Job Discussion Forums

[Markness]

Anyone else have these sorts of characters running around in their schools? Typically the behavior of this person is of the Feudal land owner, when they made farmers look busy even though there wasn't any farming to do. Mine was pretty solid before, and all of the sudden he did a 180 and became a huge pain in the arse.

Behavior includes giving classes a week or two after exams even though the students are done and there is nothing to do, he will scold you if you decide to do games/activities instead of teaching them stuff they don't care about anymore because they've finished their finals.

Constantly monitoring the halls and watching to see if you're "playing games only in class", and then a day later will give you grief because you are not doing enough activities because you actually want them to learn something and decide to crack open the books. And then complains about how students are getting bored because I'm not being a clown 24/7 in class.

Will write condescending e-mails and when you do not reply will panic and send 2-3 follow up e-mails to make sure "you're okay", because he/she has realized that it takes 2 seconds to find another job in China.

The worst part is that I do TOEFL/IELTS speaking classes, and the students are getting really good results. The problem is that they always want to horse around instead of keeping up the good work so they can get good scores. The admin hears this and wants me to "play games", to make the kids happy. By doing this the kids will do worse, and yeah, it is counter-productive, and the huge chunk of money they're paying will go down the toilet.

Anyone else have characters like this managing their schools? I've worked at a few places who have clowns like this in the business. This isn't exclusive to Chinese bosses, also foreign ones who are usually non-native English speakers pull off the same stunts.

[jimpellow]

Who hasn't had to deal with this?

I have read your posts before and know you are well experienced and astute. So I am sure you know the list of reasons why low self-esteem limited types in hierarchal societies act so.

I personally find such types easy to deal with if you can frame yourself as coming from a position of strength, meaning being a valued teacher who is not begging for his pay and has a willingness to walk.

Few of these little dragons have the experience or internal fortitude to actually stand up to a teacher who exhibits the above. Get yourself above him in his mind and then have some fun with him and enjoy how much you can actually push him around.

Start with, "You have really changed, and not for the better. It is probably best that I be on my way. I have a couple other positions I need to decide on. Can you give me an estimate of when would be a mutually acceptable timeframe when I can finish here?"

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

If the OP is referring to the moron "work leaders", I can say that I have seen only one when I saw him standing outside my class room. I was one minute late due to road construction outside the campus gate. He was herding everyone out.

Those idiots will cancel class and not tell the teacher. One work leader (I was told by a student) required all of the girls in one group to be out on the athletic field at 6:00 am to work out because they weren't trying hard enough. I shared their pain. I attended Catholic schools taught by Marianite nuns and Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

[Markness]

[Markness]

[LarssonCrew]

Well I'd like to chime in on this.

For the 'late minute' gang unfortunately with me they're out of luck. If I suspect there is a make up class then I'm not going to answer my phone in the evening. Even if they call 4-5 times I'll say I was in a movie or in the gym or something. If I didn't ever get the message then I cannot possibly know.

I also found with these idiots that the system can work against them. I had one guy who was on my back constantly and stuck to the rules somewhat, but he never implemented them himself. He would go away to foreign countries for 'recruiting' purposes and we would all see his 5* hotel bags when he got back.

I often find with this lot you just do and then apologise rather than ask. I wanted to get away and found a great deal over Xmas, we broke up on January the first. I told the students that my parents were visiting that week and that I would prefer to show them beautiful China. They all agreed and no one told him and I was away, scot free, a week early.

Also, if they tell you 'oh on Friday there is a mandatory meeting' that wasn't mentioned, then I'm suddenly visiting Nanjing to see the Massacre museum, or going to Hunan to trail Old Mao's hometown or something, or visiting the Great Wall, something they wouldn't want you to miss.

Also, in one job I found out that a Chinese teacher had told my students that I was a bad teacher and badmouthing China. He didn't speak a word of English so how would he ever know? Fortunately the kids were smarter than that and asked me about it, I told them he was chatting rubbish. Of course once I brought it up with management nothing ever happened.

[asiannationmc]

[Dan123]

[wangdaning]

[Dan123]

[Markness]

[The bear]

I'm in two minds about wechat and the workplace.

All my students make a class wechat group. It's good for building 'class dynamic', my students will post pictures of homework assignments, English articles, things like that. However, I also tell them that anything work related should go through my university email address - ask for leave, sending homework etc.

It is just more professional. That and the fact that some students will most likely be going abroad to study. It builds a good habit of using institution provided accounts.

[Volver]

If the students are going overseas, they have to get used to e-mail. I use e-mail to communicate with my students and it allows both of us to send and receive files or convey detailed info. No way am I typing feedback or long instructions on my phone. I simply tell everyone that this is how I communicate, you have e-mail on your phone, deal with it.

V