I was Attacked by my boss, her daughter AND her husband

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

That’s right, I said attacked! I was physically assaulted over a piece of paper!

I told my boss that I no longer wanted to work for her becuase of her unresonable temper, but that I would stay with the school until she was able to find a new teacher. Then she decided to fire me instead, effective immediately. I told her that she would have to give me two weeks (10 days) notice or 10 days pay, her choice.

That was on Saturday. This morning, I went to the office of the school, as asked by them. There they had a document for me to sign, stating that I would discontinue work that day and they could go forth with a clause in my contract (if I left before they found a new teacher they could take $20,000 from my pay). I pointed out that I was willing to stay until they found a new teacher, and I would not sign the document. I did however, wish to show the document to the labor affairs office, and would take it to show them.

Well, they (the boss, daughter and husband) flipped out :fume: and said I couldn’t take the paper, it was thier paper and I was trying to steal from them. Then amid shouts from them of “thief! call the police! it’s my paper! this is my house!” The boss and husband began grabbing for the paper while the daughter was trying to (painfully I might add) restrain and twist my hands! Keep in mind this daughter is 27 years old.

I was shocked and said I was not trying to steal it, I simply wanted to show the paper to the labor affairs if they wanted me to sign it. I asked them why they were assaulting me and to stop yelling at me. I asked them if they were crazy, told the daughter she was hurting me and tried to leave. This got them all shouting “No! You are crazy! You are crazy!” :smiling_imp: And I finally managed to get out the door (forfieting the paper to the family insane).

I went next to the labor board and then the foreign affairs police, but they (while very concerned about how upset I was) don’t really care, obviously. Is there any way that I can charge the daughter with assault? I don’t think they should be left to think they can treat anyone, foreign or local, this way and get away with it. Durins Bane, if you read this, do you know what to do? I was told to look out for your reply!

Thanks for reading my incredibly long and unbelievable story.

2

Why I’m I thinking Little Forest?

3

ITALKGOODENGLISH,

Wow, this is the second time in as many days I have heard stories such as this.

Do you want justice or revenge? It’s okay to want one or the other…or both.

Are there any physical marks upon your person? If so, go to the hospital RIGHT NOW and have them make a report. Have them photograph any marks.

If you feel comfortable with this, can you PM me the name of the school? It will be held in the strictest of confidence. If it is in my neck of the woods then perhaps I might be able to help more.

If you feel uncomfortable telling me the name, then no worries. And I will think about your situation for a bit before responding in depth.

4

I’m not surprised. Sorry to hear about your difficulties. I don’t know the entire situation, but if it were me I would want to put as much distance between myself and this :loco: family/school.

Isn’t this illegal? I hope Durins Bane can help you. Hope you have a better day tomorrow. :slight_smile:

5

I am leaving the city the school is in, and when I get my last pay from them, I will be sure to post the name of the school and city, here and on tealit, so no one else makes the mistake of working there.

It IS illegal for them to take the money, that’s why I wouldn’t sign the paper, and that’s why they didn’t want me to show the paper to the labor board!

The labor board is speaking with them and the school says they will pay what they owe me and not deduct the money, but they don’t want to pay the 10 days in leiu of notice. So the labor woman is going to see them again tomorrow. Luckily my ex-boss is an idiot and gave them the paper I had written, saying that I was willing to work until they found a new teacher! So we’ll see.

Right now, I just want to be able to file something against the daughter for assaulting me so she’ll get off her high horse when it comes to dealing with foreign teachers.

6

Well, I am not the right person to ask about filing assault charges. I would think it might turn out to be a “he said” “she said” type of thing. You might want to post this question in the legal forum to get a more informative answer.

I would post your story on every relevant website you can find. Perhaps the best way is to let the word out about this school. Make sure you shout! Make sure you are heard! Any teacher with a bit of common sense will search the web to research a teaching position.

Are they doing anything funny with taxes? Chances are they are underreporting the number of students they have. By law, the Tax department is required to look into any complaints. :wink:

If they are recruiting teachers from overseas? If they are, then you can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in the countries they are recruiting in.

Gotta get ready to go home. Will write more tomorrow.

7

Were you really attacked by your boss and her husband? Or was it only the daughter?

8

The boss and the husband were not so stupid as to actually touch me, although my boss was trying to grab at my arms at one point. They mostly stood there grabbing at the paper and screaming in my face. That is why I say I would be interested in filing charges against the daughter only.

9

Of course, grabbing at you and twisting your arm is uncalled for. But I am afraid my sympathy meter is not really registering for you. If I get this straight, you quit your job because the boss is a psycho. Fine. But telling the boss she is a psycho is another story. Why didn’t you just say you had to attend a funeral back home or something? Then to demand 2 weeks severance? Where do you come from? Where I come from, you quit, you quit! That’s it.

Nowhere in the world can you expect to quit and get salaried after the fact. And before you defend your point with “but I offered to work until a replacement was found”…I’m sorry, that just doesn’t cut it. You have called the boss a psycho…do you really think they want you hanging around?

I repeat, the violence was uncalled for, but we sleep in the beds we make.

Chalk it up to experience and move on.

And of course, let us all know who they are… :wink:

10

ITALKGOODENGLISH wrote

Isn’t this overstating things?

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[quote=“Toe Save”]
And of course, let us all know who they are… :wink:[/quote]

Why? So you could go work for them? Maybe you should.

Really. It sounds like this person has gone through a hellish experience. I’m sure your “I know how to deal with Taiwanese so much better than you-- don’t you know you shouldn’t have done it that way–you’re partly at fault because you said or did such and such” routine is not helpful here. I’m sick of foreigners who take every crisis situation reported by a fellow foreigner as a chance to cut that person down for some perceived lack of coping skills in this society. Sick of the holier than thou stance many take and sycophantic, complacent responses. What happened was illegal and immoral; From the document they tried to get her to sign which would have extinguished what few rights she has here, to the assualt-- and, no, she didn’t bring it on herself. A little support everyone. It wouldn’t kill ya.

12

[quote=“TS”][quote=“Toe Save”]
And of course, let us all know who they are… :wink:[/quote]

Why? So you could go work for them? Maybe you should.

Really. It sounds like this person has gone through a hellish experience. I’m sure your “I know how to deal with Taiwanese so much better than you– don’t you know you shouldn’t have done it that way–you’re partly at fault because you said or did such and such” routine is not helpful here. I’m sick of foreigners who take every crisis situation reported by a fellow foreigner as a chance to cut that person down for some perceived lack of coping skills in this society. Sick of the holier than thou stance many take and sycophantic, complacent responses. What happened was illegal and immoral; From the document they tried to get her to sign which would have extinguished what few rights she has here, to the assualt-- and, no, she didn’t bring it on herself. A little support everyone. It wouldn’t kill ya.[/quote]

What I said was not Taiwan-specific, so why don’t you climb on down off that high horse of yours? I wouldn’t call my boss a psycho in any land unless I was thouroughly ready to burn the bridge?

13

Is it a girl or a boy? I can’t tell.

Not to knock my buddy Toesave, but…from what I can read, he/she handled it OK for a newbie. I give it a 7. Isn’t two weeks the standard time you give notice when you quit a job? And you are paid for that, right?

Don’t just let us know which school it is–try to get some photos of the school and the people as well. Oh, yes, and the phone number so we can prank call them, plus the license plate of their car/scooter so we can pour sugar in their gas tank.

14

[quote=“Toe Save”][quote=“TS”][quote=“Toe Save”]
And of course, let us all know who they are… :wink:[/quote]

Why? So you could go work for them? Maybe you should.

Really. It sounds like this person has gone through a hellish experience. I’m sure your “I know how to deal with Taiwanese so much better than you– don’t you know you shouldn’t have done it that way–you’re partly at fault because you said or did such and such” routine is not helpful here. I’m sick of foreigners who take every crisis situation reported by a fellow foreigner as a chance to cut that person down for some perceived lack of coping skills in this society. Sick of the holier than thou stance many take and sycophantic, complacent responses. What happened was illegal and immoral; From the document they tried to get her to sign which would have extinguished what few rights she has here, to the assualt-- and, no, she didn’t bring it on herself. A little support everyone. It wouldn’t kill ya.[/quote]

What I said was not Taiwan-specific, so why don’t you climb on down off that high horse of yours? I wouldn’t call my boss a psycho in any land unless I was thouroughly ready to burn the bridge?[/quote]

Actually, if you were assaulted, I’m sure you would call them a psycho and much more. Your history on this forum and others suggests you would call people names with much less justification.

15

Is it a girl or a boy? I can’t tell.

Not to knock my buddy Toesave, but…from what I can read, he/she handled it OK for a newbie. I give it a 7. Isn’t two weeks the standard time you give notice when you quit a job? And you are paid for that, right?

Don’t just let us know which school it is–try to get some photos of the school and the people as well. Oh, yes, and the phone number so we can prank call them, plus the license plate of their car/scooter so we can pour sugar in their gas tank.[/quote]

Sure, two weeks notice is standard practice in an all’s well situation. But this was more of a “fuck you , I quit, now pay me for two weeks!” I was in the same situation at WSI. I told them I wanted a transfer or out. They said out. I said, do you need me to work for 2 weeks until I can be replaced. Thay said no. I didn’t get any severance pay. I didn’t expect any either.

And retribution is fine. I am all for it. I did what I could to slag the guy that burned me. He has recently been fired btw. All I am saying is that there may have been a better way to approach the whole situation. That and the OP’s expectations of severance pay are wholly unrealistic.

16

[quote=“TS”][quote=“Toe Save”][quote=“TS”][quote=“Toe Save”]
And of course, let us all know who they are… :wink:[/quote]

Why? So you could go work for them? Maybe you should.

Really. It sounds like this person has gone through a hellish experience. I’m sure your “I know how to deal with Taiwanese so much better than you– don’t you know you shouldn’t have done it that way–you’re partly at fault because you said or did such and such” routine is not helpful here. I’m sick of foreigners who take every crisis situation reported by a fellow foreigner as a chance to cut that person down for some perceived lack of coping skills in this society. Sick of the holier than thou stance many take and sycophantic, complacent responses. What happened was illegal and immoral; From the document they tried to get her to sign which would have extinguished what few rights she has here, to the assualt-- and, no, she didn’t bring it on herself. A little support everyone. It wouldn’t kill ya.[/quote]

What I said was not Taiwan-specific, so why don’t you climb on down off that high horse of yours? I wouldn’t call my boss a psycho in any land unless I was thouroughly ready to burn the bridge?[/quote]

Actually, if you were assaulted, I’m sure you would call them a psycho and much more. Your history on this forum and others suggests you would call people names with much less justification.[/quote]

Dude, the OP called them psychos before she was assaulted. Your history of believing everything you read diminishes your ability to think straight. I stand by my history on this and other threads. I call a club a club, a diamond a diamond, a heart a heart and a spade a spade. If you are acting imbecilic or worse iniquitous, I won’t sit idly by while you disseminate false info or mislead yourself into thinking you are “holier than thou”.

17

You just weren’t “pai say” enough.

bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Sounds … olence.wav

18

[quote=“Toe Save”] …I am afraid my sympathy meter is not really registering for you. If I get this straight, you quit your job because the boss is a psycho. Fine. But telling the boss she is a psycho is another story. Why didn’t you just say you had to attend a funeral back home or something? Then to demand 2 weeks severance? Where do you come from? Where I come from, you quit, you quit! That’s it.

Nowhere in the world can you expect to quit and get salaried after the fact.

[/quote]

Toe, if the facts were as simple as that, I would agree with you. I’m not saying you are wrong… just that the facts are not quite so clear.

After the OP informed her boss that she wanted to quit, the boss fired her:

If the boss chose to fire the employee, then severence was most likely due.

The question is, did the employee quit, or was she fired?

19

[quote=“Tigerman”][quote=“Toe Save”] …I am afraid my sympathy meter is not really registering for you. If I get this straight, you quit your job because the boss is a psycho. Fine. But telling the boss she is a psycho is another story. Why didn’t you just say you had to attend a funeral back home or something? Then to demand 2 weeks severance? Where do you come from? Where I come from, you quit, you quit! That’s it.

Nowhere in the world can you expect to quit and get salaried after the fact.

[/quote]

Toe, if the facts were as simple as that, I would agree with you. I’m not saying you are wrong… just that the facts are not quite so clear.

After the OP informed her boss that she wanted to quit, the boss fired her:

If the boss chose to fire the employee, then severence was most likely due.

The question is, did the employee quit, or was she fired?[/quote]

Really? Getting fired gives one the right to collect a severance package? Damn…I have alot of ex-employers to sue? Busy these days Lawyerman? :laughing:

20

I reread the OP’s post and it seems very clear that a)the assault occured before the alleged “psycho” remark. 2)all I can gather from the post was that the person said, “are you crazy?” That is not calling someone a “psycho.” It is a very reasonable response to being grabbed by someone. I’m not sure I’d be so reasonable in similar circumstances.

The person asked for severence after being fired on the spot when s/he was giving reasonable notice and trying to resign within the terms of the contract. This is reasonable.

OP was subjected to intimidation and duress in an attempt to get him/her to sign away 20000NT in illegal fines. Anyone care to say this is legal and just. Is OP just another greenhorn newbie with no clue for saying no and fighting back?!

It’s really sad that this thread about someone’s very unfortunate experience has attracted the attention of some very unhelpful and unsupportive people.

On behalf of decent foreigners here, I’d like to offer my support and hope you do well ITALKGOODENGLISH.