I interviewed at a school that pays a monthly salary for a set number of hours a week. Basically, they said the teaching hours will vary, and that in the other ours you are there you will be paid for doing administrative work (they didn’t define clearly what that was - basically they said is would be whatever the supervisor whated you to do) and also your preparation time: lesson planning and so on.
I’m thinking this could either be good, say if the admin load wasn’t so bad and you actually did have a lot of paid time planning for classes, and if all the co-workers got along, and helped each other and you could trade ideas and advice for better teaching, or…
It could be the nadir of misery, buried in piles of “administrative work” leaving no time to adequately plan for classes, and spending your downtime trapped amongst back-biting, back-stabbing competitive co-workers you couldn’t stand and couldn’t get away from.
I’m leaning towards not taking this, but I’m just curious to hear what experiences other people have had in this sort of situation.
it might be a good idea to chat with a few of the co-workers, see what they are getting, and whether they think it’s a good deal or not.
in the event that school doesn’t want you to talk to them, i would likely take a pass.
I avoid salary jobs like the plague. Unless you are an ulta-qualified super teacher with the credentials to back it up, you are usually much better off working by the hour. I have a two and a half hour lunch break in my house, and I finish at 6:30 every day. I make more money than any salary I have seen advertised. You never know, though. Maybe there’s a sweet deal out there somewhere.
I agree with the train. Speak with people already there. That’ll more clearly define what this admin work is going to amount to.
In the case of salary jobs in general, doing a little cost benefit analysis is beneficial. Usually, you are paid a little less per hour than you can get working strictly by the hour. The advantage, though, is you get a set schedule and an income that doesn’t change, so you can budget better. On the flip side, these seemingly higher hourly wages can sometimes turn out to be misleading. Often there are duties that are unpaid, such as marking, planning and so forth. To see if a particular salary job is worth it is going to require some number crunching. Exactly how much are you paid for exactly how many hours, doing exactly what kind of work with what responsibilities? Only you can decide if a job is worth it for you.
I would definitely avoid this. Get paid by the hour with a 5 or 10 minute paid break at the end of the hour.