Job Discussion Forums

[hotornot]

A company sent the contract to my friend, in Chinese/English. It was dutifully signed and retuned. One day before Chinese New Year they send a new contract reducing salary, holidays and terms in general.

Chinese New year is on can't reach anyone other than recruiter who says he will try to ask them to change it.



Contract was 20,000 after tax, 1/2 paid holidays.
reduced to 15,000 after tax, and 1/4 paid holidays.

um are we in the fish souq ...

Does their attitude stink ?

[rioux]

That's quite a bit of a reduction. I would go through the entire contract line by line to look for any other surprises.

[T-Bone]

I wouldn't work for them.

They reduced the salary 25%. Right before CNY. That is a super sneaky and shady thing to do. If they are doing this kind of crap before your friend is even working for them, they are going to do far shadier and crappier things to them when they are working.

Far shadier and crappier. Once they have your friend on site, where they have a lot less control about their situation, they are going to do all kinds of unethical and exploitative stuff. I'm sure you can find enough stories in these threads if your friend doesn't understand this.

Your friend is probably eager to get working, and to have a job after doing the annoying job process for a prolonged time period. He/she should extend that period a little longer to find a different job. There are plenty of jobs in China. They will find something.

In a way, the company did your friend a favor. Now your friend doesn't have to spend a year dealing with their awfulness. He/she knows before working there that they are going to treat her/him poorly.

Your friend should decline the position. And don't let the company guilt them into staying. It's just one of the manipulative tools in their slimy toolbox. They are totally in the wrong. They should be shamed for wasting your friend's time.

[Kierana]

Huge red flag, I wouldn't even consider them for another minute.

(Under Chinese law they have offered you a lesser contract that you can decline without penalty)

[happeningthang]

I don't know why people are so horrified about this....

They TOLD YOU there were changes. It's not very professional and speaks unkindly about their organisational skills - but if they were TRYING to screw your friend over they wouldn't have said anything until s/he was on site.

To me it sounds more like the trpical Chinese school situation with things constantly in flux and changes happening all the time. It doesn't mean they are malicious.

In my experience this is a common situation for China's ESL. There's a spectrum where some are better able to explain and ameliorate changes than others (usually with western management) - but change happens here... a lot.

If this is a deal breaker I suggest Taiwan or Japan.... You work harder, but they are organised.

[cdchristy]

From my experience, it is possible that they see you as nothing more than a hired gun. They may have found someone else who will take the job at the lower rate or simply heard of other schools paying less. They are likely looking for cheapest option to maximize their profit without any concern about finding the best teacher for their students.

I would add that I am sometimes shocked at how the bosses are oblivious to the business realities of FTs. They only see their reality and expect FTs to comply. This is likely due to their cultural norms.

All of this being said, I would appreciate their forewarning but I would look for something else.

[RiverMystic]

Run. Run away!

Why would anybody even consider working for such an organisation? What was the fellow’s last position? A professional speed bump?

[Frequency]

Give them the middle finger and walk away. Honestly you will get cheated at some point while living in China by any employer. No matter who you work for. You will either be cheated or you will be given vague explanations on things, last minute notices on schedule changes and other things like that.

Perhaps you should look onto YouTube and type in the search field "why foreigners are leaving china". You will eventually learn as I did a while back that we really have no future there.

The fact that the esl job environment isn't meant to be a life long thing for us and the fact that you aren't in a professional atmosphere, I just can't see what anybody can see in it.

[Simon in Suzhou]

[getbehindthemule]