Job Discussion Forums

[Little Tiger]

[JZer]

[Daphne]

I told my Chinese friends to target popular online forums throughout the province where my "schools" were located (Shandong)...sorry, but I don't have a specific list.

[Little Tiger]

[JZer]

Well I have the option of going to Xian. Do you think that working for Aston Xian would be ok?

[Tetris]

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I will corroborate everything Little Tiger has said. I was a coworker; I came to relieve the guy who left hating the school. I kept my mouth closed till now, figuring it my experiences were par for the course, but now that I see this I would like to add:

Same experiences. I showed up and was expected to teach next morning after a paltry 5 hours of "training" at the central branch.

My first day I was kept under lock and key as the police had infiltrated our building and the owner was too scared to let us leave the office.

I was sent even farther to get my visa fixed--this time to Xiaofan (sp?) which was an overnight train ride to the south. They had to process me under the Aston there; they let me know by randomly shipping me out one day after work. OK, I could accept this as sort of an adventure.

For the majority of my time, I thought the school was actually ok. I re-signed a contract before my intuition screamed at me to leave. It looks like I was right to follow it. I discussed the situation with my manager, who was very understanding and told me to hang on three more weeks if possible. I hung on four.

In my last week there, my water stopped working. At first I assumed it was due to construction; it later turned out the school wasn't paying the bills. This came on the heels of a spate of everything else generally going wrong with the apartment; I had been promised a new one for some time.

Yet, they were actually going to make me stay in the apartment for another week--without water!! They then tried to blame my lack of water on the other residents, rather than just paying the d--- bill. After threatening to leave town early and/or do some unprecedented bad and angry thing, they finally put me up in a hotel and, to their credit, had a new apartment ready the next day, complete with water.

A couple of days later, several folks broke into my house demanding money for water. I screamed at them till they left, but was highly unnerved. Our Foreign Affairs Officer (the same one who didn't pay the bills) was unreachable; our foreign manager was passed out drunk. It was kind of an upsetting night.

I had been casting around for other jobs when I gave my notice, and I got word of one in another location. Problem was, I had to be in Monday morning for an interview (this was Friday).

Quite last minute, so I discussed this right away with my Foreign Manager, who was quite supportive of me, actually, and said to go for it. Next thing I know, I'd been fired and told not to come onto school grounds. The next afternoon, the school came and physically evicted me from my new apartment. Yes, physically.

My manager later sent me a letter detailing a lot of arbitrary reasons why they fired me; he had previously been so supportive of me and so good to us as employees that I believe he was coerced.

To Little Tiger--I did in fact file a grievance with the school, and in fact with the company that sent me there to begin with. I would recommend you do the same; if they get two complaints from the same location within six months, that raises a flag, doesn't it? Feel free to PM me; I have further information that may be of interest. Hope you are in a better place now. I certainly am.

[mat chen]

Caroline Huang is the tops. Be careful and don't be a trouble maker

[LongShiKong]

Tetris has articulated some common problems with Aston schools but doesn't it confirm the FMs contact ignorance I pointed out to LT? And what about integrity--it doesn't seem he's too interested in helping FTs:

[Tetris]

[LongShiKong]

You're right, Tetris, people CAN decide from your post and LT's. I wouldn't work there. I don't deny it's a cruel school but forgive me for my devilish advocacy. It must surprise you to see me pick on FM but shouldn't he be the neutral one holding both you and the school accountable to contract obligations and policy via contact with regional and head office?

If you stated your intention to leave but hadn't given notice according to contract, shouldn't that give them the right to replace you anytime? You need distance yourself emotionally to think of it from an employer's perspective. Unfortunately, this is all the contract has about termination:

[Tetris]

Interesting story you have, sir or madam...it sort of rings a bell. How frustrating for you!

[Jining Aston]

First we would like to thank the people who made comments about the experiences in China as well as our school. Over the past 2 years Jining Aston has had hard learning experiences which have made us the school we are today. These experiences have been both positive and negative so we wish to make the following statement:

Specific events did occur within the statement however they have been written out of context. The situations that our school faced we solved as they arouse. As a school we strive to better our performance and still provide an atmosphere to continue to grow and improve everyone�s lives. The first priority is that our school finds the most successful way of dealing with these problems in the future. This will give everyone a more fulfilling experience. Second is to maintain a positive environment with a strong work ethic. Sometimes these expectations differ from our overall goals however we attempt to find a solution that all parties can come to an agreement with.

The issues stated came from the perspective of one foreign teacher at Jining Aston. In addition multiple foreigners have felt similar negative experiences in the past. However there is no mention of the benefits given through the school, nor what solutions were reached between the teachers for each issue. In addition statements were made about other teachers that the writer in question may not know the whole situation in regards to them.

In regards to the Christmas activity, the school established well in advance that Christmas Eve was a day off for the foreign staff. December 26th was the designated date. The foreign manager kept all parties concerned in the loop and the decision was made. In addition all classes for the weekend were cancelled thus giving the foreign teachers 3 days off in addition to their normal 2 days off.

Additional time was worked out for a Christmas event planned for December 26th. The foreign staff members were supposed to do work in advance for the event as well as show up for all meetings when the Foreign Manager was in America. Since some of the staff members didn�t show up to work for some of their hours the foreign staff were asked to attend a 1 hour rehearsal on Christmas Eve.

Any foreigners who worked on their days off were paid overtime and were penalized for time that they did not work. In addition the foreign teachers performance was not as effective as it could have been. The school planned for them to have 2 solid days off however they needed a 1 hour rehearsal on December 24th. It was the schools decision to turn those days into days off and to give the FT�s a break for the holiday. A majority of schools continue to have class on December 25th.

In addition another past employee has responded to the post since this has grown into a larger discussion. For that specific case there are several issues that were taken out of context. We would like to go over them in detail to give you our perspective.

The major concern was regarding the teacher being without water. The teacher in question ran out of water in their apartment for 3 days without notifying anyone of the situation. They then complained furiously when there was no certainty of the situation. The school responded to the problem as quick as possible. The school can�t solve a problem without knowledge of the situation.

As some people have stated the foreign manager didn�t use the chain of command within the contract to consult with head office. The foreign manager uses the chain of command when the situation doesn�t have a resolution that the school can offer first. In regards to the termination letter the foreign manager verbally made an agreement with the teacher to stay for 4 weeks instead of the 3 weeks. They were also informed on several occasions to review their contracts in case the foreign manager made mistakes.

A week before the teacher�s departure the teacher said that they would need to leave the country to take an interview with another company. This meant they were leaving 2 weekends earlier than they had stated. They told the foreign manager this a day before they were supposed to teach class. As a friend the manager supported their decision, as a manager he had little choice and the franchisee felt that it was a broken agreement even though it was a verbal agreement.

The Franchisee then sent 2 Aston representatives to help her pack and move out. The Franchisee also felt that the foreign manager should cover the classes that weekend due to the sudden response from the teacher. The representatives statements to the foreign manager at the time were, they knocked on the door for several minutes only to hear screaming at then, in defiance the teacher left. The day they did this was also the day that the teacher had already bought the train ticket for.

As for the negative termination letter, the term before the foreign manager had several complaints against this specific teacher. When confronted about these issues the foreign teacher�s response was they were unable to communicate with the taxi drivers, unable to find a taxi or couldn�t use the bus. Being in another country can be scary however if you�ve lived there for 7 months. Getting a taxi should become less and less of a hurdle.

The new term started and the foreign manager wanted to give the teacher a clean slate. However the teacher was late the first week of classes. The Franchisee was angry about this and felt this needed to be communicated to the teacher in question so that was the focus of the termination email.

At our school we do monthly workshops where Aston takes the foreign teachers to different locations such as billiards, Karaoke, swimming, Lunches, and welcome dinners to inspire a feeling of unity and teamwork. We attempt to look out for their needs and build an environment that is both positive and motivating.

The Franchisee takes the teachers out on trips at times such as fishing. We had pleasant dinner experiences in the evenings, as well as a school trip to a small city. Although the city wasn�t Beijing it offered good scenic views and it was for all of the staff members in Aston.

When living in a foreign country the school takes it upon itself to be the intermediary and pay for any living expenses. That includes gas, electric, heating etc. The specific incidents that occurred in the foreigner�s comments were times when the billing parties did not fully inform the school of when the bill was due. In addition there were some instances where the school wanted to give the teachers an estimation of the bill however the bill did not reach the actual amount.

The biggest incident that was referred to was when the foreign teachers were charged 700rmb for the electric bill. The school was under the assumption that it was only a 1 month bill. In fact this bill was over a 3 month period. When the electric department later stated that the bill was over a 3 month period the total was 2201 rmb.

The foreign manager realized the dilemma and addressed the foreign teachers about the issue. A compromise was reached and they only paid an additional 600rmb towards that bill. The bill in question was not the contention of the foreign teachers but the approach of aston and how the bill was calculated.

In this case the school took the only actions that were available to them in a misinformed situation. These types of problems can occur in any country and were not done with the intent to harm or insult the foreign teachers. In addition the school still took portions of the financial bill. The problems that occurred after that relating to the bill was to help aid the foreign teacher who wrote the comments.

Jining Aston is a young and growing school. The team is experienced however it is learning how to deal with not only the students but it�s employees as well. We want to have a positive outlook on this and learn from the experience. Negativity will only slow or stop progress.

In conclusion, our school is a part of an organization. We also realize that coming to another country is an enormous challenge. We learn more and more each time a foreigner arrives and we take measures to improve the quality of life here at Jining Aston for them. Sometimes however life is going to be different from location to location. Even in other countries we can sometimes run into situations where bills don�t get paid on time or paperwork needs to be done in a particular way. Without knowing the whole situation it can be very easy to see conclusions about cultural approaches. We hope that this clarifies our position and we thank you again for your comments and concerns if you have any questions you can contact Jining aston at:

[email protected]
or visit our websites at: www.jnaston.com or http://astonrecruiting.com/

[Little Tiger]

Well this topic seems to have provided a platform for both sides and more than one foreign teacher to give their sides of the story, I am happy about that and it's more than fair. In order to keep this discussion on topic please reply to the "Aston Jining Statement' over herehttp://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=88367 in its 'official' topic.

This topic is of course still open to discussion if other members have any other comments or questions, if not then I have done what I wanted to do i.e. put my concerns, grievances and mistakes into writing so that myself and others may learn from them.

[LongShiKong]

Coincidentally, the manager of that Aston happened to Skype me a day or 2 before he posted. He'd only contacted me once before--a year previously and I thought he was managing Jinan Aston. I immediately directed his attention to this thread.

The reason he contacted me a year ago is that he heard about me through an open letter I'd sent to all Aston management and head office staff concerning a lengthy emailed list of---I didn't call them grievances---serious concerns that need addressing... collectively! Of the 60+ Aston schools, he was one of the few who responded, which underscores Aston's problems.

[Little Tiger]