Blackballing a teacher

ShenKeng · June 6, 2012, 1:03pm

In the old days when they didn’t want a teacher to leave and teach at a school next to them, they would blackball you.
They would call up call the schools that they can find and give the teacher a bad recommendation. I am wondering
about 2 things: Do they still blackball teachers and how would someone find out if they’re doing it?

Hamletintaiwan · June 6, 2012, 1:34pm

I was thinking the same thing the other day.
You could ask some of your Taiwanese friends to call the school and inquire about you pretending you mentioned them on your resume.

jimipresley · June 6, 2012, 1:37pm

Astonishingly, a search throws up these threads:

I’m sure there are more. I only had 10 minutes to spare, though.

Kea · June 6, 2012, 1:57pm

[quote=“jimipresley”]Astonishingly, a search throws up these threads:

I’m sure there are more. I only had 10 minutes to spare, though.[/quote]
I thought you were a moderator? Is this the right tone to treat a newbie?

Mate, blacklist is the correct term as jimi was alluding to, and there are plenty of threads on that. None on blackballing a teacher-which is the wrong term…although your meaning is slightly different I guess.

Simple answer: don’t worry about a blacklist or even blackballed (there are plenty of schools to choose from). Try to avoid being caught teaching illegally, and try hardest to become a great teacher-and then things will be fine.

Hamletintaiwan · June 6, 2012, 2:00pm

[quote=“Kea”]
Simple answer: don’t worry about a blacklist or even blackballed (there are plenty of schools to choose from). Try to avoid being caught teaching illegally, and try hardest to become a great teacher-and then things will be fine.[/quote]

Are you still trying and things are still fine?

Is this even legal? Can an employer make any statements about you without your consent?

superking · June 6, 2012, 2:16pm

[quote=“Kea”][quote=“jimipresley”]Astonishingly, a search throws up these threads:

I’m sure there are more. I only had 10 minutes to spare, though.[/quote]
I thought you were a moderator? Is this the right tone to treat a newbie?

Mate, blacklist is the correct term as jimi was alluding to, and there are plenty of threads on that. None on blackballing a teacher-which is the wrong term…although your meaning is slightly different I guess.

Simple answer: don’t worry about a blacklist or even blackballed (there are plenty of schools to choose from). Try to avoid being caught teaching illegally, and try hardest to become a great teacher-and then things will be fine.[/quote]

When mods want to be mods they can be mods. When mods just want to be posters they can just be posters. Apparently WE are the ones who are supposed to know the difference.

I do love JimiP, in spite of his cruel and wicked streak.

jimipresley · June 6, 2012, 2:24pm

You can’t be blackballed, dude. That’s the Freemasons in cahoots with the Illuminati.

Kea · June 6, 2012, 2:41pm

[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”][quote=“Kea”]
Simple answer: don’t worry about a blacklist or even blackballed (there are plenty of schools to choose from). Try to avoid being caught teaching illegally, and try hardest to become a great teacher-and then things will be fine.[/quote]

Are you still trying and things are still fine?

Is this even legal? Can an employer make any statements about you without your consent?[/quote]

No, did ok, but not trying anymore, I saw the light.
Legal shmegal. They can try but whether they succeed is another matter. However, they can cancel the ARC anytime they wish for no real reason, and the employment bureau doesn’t give a hoot. Labour dept is a different matter.

Jimi you do great work:cool:, still the guy had the correct term even though black list is what we’d refer to (and the famed blacklist is a lot of codswallop)

PigBloodCake · June 7, 2012, 2:24am

[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]

Is this even legal? Can an employer make any statements about you without your consent?[/quote]

That would be defamation and can be taken to Taiwan civil court.

Be careful out there. You do not want to slander an employer as well as the owner can take you to court for defamation.

Confuzius · June 7, 2012, 5:06am

better blackballed than blueballed…that’s all I gotto say on the matter

timmyjames · June 7, 2012, 6:02am

[quote=“Hamletintaiwan”]I was thinking the same thing the other day.
You could ask some of your Taiwanese friends to call the school and inquire about you pretending you mentioned them on your resume.[/quote]

I had my wife do this in the past as I was between jobs at one point and was surprised by the lack of replies from applications…turns out I was just being paranoid, and most likely exaggerating the length of time I was waiting in my own head. She called a few places and all they would say is that I worked there. She asked about whether I was a good employee/teacher and the schools would just tell her to decide that for herself or to do a demo.

I also want to yet again toss out the idea that if a school thinks you are a terrible employee, they would most likely want you to work for the competition.

superking · June 7, 2012, 9:03am

I agree with you TJ, but this would presuppose that the teacher had a realistic understanding of how crap they themselves are. Most will assign their failure to a fault of the school and not look inward. Therefore when jumping ship they therefore will believe the school to be losing a prize asset rather than seeing is as flushing an ineffectual turd down the drain.

bigduke6 · June 7, 2012, 9:32am

Let’s not forget the fact that most schools would not know a good teacher from a bad one. :no-no:

superking · June 7, 2012, 9:37am

Yes, this is an equally fair and well made point. The attributes of a, ‘good teacher,’ do seem to vary quite considerably from those who know their apples to those who can polish apples in a humorous way.

ShenKeng · June 9, 2012, 2:00am

Personally, I have seen everything tried. They will call a school’s director, but they won’t say he’s a bad teacher. They will say, “Don’t hire him.” This way, they aren’t defaming you and they know it’s a friend (a fellow colleague because they have a relationship with the other director). It’s legal and they can do it. This, however, was in the past and doesn’t say anything about now.

In the past, I saw it for myself. I was sitting in the office when it happened.

Metaphorically speaking, there are many ways to get to the same place.

This is different from blacklisting and things that have been talked about before. There’s no written record and no proof. Unless someone is there and listening, nothing is known.

ehophi · June 9, 2012, 12:48pm

Avoid blackballing with sufficient blackmailing. Don’t let them know that you have it until it becomes an issue, though.

I won’t have to worry about it, since they respect what I do at my school, but I always have this up my sleeve: “Give me a good recommendation when I leave, and this video of me correcting your Chinglish accent won’t be on the Internetz, nor will any other recordings in my possession that demonstrate your overall incompetence to teach this language.”