on the part of those responsible? they seem to have a name for not supporting the teachers in the schools. from what i'm seeing until the new fellow cleans out the middle management stock prone to protecting their own backs and not those of the teachers, the company is going to continue having problems in the schools they're in. i've been told they're in a terrible mess because of middle management practices out in AA.

[carlen]

I was prepared to take them to court and the first step in this process is informing the company what you intend to pursue through the labor courts. I got an email from England saying they were investigating and then silence. No one would answer me and an amount of money showed up in my account. Close to what I should have been paid for the days I had worked that month, no holiday pay. As I said, not the full amount. I actually left it there and didn't pursue it further, I am now working for another company, busy...happy.... valued. CfBT was a nightmare, in many ways and I just moved on. But I think I do owe it to others to throw in my 2 cents worth when asked. That's why Icontribute to this forum. If you are working for them you have some idea of the injustices that occur.
As for my thoughts on middle management, I think my job would have fell into this category and I didn't fit in. Valuing employees, supportive school environment, working as a team, recognising everyone brings both their skills and their weaknesses to a project are strategies I have used in the past to ensure employees coming in from other countries are sucessful. These types of things are just not part of the culture of CfBT.
Top management and middle management use the fear generated through dismissals and bullying as some sort of perverted motivation technique. It is also the easiest way to explain their own lack of success, to blame those in schools. When I was there I did a 360 degree evaluation, those in my school had to evaluate me. This needs to happen in CfBT, teachers need to be able to comment on the strengths and wealnesses of those that are supposed to be leading them. If I was the new leader of CfBT thats where I would start.
I am still working in school reform and recognise it for what it is...... damm difficult and we need to support each other to try and create a successful pathway.

[Zoot]

Thanks Carlen. It's good to see a positive response like yours and thanks for keeping others up to date. I feel the same - people leave secure jobs, their homes and families and come to companies like cfbt without realizing what the outcome can possibly be. Your comment about the motivation of fear is well entrenched. What I don't understand about this tactic is the failure of middle management to realize they could get so much more out of people if professional development was offered, support provided and a sense of working as part of a team which doesn't have to watch for a knife in the back scenario.

[BOBBYSUE]

Carlen, what were you sacked for?

[carlen]

In my fourth month after asking them numerous times I demanded to know in writing the status of my passport. Jr wanted me to attend a meeting, I said no I wanted the information in writing. I was sacked. Turned out I was illegally in the country.

[Zoot]

BOBBYSUE - on the issue of why someone loses their job in cfbt, it doesn't have to be rational. And that's the problem underlying the very real risk of taking up a position with them. I keep saying, the teachers on the ground are doing their best, and I'd like to think the new fellow will make a difference, but I think it'll be 3 years before he's scratched the surface of this organization's problems in the UAE. In the meantime, anyone who leaves security to work for them needs to have a whopping wad of money in the bank before taking the risk. Months of being in the country illegally. How can anyone sleep at night worrying about something like that?

[BOBBYSUE]

My goodness that does sound terrible. And completely different to Brunei, thank God. I came here having heard that CfBT looked after its teachers extremely well and happily they do here. I wonder what went wrong in the UAE. I gather from the thread above that the ex director now works for ADEC, which could mean he or she was too busy securing their own future career to worry about how well they were doing their job!

[Zoot]

BOBBYSUE - are you in Brunei? I've heard the same thing about Brunei, but not so in other Asian countries according to this thread. The new fellow here came in from Brunei, which gave me hope initially, but he's not managing too well so far. But as I said, it'll take 3 years for him to dig out the entrenched tactic of fear as a motivator, the lies middle management tells to make certain their own backs are covered and to clean up the company's name in the schools. The CD out in AA has caused monolithic problems since taking over the position and everyone from out there apparently leaves glad they made it to the end of their contract or she gets rid of them before they get to the end of the contract if they don't play her way. Little bit like Carlen said, entrenched practices and continuing problems.

[BOBBYSUE]

Hi, yes I am, and having a good time so far. It's not without its problems and of course there are the bitter ones, but I have to say it is much better than anywhere else I have worked over a fairly long and varied career. Also you get quite a few POSITIVE bores here...NEGATIVE bores you get everywhere, but the positive ones are quite unique in my experience and must say something about the place! (That's not to say some people don't have real reasons to be negative, but you know the type of people I mean)
Yes sounds like the new guy has his work cut out there. I didn't coincide with him here for very long, but if he can create over there what we have here, he'll be doing very well. Doubt he can do it overnight, as you say. Good luck in the meantime!

[Zoot]

carlen, I have another question of you. Why didn't you ask to be properly paid out before you left the country? Although I understand finding out you were illegally in the country must have been frightening, you didn't ask for your rightful payout when you came back. Was that to avoid going to court or not knowing how to or what you were really owed?

[carlen]

I had arranged leave to go home for my daughters wedding. That's why I needed to know the status of my passport in the first place. If I hadn't pursued it I would have arrived at the airport and would not have been allowed to leave. I got the sack, then I had to go through the process of going to court. As it was they called staff back into work so I could fly out the day of the booked flight. It takes time to go through all their processes. I was at immigration everyday and of course it was a whole new experience. My daughters future father-in- law had a terminal illness and was not well. So my daughter was on the phone daily worried I wouldn't make it to her wedding and worried Powney would die.
I always intended to fly back to Abu Dhabi and pack up my flat but CfBT locked me out while I was in OZ. I had paid for a return ticket. Flying back without accommodation or a job just seemed too expensive. My TV also went missing and CN indicated that one of the other CfBT staff had stolen it. I was getting just the strangest emails from them.They had also written to my landlord telling him I was illegally in the country and CfBT would take possession of my apartment. They knew the date I was flying back in and locked me out of my apartment 2 days before I was due to arrive .
With a wedding and a death in one week, home also became more important. CfBT did tell me they would transfer monies owing to my OZ account. They just didn't. When I returned to the UAE 8 months later I started the court case. If you are out of the country there is very little you can do.
Just recently, this is now 15months later, I got an email from them asking me to pick up my personal items from the office, 2 boxes, a chair and an exercise bike. I had shipped over 100k into the country when I arrived bought about 20000 dirams worth of furniture and stuff after I arrived and that's all thats left. I am just bewildered that they even contacted me and then to admit they have only a fraction of my belongings. But CfBT never made sense!