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sharter
Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 878
Location: All over the place
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 Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:16 pm Post subject: Being careful is sometimes just being cheap. |
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| I've been teaching for 16 years now and have spent 7 of them in the Middle East. In recent years I've been involved in several whip-rounds for TCNs ie Indians, Sri Lankans and Egyptians who generally work as tea boys and cleaners; they earn peanuts. I must say that TEFL teachers, even when earning good dosh, are some of the meanest people I've ever met. The developing world service staff make our lives better and get treated pretty unfairly, so please remember to tip them and give them the odd leg up. Some of my current colleagues are up in arms about contributing a quid....sometimes being careful is just a form of self- deception. It's nice to be nice, so don't be a cheapskate. You know who you are....next you'll be nicking the tea bags. |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 4:39 pm Post subject: |
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Dear sharter,
Better count those tea-bags again. I'm afraid that my experiences in Saudi generally (with some notable exceptions) were similar to yours. On one of my departures from the Kingdom, I had a Ma'salama Sale with all proceeds going to our Filipino cleaning staff. One colleague came by, picked up LOTS of stuff and "donated" a grand total of five riyals.
Regards,
John |
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eflnoil
Joined: 08 Nov 2008
Posts: 23
Location: AKTAU
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| Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I've been teaching for 16 years now and have spent 7 of them in the Middle East. In recent years I've been involved in several whip-rounds for TCNs ie Indians, Sri Lankans and Egyptians who generally work as tea boys and cleaners; they earn peanuts. I must say that TEFL teachers, even when earning good dosh, are some of the meanest people I've ever met. The developing world service staff make our lives better and get treated pretty unfairly, so please remember to tip them and give them the odd leg up. Some of my current colleagues are up in arms about contributing a quid....sometimes being careful is just a form of self- deception. It's nice to be nice, so don't be a cheapskate. You know who you are....next you'll be nicking the tea bags. |
Precisely. Here in Kazakhstan, we have a fixed lottery for all the admin, cleaning and catering staff only. All the instructors stick in the equivalent of around $12 bucks a month (which none of us could possibly miss) and the others stick in a nominal $2. We all, if we are able, attend the monthly gathering to talk, play cards, chain-smoke and drink ourselves into a stupor and essentially to see who has won the month's lottery.
All of them think the system is great and really show their appreciation to all 13 of the academic staff.
It really doesn't take much to keep these people happy and .... crucially .... on your side when you might need their assistance at any particular time.
I personally wouldn't have it any other way.
ENO |
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posh
Joined: 22 Oct 2010
Posts: 430
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| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:35 am Post subject: |
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| When our tea boy (monthly salary SR260= $65) got married we had a whip round so I stuck in SR100 and noticed certain colleagues resentfully rummaging among the one Riyal notes in their wallets and putting a couple in the envelope. I bet they bitched about it in front of the bathroom mirror that evening. One guy emptied out his Halala coins and said "Have the lot!" |
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