Job Discussion Forums

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

Hi
I'm just curious regarding how tolerant and understanding you are to having to wait for pay from your employer. Have any of you had this problem ? If so, did / does it happen repeatedly or was it a case of deciding to walk away ? Interested to hear some stories.
Personally, I don't have much patience when it comes to having to wait for my income. I do my job, they should do theirs.
best
basil

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

I left a job once because they habitually paid everyone late. I allowed the excuses at first, but after a few months they grew old. Sure, there were factors beyond their control (like their students not paying them), but a properly-run school/company should have had some sort of safety net. Right now, I'm new in my current job and don't yet have a bank account, so I am perfectly willing to wait a few extra days for the money to get wired to my account back home.

d

saint57 · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:00 am Post subject:

I have a pretty high tolerance for crap, but if a school ever tried not paying me it would be the end of our relationship. I think that the worst that ever happened was payday falling on a Friday but the money didn't go into my account till Monday. It was a one time thing.

In the past I lost a lot of sleep wondering if my schools would honour airfare and bonuses.

Jetgirly · Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 741

I DO NOT believe in living paycheque-to-paycheque, so getting paid a few days late doesn't inconvenience me. However, I think it's a huge sign of unprofessionalism and disrespect, and if my pay came late twice I would start looking for alternate employment. Luckily, I've always been paid on time.

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

Getting paid late is awful, especially if you are paid on a monthly basis as (I think) most efl teachers are. Regardless of whether you believe in living month to month - you may be forced to and even if you don't, the school should pay you.

I think it is quite a classic catch though. You can demand to be paid and threaten to quit if they don't pay that moment...but then you've quit the job and possibly lost the pay forever, plus now you have to find a new job in the middle of the year or term. Schools know this of course.

That said, it depends on the circumstances of course, but there have been situations where I got paid late and it really was just because the school didn't have the money. The same school did actually give teachers occaisional advances (and some people really abused this) - but in my mind there is a difference between a school that just doesn't have the money and one that is trying to jerk you around or a director who wants to prove "they can."

John Hall · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:46 pm Post subject:

It's happened to me more times than I would like to admit!

If it starts happening too frequently, it's time to bail out. I used to work at a conversation school in Japan called Toza Gaigo Gakuin. Occasionally, senior teachers did not get paid on time. I completed my first year, and then was surprised to learn that my contract would not be renewed. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. About six months later, nobody was paid. Staff were told that they would be paid at a later date. But one morning, everybody went to work and discovered that the school was locked, and that there was a notice on the door saying that Toza had gone bankrupt! Eventually, the Japanese government had to step in and pay the teachers, but not until after several months had passed.