Blacklist of Schools II

[tempogain]

https://tw.forumosa.com/t/blacklist-of-schools/18518/2?u=tempogain

https://tw.forumosa.com/t/blacklist-of-schools/18518/495

[hlg]

Let’s add Gjun English Hualien Branch to the blacklist. Gjun is actually an okay company, but the management in Hualien is absolutely horrid. They made teachers work on holidays (New Year’s Day and Labor Day) and refused to pay double the regular rate as stipulated in the Labor Standards Act, even after the teachers made complaints.
https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawSearchContent.aspx?pcode=N0030001&norge=39

Moreover, they habitually spread false rumors about teachers, including one mentioning that a certain part-time teacher was too busy to come and teach, when the truth was just that they did not want that beloved teacher to return. They spread rumors like this so that they retain students who gravitated toward certain teachers.

The two-faced “Individual V” has been acting as a puppet master, having their staff do their dirty work, while acting as if they were not the source of the every teacher’s stress in the first place.

[JPMichaels1]

Any updates? From the jobs being advertised it seems like a lot of the same schools have had a really high turnover of teachers this last two years.

[nz]

Probably literally every school on the island that has any turnover is going to have constant turnover. I’d certainly be wary of any school that’s advertising for teachers constantly. That’s usually a good indicator that teachers are constantly leaving…

[Lost.in.space]

The big issue in turnover in companies on the potato is the issue of how to negotiate a pay increase. Most ‘bosses’ only respond to threats. Sometimes when faced with a threat the fight or flight response kicks in and we’ll you get turnover. This is a design problem in how the companies are managed.

An effective way I negotiate pay increases is discuss with the boss them paying some of your expenses. For what ever reason they think it is more tax effective for them to pay your expenses rather than pay an increased hourly rate. Also ask for an allowance, for some reason allowances are ways of negotiating a pay increase that the ‘boss’ will receive more positively.

[JPMichaels1]

In my experience bosses will agree to you being upfront about things and then two weeks later pretend it never happened and demand you bend to whatever insane request they’re asking you to do.

Also from experience is bosses trying to dump extra duties or classes on you, usually at no extra pay, and you saying no. That’s pretty much a guaranteed end to your time working there. But they’ll tell you to your face they want you for the new school year while interviewing people you know behind your back.

Probably the biggest change I’ve noticed recently is a lot of schools closing. They’re usually the smaller schools that aren’t part of any type of franchise. Or schools closing their English classes.

Taiwan has really become quite a churn.

[nz]

@JPMichaels1

Taiwan has really become quite a churn

The fact that salaries haven’t budged/have gone down in the past 30 years is quite telling…

[JPMichaels1]

A lot of parents have pulled their kids out of after school programs over the last two years. Some because they’ve lost work and income due to Covid while others because they were working from home and felt they didn’t need to spend the money. Especially with a lot of the tests cancelled over this last two years as well.

I just found out today that the elementary school tests have been cancelled with kids academic performance based on the teachers reports and online class tests they’ve completed.

Not that I think much of the tests in the first place (except for Mandarin really).

[ninman]

Add Huaxing Elementary School in Taipei to the list.

I was let go after 3 weeks. Reasons included poor teaching, despite passing a teaching demo,napping at my desk during lunchtime, refusing to work off the clock, sitting with my backpack on at my desk 3 minutes before clocking out time and yawning during a training seminar.

There was no warning given, and no opportunity to defend myself. I came to work as usual on Wednesday morning, was taken into a separate room and fired on the spot.

They said the amount of work they give you is too much to do during normal working hours, so you are expected to work at weekends to make up for it, for free. They also said that if you need to take a day off you are not only docked a day’s wages, but you have to pay the sub 1200ntd per class they sub for you.

Also note that they refused to use or acknowledge my official title of Dr, and instead kept calling me Mr. They complained that I asked about their policy on smart watch use during lessons. After receiving particularly harsh feedback about one of my classes where they told me how disappointed they were with me I said to them directly that I thought they were simply gathering evidence to fire me and they said “we can’t fire you because you have a contract”.

They also complained that I wasn’t at my desk a lot because I was either using the toilet or spending time in another classroom preparing books.

In summary they have many illegal practices, exploit teachers and treat us like we’re disposable.

[Pendulum]

Unfortunately this is pretty much S.O.P. for many Taiwanese schools. Lying, cheating, blaming everyone else, unwilling to take responsibility etc etc.