Bosses of the world UNITE!!
Because they ‘nickel and dime’ employees?
I knew I liked you the minute I met you.
Maoman, you can’t say yes to everything. Or you are a sap. I don’t want sycophantic saps working for me.
That’s why some bosses are bosses and some bosses are bossy.
I understand you’re a bushiban owner, but I wonder if you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a teacher? At my school the number of requests is comparatively low, but even here it can get tiring. How much do you expect teachers to confidently say “Yes!” to before they say “Enough!” ?
Why thank you. Were you the guy in the funny hat? Sorry, I am senile, not rude.
Why thank you. Were you the guy in the funny hat? Sorry, I am senile, not rude.[/quote]
Prolly. If by funny, you meant at the height of nadsat fashion?
nadsout?
Edit Got it.
I understand you’re a buxiban owner, but I wonder if you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a teacher? At my school the number of requests is comparatively low, but even here it can get tiring. How much do you expect teachers to confidently say “Yes!” to before they say “Enough!” ?[/quote]
I still teach plenty, believe me! 
I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t see how one isolated request can be tiring. Does one say “Enough!” to one isolated request? It’s only the one mother that asked. That’s it. He’s afraid of setting a precedent, but I think that’s a bridge that he can cross when (and if) he comes to it. I think I’ve qualified my position enough in the previous posts that it’s obvious I’m talking about doing a favour, not performing regular additional duties as an expected part of one’s work. If this were to start taking significant amounts of time (say an hour a week), I think he’d be within his rights to either get additional compensation or politely decline the request.
Maoman, not to belabour the point, but sure, an isolated incident would be rude and cause for concern if refused. But it NEVER is an isolated incident. All cynicism aside, draw a line and keep to it. For me, that line is written work. Vocab an grammar, pronunciation and idioms are all fair game. If it takes me less than 2 minutes to explain it to you, I am yours. Anything more, it’s 2000 an hour. That’s my line. This does not diminish my passion or flair for the job. I am dedicated beyond te pale. When I get married and earn the right to open my own store, I’ll show you boy… 
Until then, I guess I needn’t apply to your or Fox’ schools then. Too bad, as I do fuck like Pan. 
[quote=“Maoman”]
They’re not unpaid office hours if you’re required to keep them. There’s a cost, and if you haven’t figured that into your total salary, then you’re being cavalier about the value of your time. [/quote]
I never really thought about it that way, now that I have I feel even worse, as I get paid 450 per hour before taxes.
The homework in question is detailed and large, more than anything they wanted me to correct what he had done and write it again so that the child could copy it, which is not really checking; it is doing it for him.
It is by no means an isolated incident nor relegated to one mother, it was just the most recent occurrence. Also the biggest drama as the mom complained to the boss, telling him I had to do it. As I mentioned before there was the speech, same child and two others, which was all on my time, i.e days off. Most of these requests come when I am trying to stuff food in my face in the 10 min break I get, for lunch or when I am doing the mountains of paper work required for class, which usually requires me to come one hour early every day.
That being said, there is also the matter of being asked for a favor by people who won’t even give one the courtesy of eye contact , hello or “thanks” for taking my child skating (7 of them) on your day off and paying for it.
Look, I love these kids and most of them are hardworking respectful and fun, but I have limits to how much free time I can be sucked out of; esp by people who don’t even treat me with the respect of a thanks.
Just because I am your child’s teacher does not mean I am your personal English slave at the beckon call of your whims. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect that if you want someone to do a one on one and rewrite your child’s essay that you should pay for a tutor rather than try to, bully/threaten/force someone into it.
Am I being unreasonable here? 
That’s a horse of a different color. it’s unethical, and I wouldn’t do it, either. Thanks for the clarification! 
See?
Shifty, for what it’s worth as someone who does not teach here in Taiwan, I can certainly relate to what you’re saying. I think all of us here in Taiwan for more than a few months, teaching or not, have to deal with the parents who try to “guilt” or “pressure” you into teaching their kids, often times for free.
When I first arrived here, I had one guy who wanted me to go to Danshui to ride bikes with his kids. Okay… That sounds like a blast dude, but… haha. I ended up telling him that I was very busy earning money for rent by teaching English to private students. He then had the option of hiring me or leaving me alone, and (as I expected in this case) he chose the latter.
So I think in your situation I would do this: Check the kid’s homework. If it takes 10 minutes, not a big deal, nothing worth worrying about. If 10 other parents pick up on this and all of a sudden you’ve got an extra hour of work a day, present your boss with the options: Either he pays you for that extra time, and the school derives the benefit of having teachers who go the extra mile for their students, or he saves the money and the school is a bare-minimum service type establishment. It’s a marketing decision for your boss at that point.
As for the parents, in the case that this becomes a huge workload yet your boss refuses to pay anything extra, simply explain to them that your boss has told you that checking homework not assigned by you is not part of your job and that you shouldn’t do it. Of course he/she probably won’t say that verbatim but as from your viewpoint it’s certainly the truth.
Of course if you’ve got 10 office hours a week, as others have noted, it is your bosses prerogative to mandate that you spend a certain portion of this time checking student’s work from other schools. But if you are able to make a strong case that you already use every minute of this time prepping for class, and any lost time would significantly detract from the quality of your teaching, the boss might relent.
Edit:
Hahahaha - you’re 100% in the right not to do this as far as I’m concerned.
What did your boss tell her?
No, now get back in class.
The boss should have full and part time teachers at the school. It is the FT teachers’ jobs to do the kind of work you mentioned (although I would NEVER ask or demand our teachers to DO a student’s homework and I would tell the parent’s to their faces that it is unethical to do so); However, doing a favor for the boss once in a while won’t kill anyone either, but, and this is a big but, if the boss doesn’t treat the teacher’s with respect then he or she should not expect many if any favors.
It works both ways.
Unreasonable parents are not the teachers’ problem, but give the boss a break sometimes. It’s not like we don’t wanna throw these parents into a vat of boiling molassas too.
Just say you will do the PS homework for 100NT a page. That’s your rate for out of the Buxiban work.
I have had bosses try to add extra work or one-off jobs to my 1/2 pay office hrs.
My response was this: Great! I would love to do that. Which of my regular regular jobs would you like me not to do so I can spend time doing it?
They usually see what I mean and only sometimes come up with a job shuffle to add the new job.
Start grading essays for some essay mill or writing recommendation letters for students bound for study abroad during your office hours (all of which you get paid separately for, and which are clearly not a part of your duties for the buxiban), and see how quickly the boss objects to THAT.
This amounts to extra one-on-one teaching (if the kid cooperates) of one child. (And if the kid doesn’t cooperate, it amounts to ghostwriting…) To me, that sounds an awful lot like a private student. Buxibans run classes last time I checked.
I like the response to the parent of “Sure. What does your husband do, by the way?” “Oh, he’s a house painter.” “Great! Why don’t you bring little Bobby over to have his homework checked while your husband paints my living room? He wouldn’t mind just helping out, I’m sure…” 
I don’t believe we all need to be so cynical though IL. MANY of our students’ parents do things that help us out, like find our foreign teachers affordable housing, fix our computers, plumbing and electrical work, etc. They rarely ask for special treatment. They do it, I believe out of gratitude.
That is a good feeling.
It’s easy to get stuck on the demanding parents, especially if you are a teacher who only sees the crappy side. The bosses get to see the whole picture, and it really isn’t that grim. 
Of course, it is true that one crappy demanding parent shadows 10 small kindnesses that the appreciative parents show, but I’d rather not give the crap more stench if you know what I mean.
The bottom line here IMHO is that the boss must be protective of the teachers’ time and understanding of the parents’ concerns. You can’t always say yes, and you can’t always say no, to either side.
back
wash
mine
yours
Oh, I totally agree, j. The only point I’m making is that sometimes parents really just don’t realize that this is a job. Yes, teachers teach because they’re devoted and all that, but by the same token, I doubt her husband would want to work for free unless it was his own idea. Being “suggested” to volunteer isn’t the same thing. 