Job Discussion Forums

[Suburban_Andy]

So I got a job in the end and I've been working it for the past four months. It's becoming increasingly apparent however that the way this place is run is ridiculous and what is being asked of me is more so.

Now what I want to know is if this is typical of what I'd expect in other cram schools, so I thought I'd ask the opinion of some of you guys who I know have a lot more experience with the market than me.

Anyway, a list of what is asked of me-
Free sick make up classes (which often totals around 3 hours a week). These often extend into make up classes of all sorts. I fight it, but it's tiresome.
Escorting the kids to school about 3 times a week (again unpaid and takes about 1/2 hour each time)
I work split shifts and sign in twice a day, each time 15 minutes before my class. If I'm late by a minute, it's a 100 dollar fine. In these two fifteen minute slots, I'm not technically required to work, but they always find me something to do or expect me to do something at least. So again another 1/2 hour unpaid every day.
Unpaid 'meetings' more often than I'd like.
I've had to start writing tests, occasionally.
I'm constantly asked to 'volunteer' for things and made to feel like I'm letting the kids down if I don't.
This place offers no incentives to stay there- no bonuses. Nothing but my pay. If I take a sick day I have to arrange a substitute. We don't get paid for holidays or Typhoon days and have no holidays for the entire year.

And this is without even talking about the stack of nonsense that goes on within the classroom. I have another eight months on my contract and don't honestly know if I can spend it here. What I want to know is if it will be any different if I get work elsewhere or is this place pretty extreme? I'm seriously considering moving on.

I'd appreciate any advice you could give me!

[creztor]

You shouldn't be taking kids anywhere and free makeup classes seems wrong. However, everything else looks kind of normal. Most places would offer a bonus if you sign on again for another year, but many schools pressure you into "activities" and also will dock your pay for being late. Writing of tests is a bit odd, but I have worked at a "school" that required teachers to make their own tests, as the school was too lazy/tight to come up with their own that could just be photocopied.

[Suburban_Andy]

I think those are the two things that really annoy me about it, to be honest. I can deal with a lot of the stuff (in fact, I expected it) but when you combine it all together it's getting pretty frustrating.

Another key thing I forgot to mention- I'm expected to mark all the books too, which is fairly significant time sink as well.

This all sounds like a bit too much to me...

[creztor]

Andy,
other than the makeup and escorting kids, it is all fairly normal. As your correctly pointed out, there is a lot of extra work that burns up time and it starts to make your hourly pay look... minuscule.

[KayuJati]

Suburban_Andy,

I am not in Taiwan but I have been teaching for 23 years (16 in Asia) and I just want to encourage you NOT to give up. The first year in any new school is usually the hardest. Eight months may look like a long time, but consider that you are learning the teaching trade on-the-job and getting paid to do so.

Look at these little irritations as a chance to learn some negotiation skills. If they ask you to do something outside of your contract, then you should ask for something back in exchange. What is it that you want, and that won't be a large burden for them to give? Even if it is something small, it can feel like a major victory to get an exchange going rather than a one-sided cave-in.

[Rooster_2006]

Suburban_Andy,

The unpaid three hours of lessons for students who were sick is something I haven't heard of before (well, not for foreign teachers at least), but everything else on that list of things you wrote up is pretty standard these days. Yesterday, I probably had to write various comments and corrections in about fifty different books, no exaggeration, not to mention filling out and submitting lesson plans for three lessons complete with graphics, doing research on prepping my students for the KET test, creating eight colorful flashcards, talking with my boss about the Halloween party, etc.

All in all, I generally seem to spend around 50% of my teaching time in unpaid duties, so my supposedly 14.5-hour load is actually around 22 hours. But that doesn't really bother me, because it's par for the course in EFL. I knew that it'd be that way when I signed the contract.

Here are some pointers:

- Automatically ASSUME before taking a job that you will spend at least 50% of the time spent teaching doing misc. tasks. That way, you won't be disappointed when this inevitably turns out to be the case.

- Rather than forecasting your monthly earnings by multiplying your weekly wage by 4.3 weeks per month, just multiply it by 4 instead -- that'll allow you to forecast more accurately, keeping typhoons and public holidays in mind.

- Live in Taiwan either because you are interested in Chinese/Taiwanese culture or because you love teaching. DO NOT come here for the money -- you will be (or already have been) sorely disappointed.

People love to go on and on about the low cost of living, but honestly, if you cook at home in the US, your food bill will be about the same. Ever heard of 99 cent Wal-Mart TV dinners? McValue Menu? Grocery stores? Food in the US is only expensive if you eat at restaurants. As for rent, rent here is cheaper, but not cheap enough to make up for the fact that most of us are lucky to make $1,500 a month. And besides, if you want to save on rent in the US, you can always rent a Public Storage shed for like $100 a month and secretly live in it -- same amount of living space as your average ya fang or tao fang. So this whole "oh, but the cost of living is so low" argument is honestly pretty bogus. Taiwan is great for learning Chinese, great for tropical beaches, and great for seeing monkeys up in the mountains, but it is bottom-of-the-bucket for savings potential.

All in all, I can't help but agree that contracts these days and conditions fall very far short of the Internet hype of a few years ago, and what most Taiwanese on the street believe we make. Seriously, a lot of Taiwanese people seem to think we drive Mercedes-Benz cars and live in gold houses. I get so sick of the "you English teacher, you so lucky -- good pay" line that everyone inevitably whips out. Oh yeah. Really lucky. I'm banking $400 a month, eating Dan Dan Hanbao, and living in a single room with a shared bathroom and walking to work, whoop-dee-doo! Yep, a real aristocrat I am.

Oh well. This job has, in the end, served its purpose -- giving me enough income to complete my bachelor's degree without taking out yet another Stafford Loan. I got a working visa on an AA+CELTA combo and then funneled my savings into completing my bachelor's degree by distance (taking most of the exams at a proctoring center in Taipei), and next week, I take my FINAL exam for my BS. And after I have that, I can finish my contract and move on with my life.

[robertokun]

Three choices. Get yourself a better job and get the f' outta there, go home, or stay with what you've got. "Well, that's the way it is" isn't a healthy way to look at things. I'd go with option 1, unless you can't. Option 2 if option 1 doesn't work. Option 3 if you're masochistic.

[creztor]

Great advice until he finds out that most other schools will require him to do work that he isn't paid for, and this obviously is what is causing him grief. "That's the way it is" is a great way to look at things because it makes you realize that the entire ESL business in Taiwan generally is like that. That means changing jobs will more likely than not still result in some kind of unpaid work, so at least you are prepared for it this time (I do think that the escorting of children and unpaid hours is wrong, but everything else is normal).

[Suburban_Andy]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I have taught in Korea before, so I was prepared for the unpaid aspects to the job. Its mostly the free sick classes and escorting the kids that are annoying me, but it seems with this manager in particular that he pushes too far in what he asks for all the time. And when you give him what he wants, inevitably, he asks for more and more. He's a strange guy, prone to pretty crazy mood swings and pretty impossible to talk to. Even if and when I do, you inevitably have various unpaid meetings and end up back at square one.

It's quite hard to explain on here the situation in this school exactly- I'm not just moaning, I assure you. I'm prepared to work hard and I'm willing to do things unpaid. But this all seems a bit too much.

I'm looking for something else.

Thanks!

[creztor]

Good luck, Andy!

[gfisher]

I know how you feel. I'm a teacher at an Australian public school. You wouldn't believe how many meetings I attend, how many tests, worksheets etc. I write and how much time I spend volunteering.

I also have to submit a teaching program at the beginning of each term, submit a subject area plan linking my teaching program to official curriculum documents and participate in creating whole-school operational documents, including the school ethos, educational philosophies, pastoral care etc.

I also have to draw up a budget for my subject area and link it to specific activities in my teaching program. Yes, I need to know right now what I will be teaching in 10 weeks' time, what I need to buy and how much it will cost.

I also attend committee meetings (I'm obliged to be involved in several committees which meet outside of school time) involving all sorts of things related to the school, for example, emergency evacuation procedures.

I also have to prepare students for national tests and longitudinally analyse data from previous test years, chart student progress and refer to this data analysis in my teacher programs. I also have to create individual education programs for special needs students.

I have to write report comments for each student and be available for parent-teacher evenings. I also have to cover the classes of other teachers when they are sick or on excursions.

I don't escort students but several times per week I have to supervise students as they leave school, ensuring they enter the buses safely and that others cross the road safely.

If you don't have to do these things, you are lucky. I had to suspend my studies because I simply did not have time: my job is too demanding. Some of it is part of the job but some it is excessive and the result of a real lack of quality leadership and imagination at my school.

I feel sorry for you that you don't have any holidays.

I'm always on the lookout for something better, even when things are cushy. If I don't get something better, I will be in Taiwan next year.

[adogadie]

That's what I call teaching. You have a handful of responsibilities. For me, lesson planning, EFL instruction and then after I finish I am off to the nearest pub. It's easy as that for me. No problems or complaints from DouLiuo City.

[markholmes]

[creztor]

There are unpaid hours at most cram schools. You either need to turn up early or correct homework/tests. Might be one or two schools that allow you to turn up at 5pm for a class that starts at 5pm, but most will require you to be there half an hour early and you usually there is stuff that needs to be corrected or filled in that you can't possibly finish during class time. I've worked at more than one school and that is the way it is for the bulk of the ESL market. Nothing wrong with that, because, as someone mentioned above, it is something you have to do in almost any job.

But this has gotten way off track. The issue was escorting children, something he definitely shouldn't have to do, and working extra teaching hours that he wasn't paid for. That is not standard. Again, to the OP, good luck finding a new job.

[Rooster_2006]

My general rules of thumb:
- If the working conditions are all right and the boss is nice, finish your contract and maybe even renew.
- If the working conditions are all right but the boss is a jerk, finish your contract but don't renew.
- If the working conditions suck but the boss is nice, finish your contract but don't renew.
- If the working conditions suck and the boss is a jerk, you owe him/her absolutely nothing, so get the heck out of there before he/she finds yet another way to burn you.