Bad experience at Gjun

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Hi all,

I am deeply sorry that my first post to this site has already taken such a negative tone. I came over to Taiwan on the understanding that I would take employment with Gjun, and that they had many working hours available. Particularly throughout the ‘busy’ summer period. I also know others who work for the company, and for this reason, I felt I could trust this assertion.

That said, I well and truly got f*cked over by this company.

I came over to Taiwan to do a teaching demonstration for this company. I was keen to work for them, as teaching adult students’ courses such as IELTS and TOEIC is decent experience to gain. I hoped to gain this experience as the pay is not too shabby; especially for future opportunities. I hoped to score a job with stable hours, every month, to pay my way though language school and become more competent at speaking, writing and reading Mandarin. I have already studied Mandarin for 3 years, though this was at a Western University in New Zealand. Needless to say, I still have a lot to learn.

I was sensible enough to apply for other jobs at the same time as my interview for Gjun. I was given several other offers, but they all wanted me to start immediately. While Gjun - Plan A - called to offer me a “full-time” role as a teacher, the other companies - Plan B, C and D - wished for me to start right away. Since Gjun were still very promising, I did not accept these other offers as I thought I had made a kind of commitment to Gjun. They were offering a full-time role, and they teach adults - which is a field I was keen to gain experience in.

Long story short - I was completely misled over how many teaching hours I was to be given. The definition of "full-time’ to this particular branch of Gjun means exactly 10-15 hours per week. To me, this is a part-time job. I am now in a very vulnerable position where I cannot afford to live off the only current job offer I have. I have otherwise battered the crap out of the job market here, in HK and in the mainland; applying for any job I could do. However, since the end of term is appproaching, and many schools have teachers lined up already, work is still pretty thin on the ground.

I tried to negotiate with the branch manager to gain more working hours. In the end, she completely “spat the dummy” - she went truly on the defensive over how all the teachers were happy, the business was doing well, and the teachers, if anything, were hoping for less hours - all the while, refuting my questions over how to make ends meet on 10-15 hours per week. I was willing to take on a second part-time job, to work for Gjun and to keep myself going. However, the schedule I was given by Gjun is all over the place - if a second school wanted me to work a block shift in the morning, or during the later hours of the day, it would not be easy to reconcile the demands of the two jobs. I may be teaching for Gjun at 10am, again at 3pm, then once more from 8-9:40pm.

I tried very hard to negoitiate working for Gjun during a discrete block of the day or week.That way, I could take secondary employment and work my way around any schedule conflicts from a second part-time job, Say, if I were to work from 6-10pm on a Saturday, I could just let a secondary employer know I am not available at that time for any reason.

Gjun rejected this, and reiterated their defensive - they thought the schedule they offered me looked good, and many teachers were happy with their hours, preferring to work less than they currently are.

Throughout the entire process, I not only feel their honesty was lacking, but their support of foreign teachers on the whole was next to nothing. Even in the simplest terms of finding their branches during the interview process, they did not provide much help.

The reasoning behind this huge diatribe is not just to serve as a precautionary tale for others looking to apply to Gjun…But, also, to seek information about how to contact Gjun’s main branch / office. I wish to talk to Human Resources about the situation - whether they would actually care or not, I don’t know. I am afraid my Chinese reading skills are not good enough to do this without help. Does anybody out there know how to retreive this information?

I do not think anybody should go through this without the ability to stand up for themselves. I would be loathe for anybody else to suffer any of the samne kid of experience.

Many thanks in advance x

1 Like
2

That should be…"…Same kind of experience"……My computer is slow as shit, and frequently misses my keystrokes…xx

3

I’m sorry that your first experience in Taiwan has been a negative one. I know it’s incredibly frustrating to move your entire life, only to be disappointed and feeling deceived.

Just a note to others who haven’t arrived in Taiwan yet: A buxiban may advertise a full time position, but it’s not usually what we think of in the West. “Full time” if often defined as the minimum hours required to sponsor your ARC, which is 14 hours/week. Unfortunately, some schools will give you less than 14 hours, but fudge their reporting to get you the ARC.

For the OP, I understand your rant and I sincerely hope you’re able to find a better situation for yourself soon.

4

Just out of curiosity, how much are you able to make on 40 to 60 hours per month? Is the hourly pay good, at least?

5

In my experience here, anything that Janet Xie (謝怡芬) promotes is a turd sandwich – lesson learned. I suggest this for future reading.

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Hey all,

Thank you all so much for your supportive replies. Definitely a lesson learned; the definition of “full-time” is not as it seems. I hope to pursue this situation with admin staff from the school - if and when I track them down - simply to request they put this information up front for new foreign teachers. That way, the school employs people who can work on their terms, and teachers can make an informed life decision…

…Novaspes - the pay rate per hour is not toooo shabby - not as shabby as the likes of Hess - but with the hours they were offering, I would have been earning significantly under 40K monthly for at least 2 months…I would have worked a 2nd part-time job, but the schedule was too all over the place to accommodate it.

Ehophi - duly noted, hahaha! Thanks for the link :slight_smile:

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Oops - Novaspes, that figure would surely come down to around 30K after tax…And Gjun don’t pay for your permit / visa…With no guarantee the schedule would get busier by enough to salvage the situation after those first 2 months…

8

If I may ask, what does it mean they don’t pay for your work permit? I thought they had to do that if they employ you. :o

9

They can do what they want if you agree to it. There are always enough people trying to escape into adult teaching that the conditions are pretty bad.

Having said that, it doesn’t sound unusual for a school to give you 10-15 hours, especially with adult teaching. Adult learners don’t have a huge amount of ‘not in work’ time, so you’re unlikely to be able to do a lot of hours unless you can carry off in-company corporate stuff or daytime exam prep.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel angry and your feelings aren’t valid, but if you want to stay there and get more hours, your best bet is to suck it up, don’t make people defensive, and don’t go to head office. Smooth things over and present yourself as someone who won’t result in loss of student numbers and they’ll probably give you more hours as they come up. If you make your school manager lose face, she’ll make your life difficult.

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This isn’t a big surprise actually. It’s an adult buxiban and you didn’t have a signed contract stating the # of hrs/wk. It’s an unfortunate experience but let this be a lesson learned.

It’s going to be really difficult to get good hours at an adult buxiban chain. I think they prefer to hire a lot of part timers instead of sponsoring ARC’s and committing a lot of hours to one teacher. That was the impression that I got 2+ years ago when I applied at Gjun and I think Wells. I think it’s actually surprising that they would sponsor an ARC in the first place.

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The key issue is mis-selling. I can understand why recruiters bullshit in order to get their cut. However, I can’t for the life of me get why schools want teachers who are unhappy from the first day they start. It’s a buyer’s market so I’m sure they could get someone willing to work whatever hours they have available or in whatever location/situation. There’s no need to big it up anymore.

It might be cultural, or it’s probably more likely force of habit. They’re so used to bullshitting to prospective customers that they can’t stop themselves. Mis-sold, pissed off students being taught by mis-sold, pissed off teachers. It’s a business model, of sorts.

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Why would they care? One foreigner, another foreigner – exactly the same, and coming off planes at a healthy rate. A never-ending supply of fresh teachers, so who cares if you make them unhappy? Do you think about whether the kids working at 7-11 are happy or not? It’s probably the same thing for the owners. They just don’t care, because there’s no reason for them to care.

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Because, if the teacher then gives them loads of shit or just walks it causes them a lot of hassle. I’m not looking at it from a “let’s all be kind to one another” perspective. It seems like an illogical business strategy to me, especially when it’s no longer necessary. But what do I know? They make good coin so must be doing something right.

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[quote=“tomthorne”]The key issue is mis-selling. I can understand why recruiters bullshit in order to get their cut. However, I can’t for the life of me get why schools want teachers who are unhappy from the first day they start. It’s a buyer’s market so I’m sure they could get someone willing to work whatever hours they have available or in whatever location/situation. There’s no need to big it up anymore.

It might be cultural, or it’s probably more likely force of habit. They’re so used to bullshitting to prospective customers that they can’t stop themselves. Mis-sold, pissed off students being taught by mis-sold, pissed off teachers. It’s a business model, of sorts.[/quote]

Buxibans do a lot of lying but imo this was rather tame. The only mis-selling was what full time hours were considered. I’m sorry that this happened but this is practically nothing compared to what is going to happen if the OP remains in Taiwan teaching ESL. I don’t understand why buxibans treat their employees like crap but this is par for the course.

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It seems the only advice is to bend over and take it. Preferably with a big cheesy smile :slight_smile:

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It’s the best advice that leads to a healthy outlook for the individual trying to rationalise and stay sane. If you run around calling people assholes and flipping them off for treating you badly in the ESL game in Taiwan pretty soon you are gonna run out of vocal chords and fingers.

Sorry to the OP for what happened to them. It’s a really shitty game at times.

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It’s the best advice that leads to a healthy outlook for the individual trying to rationalise and stay sane.
[/quote]

It is and it isn’t.

I’d walk if I were the OP. But then, I can.

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I’d walk if I were the OP. But then, I can.[/quote][/quote]
Sadly,some people,especially Superking, are unable to “walk” at the moment. My apologies for an off topic,esoteric post. :popcorn:

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It’s the best advice that leads to a healthy outlook for the individual trying to rationalise and stay sane.
[/quote]

It is and it isn’t.

I’d walk if I were the OP. But then, I can.[/quote]

Which is sort of like a butterfly saying to a caterpillar, “I’d fly more if I were you”.

20

It’s the best advice that leads to a healthy outlook for the individual trying to rationalise and stay sane.
[/quote]

It is and it isn’t.

I’d walk if I were the OP. But then, I can.[/quote]

Which is sort of like a butterfly saying to a caterpillar, “I’d fly more if I were you”.[/quote]

This is true and a typically excellent point.

I don’t know what work rights the OP has, but I guess it’s an employer sponsored ARC. I was on similar during my first few years in Taiwan and I never had to work for less than 70k a month. I think that even on a standard ARC I’d walk if I were only taking home 30k. Other people might choose to bend like a reed, which is fine. For me, putting up with shit day after day is unhealthy. If you can change something that is seriously upsetting you or making your life unpleasant then it’s best to change it. If you can’t then grinning and bearing might be the only way - although I feel that those of us from the first world always have options.

I don’t agree that grinning and bearing a situation is the best advice for someone to rationalise a situation and stay sane.