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flyingcarpet
Joined: 01 Aug 2009 Posts: 15
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:18 pm Post subject: HCT - How does life at each campus differ? |
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I would like to know the pros and cons of the various HCT locations. For example, does one have much better accommodation, another a better lifestyle?
Thank you! |
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helenl
Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 1202
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:34 am Post subject: |
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According to whose yardstick?
Dubai - busy, lots of shopping, traffic, more entertainment options, expensive (taxis, parking, etc.) smaller (but not small) flats for most single, married no kids employees, better but more expensive schools for those with children. You're expected to work hard for every Dirham they pay you.
Fujairah - quiet, larger flats and sometimes singles can get villas. Some can even walk to college when it's cooler - 1 movie theater and any other entertainment is scarce. Shopping, not much choice unless you go to the big city. Still expected to work hard but it's more appreciated there
Ruwais/MZ - accomodation closeby has gotten mixed reviews, if you choose to commute that's at least 2 hours a day but the director has gotten some good reviews - hopefully he'll stay on for a while
Sharjah - a giant parking lot on most roads 90% of the time. Nice flats but the commute sucks big time and the parking situation is worse. The Director can be very "fickle" shall we say in terms of his expectations and behaviour on any given day to any given victim - oops, I mean employee. Nice, supportive one minute, demanding and critical the next (and not in a constructive way).
Abu Dhabi - I hear it depends on which campus whether or not the work environment is encouraging, housing is tight for all employers but HCT generally does a good job no matter where you're located. Parking is another big issue for people in flats as most buildings (as elsewhere in the country) are not required to have dedicated parking for tenants.
RAK and Al Ain both seem to tootle along very nicely thank you - people in Al Ain seem to be the "happiest" whatever that means.
It all depends on YOUR lifestyle and expectations to working environment and accomodation - I don't know you so I can't say. |
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adorabilly
Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 430 Location: Ras Al Khaimah
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:50 am Post subject: |
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I do think that this is a very "it depends" question. The answer depends on what you mean by better lifestyle.
If your idea of a better lifestyle is the club scene, rock concerts, sporting events, theater (metropolitian lifestyle) then it would be dubai or AD.
If you are more of an outdoors type who like to go hiking, mountain biking, camping, rock climbing, scuba diving then I'd say you may prefer RAK or FUJ because of the different climates available.
If you ware more of a homebody, then it really doesn't matter as long as you have nice accomodiations (which I think RAK's are very large and spacious).
So it really depends.
With that said, I'll tell you a bit more about RAK which is where we live. The villas here are very large. (some say too big) And the possible locations are quite diverse right on the beach (literally), to the base of the mountains. Some are in compounds, and some are nestled in nice arab neighborhoods.
The biggest complaint is that the management of the compounds is the same, and they often take a while to do maintenance. But it is what it is.
As I am not teaching at HCT (not yet), I cannot tell you any thing about office politics other than the normal. Yes there is office politics. Yes there are cliques, yes there is some gossip about people... but that is anywhere in the world you work. The best advice is to stay away from people who are not happy
RAK has a small expat community, but it is growing with different employers bringing different expats.... yesterday for example I was hearing german, tagalog, arabic, italian, french and english at the mall.
And there are all kinds of things to do around rak for singles, couples and families.
Is it perfect here? Heavens no. But is it an absolute backwater filled with nothing? No. I like it. But then again, I'm a homebody who likes the outdoors so it works out well. |
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Never Ceased To Be Amazed
Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 3500 Location: Shhh...don't talk to me...I'm playin' dead...
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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helenl wrote: |
According to whose yardstick? |
helenl: Shouldn't that be, "How long is a piece of string?"
NCTBA |
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helenl
Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 1202
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 4:19 am Post subject: |
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I was going to use my string theory question but (I think it was) Noor kind of flattened it for me by finding out how long my string was
The yardstick one is not very exciting so I'll have to try and come up with something new. |
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washingtonpost
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 61
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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Fujairah so far so good. |
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secretsquirrel
Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 73 Location: Next to Dick Dastardly!
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:07 pm Post subject: adwc |
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The one to avoid right now appears to be the women's college in abu dhabi. several people have been sacked for quite small reasons recently - things that would have earned you a letter of reprimand in other colleges. all the staff walk in fear of a certain woman on the senior management team there, and the other supervisors are too weak to stand up to her.
staff morale is the lowest it's ever been, and teachers have been banned from soliciting transfers to other colleges in the hct system. that's about as bad as it gets, i reckon!
just pm me if you want further details.
ss |
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squareandfair
Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 43
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:20 pm Post subject: Re: adwc |
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[quote="secretsquirrel"]The one to avoid right now appears to be the women's college in abu dhabi. several people have been sacked for quite small reasons recently - things that would have earned you a letter of reprimand in other colleges. all the staff walk in fear of a certain woman on the senior management team there, and the other supervisors are too weak to stand up to her.
staff morale is the lowest it's ever been, and teachers have been banned from soliciting transfers to other colleges in the hct system. that's about as bad as it gets, i reckon![/quote]
This is absolutely correct. She's a nasty bully who clawed her way to the top. She's ruthless and has no interpersonal skills. She should be fired instead of firing good teachers.
Last edited by squareandfair on Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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squareandfair
Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 43
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:22 pm Post subject: Re: adwc |
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Mequite who has had a terrible experience with a management bully said this:
[/quote]Why is it some heads and colleagues seem to think bullying, either overtly or covertly, is the way to manage staff? Surely there are better ways to deal with personnel. Overt bullying in the form of humiliation (both public and private) should be a no-go area, particularly when students are witnesses to the bullying. How tacky can you get!!!! Covert, behind your back bullying, is another sneaky tactic some managers and colleagues seem to enjoy. Why can't people be more up front and respectful to their colleagues? It seems to me that bullying is becoming a big problem. From my experience, people sometimes let power go to their heads; maybe it makes them feel big. But in fact it shows just how small they really are. Bullying just drives teachers away; good teachers -those who can afford to- leave; others have no choice but to put up with it.[/quote] |
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squareandfair
Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 43
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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Wilberforce posted this. Look at the bullying post by Mesquite on the Qatar forum. A lot of the coments fit this dreadful woman who harangues people because she feels so inferior. She clearly has personal issues and takes them out on the teachers.
HCT should not tolerate this kind of management behavior but sadly they do. It fits their profile. This woman is a disgrace. People are talking of quitting and I will soon be one of them. I worked with a bullying woman years ago in Sharjah but this one is infinitely worse.
http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/bullying%20by%20teachers.htm
http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/starr/starr056.shtml |
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007
Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 2684 Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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adorabilly wrote: |
RAK has a small expat community, but it is growing with different employers bringing different expats.... yesterday for example I was hearing german, tagalog, arabic, italian, french and english at the mall. |
adorability, have you heard any news (good or bad) about the university of Bolton RAK campus in Ras Al-khaimah? |
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Sheikh N Bake
Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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Where is this female ogre from? |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Sheik,
Although the "ess" suffix does seem t be disappearing - no more waiter/waitress, it's all "servers" now - I doubt that too many complaints of discriminatory language will be heard from those described by this word:
o�gress (grs)
n.
1. A female giant or monster in legends and fairy tales that eats humans.
2. A woman who is felt to be particularly cruel, brutish, or hideous.
Regards,
John |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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I am wondering if she is a local. It is very difficult for these employers to get rid of someone with a local passport. That is the problem I ran into when I was in Kuwait. The upper administration knew the situation and wanted desperately to fix things... but were trapped by the employment laws concerning local passports and wasta.
As more and more locals move up into management, fixing problems there become more difficult. BTW... this person is at ADWC.
Of course, knowing that doesn't really help applicants much as they have little input as to where they go when they are hired... other than turn the position down. And since she has axed a good few and others are seriously considering leaving, that means that newbies have a good chance of getting assigned there.
VS |
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uaeobserver
Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 236
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Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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The quality of work at HCT is directly proportional to the distance from Abu Dhabi. (just ask the director in Fujairah).
The AD campuses have people that back-stab, and crawl over you in pursuit of wasta and recognition.
This same behavior exists to some degree in Dubai and Sharjah.
Once you get out of the big cities - things seem to relax a little.
Most of the people I met from AA, RAK, and Fujairah, were relatively happy with things. |
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