Job Discussion Forums

[rollingk]

I recently arrived in KSA and am now going thru the final paperwork for an iqama. The company to which I've engaged myself seemed to have a pretty good reputation. I resigned a reasonable job in KSA to take this new position. However, red flags began to appear with their HR and visa agents in the US, who insisted all the delays (all 2 months!) were the fault of the Saudi Embassy. Anyway, I was told all would be worked out once in the kingdom, suggestions being made that I would then be compensated for the downtime.

Now that I'm here all manner of additional red flags are billowing in the hot air. Despite assurances of private housing, such hasn't been sorted out, with management alternately trying to pacify and strong-arm me into accepting temporary sharing, which will never happen. I've also gathered the teaching itself will most likely be little more than ego-stroking, which I�m distinctly not good at. And despite earlier suggestions that I would be compensated once here for all that downtime spent in the US, where I had to secure housing, I�ve been warned that any such talk could lead to termination.

I�ve been here about 2 weeks.

Any suggestions? IS there any way to extract myself from this situation so as to take more suitable work in KSA?
Please provide real advice based on knowledge or experience. Those who so often on this forum make malicious observations about others, restrain your natural inclinations and DON�T.

[scot47]

Leaving one employer and geting hireed by another in KSA is not easy and in some cases may be impossible. Best advice is to stick it out although I uinderstand your reluctance to live in shared accommodation. I did that with one job in KSA - for one school year back in the 1990s.

Leaving after a few weeks is going to make it difficult to get another job in KSA.

Can you reveal who the employer is ?

[teachr11]

[scot47]

If you are so overwhelmed with negativity maybe you should quit now and seek avenues new in Ulan Bator or the Marianas ?

[rollingk]

[scot47]

"Compensated for downtime in the USA"

You expect them to pay you for that period ?

[nomad soul]

[rollingk]

Thanks, I'd feared I'd have to make the best of it as suggested, but thought I'd run it by those with more experience.

The bit about "contemplating an escape", however, simply has me rolling. This verbage belongs in the same set as "runaways", used to such great effect by local newspapers. Such association, whether intended or not, certainly does make one more grateful.

[scot47]

Some people use those expressions slightly "tongue in cheek". Perhaps you did not pick that up.

Bite the bullet, be a good servant. Do your master's bidding and do not complain. "Alulla, ya akhi !"

[nomad soul]

[mashkif]

[plumpy nut]

Except for your paycheck which many times arrives when it arrives and being reimbursed at some point for travel and being provided with a place to stay, the contract is actually just highly considered guidelines. They are not going to pay you for expenses in the U.S. regardless of what they said, they don't have to and they won't, especially since it wasn't in the contract.

As far as the housing, if you're a female there is a possibility you were not offered alternative housing allowance, in that case there is nothing you can do unless the contract stipulates private housing. If it does you can be assertive and keep pestering about getting what the contract stipulates and they might eventually get around to providing it, which is how the KSA operates.

If you were offered a choice of provided accommodations or housing allowance, then get an apartment and keep bugging them about the allowance they're supposed to give you. That is if you can temporarily afford to pay for an apartment yourself. If the contract states that they are to pay you for housing allowance, you might have to wait until they get around to reimbursing you, which many times is how it works in KSA.

[JustinC]

[rollingk]

I think my case has never been as fraught with negativity, worry, or any other kind of handwringing that many responses in this forum seem to suggest.

I needed opinions about possibilities, not this weird kind of "we're all down this well together . .. . so shut the hell up and stop whining" bit. Certainly I haven't worked in the gulf as long as many here, although I suspect my experience, whether due to perspective or actual conditions, hasn't forced me into the corners from which many of the postings here seem to emanate.

About those conditions: It's not unheard of to be paid a per diem as well as being put up during visa processing; this has been my own experience in the US. Forced shared accommodation for professionals is what one expects in a war zone, for security . . . the kingdom's conditions are hardly so exigent as all that. Or are they?

The job I resigned involved a business visa, and even this job didn't require the kind of all out kowtowing many feel they must do in this region. In my opinion, if there will be no recourse, no issue resolution, but only �yes, yes, yes, and yes again�, what kind of job is this? Sure, the region is challenging, but come on! Surely it�s better a resume reflect �flightiness� or what not than the prospective employee proffer a traffic cone with one hand and lube with the other.
An employer who we perceive as an unapproachable alien with whom we can only speak in some abbreviated code is no good employer. Especially in this area where broken bones, hammered nails and whatever else is the local take on conflict resolution, acquiescence is a slippery slope indeed.

[scot47]

Who has ever been paid an allowance during visa-processing ? This may be the practice on other planets but not here on Terra.