A recruiting agency found me a job and sent me a copy of a contract. They had me sign the contract as Party B, but Party A was not filled out. I scanned and sent the page to them. They told me that once I sign the contract, the school cannot back out.
Before I sent the contract, I was waiting to hear back from an opportunity in America that would be a substantial amount more money and better for my career. The offer has not yet been extended to me. I decided I couldn’t keep the recruiting agency waiting any longer for fear of losing the chance. I sent them the scanned copy.
I am in a bit of a conundrum now if that opportunity finally does come in.
Ethically, I would say it is not very good to back out of a contract once you have signed it, but professionally and logically I know you often need to do what is best for you and your career. And I have seen how Taiwanese can sometimes deal with teachers, and I can say they can be really ruthless if they determine an option is better for them.
Advice on this is appreciated, and i am sure some of you must have gone through this before.
Also, is there any penalty that can be put on me if I just don’t decide to get on that plane and come to Taiwan? Can I somehow be barred from entering the country again? I have heard of this before on a recruiting agency’s website, but I am not sure if it is true
This is indeed a difficult situation. They are using the contract to keep you on hold…
For future reference, in this situation it is a good idea to write a time limit on contract (and initial it). ie Something along the lines of, “Counter signed document must be received by Friday August 15th.”
A recruiting agency found me a job and sent me a copy of a contract. They had me sign the contract as Party B, but Party A was not filled out. I scanned and sent the page to them. They told me that once I sign the contract, the school cannot back out.[/quote]
If party A (I assume refers to the school) has not signed the contract yet then they aren’t bound by anything regardless of whether you sign or not. I’d love to see someone try to go to court with a contract not signed by the other party.
Did you contact the opportunity in America and see what their timeline is for making a descision?
A better opportunity in your home country for more money? What conundrum?
How does the fact that some Taiwanese can maybe sometimes be ruthless make you reneging on a contract any more or less ethical?
[quote] Also, is there any penalty that can be put on me if I just don’t decide to get on that plane and come to Taiwan? Can I somehow be barred from entering the country again? I have heard of this before on a recruiting agency’s website, but I am not sure if it is true
Thanks[/quote]
AFAIK, there is nothing they can do. You certainly couldn’t be barred from entering the country as this would be a civil matter not a criminal matter. You could find yourself on a blacklist (if it exists) so trying to find future work teaching in Taiwan might be a challange… maybe.
Let me put it this way, if I had an ideal image in my head of Taiwanese office workers as really sweet and caring and excited about having a foreign english teacher and they would never do harm to you and wouldn’t basically do anything bad, i would have a harder time backing out once a school was expecting me. In reality I know that they are not like this at all. They can be really deceptive and conniving, not all of course, but i have seen some really shady stuff. That makes me feel less bad about backing out of a contract. If that doesn’t make sense, I don’t think i can explain it any other way
If there was an opportunity in America that suddenly fell in my lap before I left for Taiwan, I would have trouble turning it down. At this point in my career and for what I want to accomplish, staying in Taiwan doesn’t really help or hurt me. The money would give me decent savings. But some of the opportunities that I applied for in America have much more money behind them. I also know that my future will be in America, so some would say it is a good idea to build a base here as soon as possible
Timelines? Well, opportunities keep popping up. I contacted the alumni office of the organization i got my teaching license through, so opportunities sporadically pop up. Right now I have two interviews for Monday. Somethings are stalling now for this Taiwan recruiting agency, due to a whole nother headache about somethings. so it is good that i keep my options open right now
I think the blacklist does exist, but I think you can only get on it if you do something illegal or break contract. I was wondering if backing out of a job after a work permit would be under that category.
[quote=“nateliu99”]Let me put it this way, if I had an ideal image in my head of Taiwanese office workers as really sweet and caring and excited about having a foreign english teacher and they would never do harm to you and wouldn’t basically do anything bad, I would have a harder time backing out once a school was expecting me. In reality I know that they are not like this at all. They can be really deceptive and conniving, not all of course, but I have seen some really shady stuff. That makes me feel less bad about backing out of a contract. If that doesn’t make sense, I don’t think i can explain it any other way
If there was an opportunity in America that suddenly fell in my lap before I left for Taiwan, I would have trouble turning it down. At this point in my career and for what I want to accomplish, staying in Taiwan doesn’t really help or hurt me. The money would give me decent savings. But some of the opportunities that I applied for in America have much more money behind them. I also know that my future will be in America, so some would say it is a good idea to build a base here as soon as possible
Timelines? Well, opportunities keep popping up. I contacted the alumni office of the organization i got my teaching license through, so opportunities sporadically pop up. Right now I have two interviews for Monday. Somethings are stalling now for this Taiwan recruiting agency, due to a whole nother headache about somethings. so it is good that i keep my options open right now
I think the blacklist does exist, but I think you can only get on it if you do something illegal or break contract. I was wondering if backing out of a job after a work permit would be under that category.[/quote]
Is there a clause within the contract which stipulates an early termination of the contract by either parties? You must have that in writing before signing anything or else you’re in for a ride.
Don’t ever sign any contract without that term, period. Ask them to redo the contract if that term is not included in the original form and resign it. You might save yourself beaucoup bucks by doing so.
the recruiting agency said they are starting the work permit for me now, at the same time a higher paying job in a better location said they want me to do a demo and interview. I obviously don’t want to leave a school high and dry, but i also want what’s best for myself too.
I am not even sure if i could stop the work permit process right now or if it is finished i don’t know how easy it is to cancel it. Then if another school tried to start one with me, would that raise red flags at the Labor Office?
My instinct is if i really wanted to , i could cancel the work permit process that started already, and if i got a job at another place i could probably get a new one without problems
Can anyone give me insight or advice? I think the logical thing would be just to take the job already offered to me even if it is for less pay and a worse location. holding out for a job that I am only getting to the second stage interview with is silly. And canceling once the work permit is finished is not a good idea…besides maybe i could have fun out in the county. A really different lifestyle for sure
I realize this post comes off as whiny, but i am just asking to see if anyone has had a similar experience and if i can learn from what you all might have already been through
Edit: I think i’ll just take the definite thing and make the best of Fengyuan. If anyone lives there let me know