A fabulous tale of workplace abuse

It was my 50th birthday this week, so I took two huge chocolate cakes to work for my students. Before class started, I talked to the owner about an issue re a co-worker, a teacher, whose frequent absences required combining my class with his, often with only minutes’ notice when I arrived at work. I felt this was harming my students and, on my birthday, all the plans I’d made for my class now had to be done away with because of yet another last-minute call to say he’d be absent that day.

As I was having this discussion, another foreign teacher arrived for work. Within seconds of hearing my conversation with the owner, he invited himself into the discussion by shouting and screaming at me that I had no right to talk about this teacher and his frequent absences. I asked him on what basis he thought he could join in uninvited, and he said, “Because I was listening…” I encouraged him to move along and get ready for work, and he walked off.

Moments later, he stormed back and went off on a long rant, puffing out his chest and getting closer and closer to me. Finally, he lost control and told me, in front of the two owners and other co-workers, to “F**k off!” He then walked off. I called after him that he’d be back to apologize momentarily, so I would wait where I was. “No, I won’t,” he said, with his back to me, walking off. “No, you’re right about that, you’re not man enough to apologize.”

Anyway, he did come back, he was marched back by the owner and provided an “apology,” most of which was spent blaming me. The owner expected me to be satisfied with that, but I said I definitely was not. I know what a big mouth this teacher has, and I knew he’d be going off to marshal support against me, having been there many years and me a much shorter time.

So, after some discussion with the owners, they understood that my main concern was that there would be no repeat of such bullying behavior, and they asked what they could do. I said I would go home and spend the next day coming up with a proposal for ensuring no lasting consequences from what happened. And that’s what I did: I asked that the teacher receive a written warning and agree to a few conditions, simple things like not trying to interact with me, not making any comments about me to other staff/students. The owners replied that this had been agreed with by themselves and the foreign teacher, and I was to come back to work.

If you got this far, the really interesting stuff happens now:

Being told by the owner to “come back and teach the children,” I returned to the school for my next scheduled class. I went early in case there was anything to clear up. The owner came and sat with me and we had a 20-minute talk. When we reached a break in our conversation, we both felt like we were being stared at. We looked up and two of the Taiwanese teachers were there, staring at us, hands by their sides. I asked what they wanted to say, and the first one said: “If you continue teaching here, I will not work with you.” Then the second one said the same thing. Then another foreign teacher came and started standing over me, intimidating me, telling me I had to leave the school immediately. I told him I was employed at the school, but he kept getting closer and closer and I thought he would grab hold of me, so I left. As we got to the elevator and he was out of earshot, he threatened me, saying if he had been there when I spoke about his friend (the teacher who kept being absent), he’d have “f**king crushed” me.

I sent a message to the owners asking why they had had me thrown out of the school after telling me to come and teach, and they said I am now not to come to work. I asked why, and they said I quit. “I quit, how?” “Because you took home all your personal property from the school that day!” Well, it’s true I took some clothes home to wash, but that now apparently means you’ve quit! I said I am still employed at the school until my contract runs out, but they said I can not come to the school.

Basically, what I thought would happen happened, the teacher who publicly insulted me was, at first, going to take the medicine of a warning, but then decided that if he got the other foreign teachers on side and some Taiwanese ones, they could just threaten to quit if I resumed my teaching.

So there we have it. This will go to mediation, I suppose, and those who followed my previous posts re my legal fight with a buxiban owner, will know that by now I am highly experienced in this kind of thing.

Interestingly, there has been a conviction in Taiwan for using the Chinese equivalent of “f**k off” as an insult, and the owner usefully sent a long description of the incident where they note the use of these words to publicly insult me, so I will have this teacher brought to the police station and see if I can get a charge to stick (hard, but sometimes happens).

Oh, the birthday, my 50th. No cake (for me), no card, no gift. Never mind, maybe my 100th will be better.

8 Likes

So strange that they would defend their coworker so aggressively. I mean it is fair they defended him( maybe something is happening in the background you don’t know about?)but why the swearing and the physical threats?

2 Likes

Happy Birthday!

So when do we sue him and seize his house?

6 Likes

I can’t say too much without identifying the school. They are all from the same country and have been there more than a decade; they are as much friends as co-workers.

3 Likes

Ha! I think with him it’s about causing him some embarrassment and, hopefully, worry. He certainly will have a hard job denying he committed the offense, but the maximum punishment under the Criminal Code is only a 9,000TWD fine. Still…

Oh, and re happy birthday, thanks!

2 Likes

Max damages is $30000. When I sued, I got $25000. Although when I take into account the days off… lawyer fees… it was more like $3000.

I will usually hesitate unless it was as cut and dry as what you describe

2 Likes

Seize their assets! Freeze their house. Or the other way around!

1 Like

House the assets! Freeze the seize!

Oh wait.

6 Likes

Like I say, Criminal Code is 9000TWD

Article 309

A person who publicly insults another shall be sentenced to short-term imprisonment or a fine of not more than nine thousand dollars.

Civil suit you can, of course, ask for any number you like. When my ex-boss went after me for insulting her publicly she wanted 300,000TWD!

Sounds to me like the owner is as much to blame. I mean he doesn’t have to combine the classes. He also shouldn’t let the Taiwanese staff bully you.

4 Likes

Happy 50th! :birthday:

It’s kind of amazing how you seem to be a magnet for so much weirdness…hope everything works out!

image

8 Likes

Yes. Some of the comments they have made are just stupid. They said also, re quitting, that I quit because I said, “I can easily get a job at another school.” How can that be construed as quitting?

The owner has let this foreign teacher, who is a two-faced bastard, it must be said, get his way. If the owner put a mic in the staff room and had a listen to what this guy says about him each day, he might not be showing him such loyalty.

This is actually the second time I’ve been publicly insulted by a foreign teacher on my birthday and it has led to me losing my job! In both cases, the person who insulted me was not subject to any kind of punishment.

I think from now on I will just call in sick on birthdays.

5 Likes

What’s wrong?

I’ve got birthdaytitis. Very bad. Very contagious. Can’t be contained by masks.

3 Likes

I guess he is just taking the path of least resistance. To him, that guy seems scarier. Do they know about you suing your last school? I would have thought that would make them think twice about going this route

1 Like

They know. They were actually very supportive as I went through that process. Even here, at first, they agreed to give the guy a written warning that I prepared, but then backed out, likely because of a mutiny organized by this guy. I get sacrificed.

But I am surprised that they are being so dismissive of me, when they know how experienced I am and that I know the law very well. They’ve already sent LINE messages that are going to be very difficult to explain away in court. I mean, re the co-worker telling me to f-off, I have a LINE message from the owner saying she was there and heard him say that, and she quotes the English.

They also agreed to give the written warning and asked me to prepare it, so again, very hard to persuade a judge that I quit the day before when the day after they are agreeing to issue a written warning and asking me to report for work.

Also, each day this week, I LINED them and said I had an employment contract with the school, was available for work, and should I come to the school, and they said, “No.” So I thanked them for confirming that they were preventing me from coming to work. You have to do this or 1/ they can try arguing that you were absent from work, so that gave them the right to terminate your contract, and 2/ it shows you are not abandoning the contract.

6 Likes

You sued for public insult and got $25,000? Was that in a civil case, criminal or a combo?

Happy 50th birthday. I recommend spending the last hour or so sipping on a beer or two, away from discussing this problem.

1 Like

Agree. I hope you have less of this and a more satisfying and rewarding work environment going forward.

4 Likes

I take medication daily that means I cannot drink alcohol. But thanks for the thought.

1 Like