I guess you hope the best things in your past remain an island out of time. I came to this rock nearly 20 years ago. I was hired from overseas and landed in Keelung where I moved into an already existing apartment shared by the local Hess Workers. It was a nice little place, ok dumpy but nice in my eyes.
There were two management teams, a foreign team with the Head native speaking teacher serving as your shop steward and a foreigner in Taipei acting as our advocate and sort of boss.
They gave us plenty of hours and our NST also helped us locate some private action on the side.
Once the management closed the school for non essential renovation (before I joined) the NST actually took on the corporation and won some compensation for the foreign teachers. The Chinese local management failed to fight and did not get compensated.
In the middle of my second contract. My girlfriend was graduating university in Taipei and returning south Pingtung. I was lost and unhappy.
I pleaded my case and they agreed to let me go before the contract was up and transfer to Tainan. Time was split between working in Kaohsiung and Tainan.
After I finished out my contract, I worked for a local school and that started the worst nightmare of my life. Often I think, WTF happened. Please share a the change with out libeling anyone.
No one wants to comment on the cultural changes at HESS? I loved the school. There were great people in my time. In fact I know one of the founders of this board was in management. I really nice guy, but I forgot his alias. Oh well, maybe too controversial. If you want to tell me privately I can assure you that I don’t have any contact with Hess. I 'm just shocked at the negative comments. If anyone has an old "Hess more than Computers mug, let me know my kid smashed it by accident.
I think it just got better overall as it grew. More organized and even more professional. Sure, not everything was perfect, but I know people who have been working there for over 20 years (to this day).
I don’t think you could compare Hess to any of its competitors. When I was there, which was around the time you mentioned, it was at least 5x the size of its closest rival. That gap grew. I was only there for a few years, and the changes that were being made were copied throughout its industry.
I remember one meeting we had with the Head HNST, the head trainer and me (the webmaster) because a former teacher posted unkind things about their branch on Dave’s ESL Cafe. We debated what would be the appropriate reaction – if any. This was about 3 years BEFORE Forumosa existed. It’s hilarious for me to think about it, especially given what has been posted on this very site over the years.
So what happened to Hess since you and I left? It got big. And then it got bigger.
The title of this thread is misleading. Hess didn’t break your heart - but that was what I thought when I first saw it.
I’m glad it got big, my “heart is broken” comment came from all the negative stories I’ve been reading of it lately. I’ve only worked in two places before as a “contracted” foreign teacher before getting “work rights” as a “normal person”. Hess treated me very fairly! And when they tried to well, do “local business tactics” our foreign management gave us the heads up and told us how to handle it.
I reluctantly left Hess and fell into the hands of a local businessman pulled every trick in the book and… I don’t want to go into that right now. Let’s just say the Forumosa BBS along with the legal moderator saved my sanity at the time.
So, I guess, I would love to see some nice positive posts about Hess and I would be happy. Thanks for the personal reply.
I think the most positive post you’ll see about Hess here is that it can be not horrible. I actually had a pretty decent Hess experience but I wouldn’t rave about it.
Isn’t Hess notorious for controlling costs by targeting fresh off the boats?
Also don’t they work their teachers to the bone and don’t pay for that extra work such as marking?
They sound like McDonald’s (actually worse than McDobalds), I don’t think many people are going to reminisce too much.
But I did notice they have their own lingo (NSTs) and own special brand of clear eyed stalwarts :).
Maybe when they were expanding so quickly with the money rolling in they were a lot more fun to work for.
