I recently resigned from a fairly well-paid Buxiban position. One of the reasons was because the Taiwanese boss never consulted me about the program.(Money’s important, but not everything.) When I did make suggestions, these were seen as threatening, so in the end I just had to resign. Why, I thought to myself, was I hired in the first place?(I should say that I’m a university instructor, a sometimes IELTs instructor for the British Council, and hold a DELTA.) As long as I kept quiet and did my job, the boss was happy. Bosses in Taiwan tend to want complete control over the school and demand loyalty from teachers. But what is forgotten here is that teachers are on the frontline and it is they who know what is wrong and what is right and what needs fixing, but they are just ignored, rebuffed, or simply fired if they are too critical. Education in Taiwan can only move forward if the boss has the humility to listen to his/her teachers creative ideas, instead of just squashing them. The upshot of all this is that good teachers will keep resigning and keep leaving and there’ll be no one to replace them because the word’ll be out that working in Taiwan as a teacher is simply an exercise in futility.
Start your own school?
It’s the only way you can be sure things will be done properly.
Yeah, that’s the advice my ex-boss gave me. It was one of the more enlightened things he said.
It’s the only way to do it.
Welcome to the Suck!
{sorry, Marines, this ain’t really the suck, yet youse know that already!}
The best teachers, in any system, in any country, much like those in any other job learn to pro-act, to think ahead, to head off one’s adversaries several steps at a time.
Management is fugged up.
It always is from the bottom up perspective.
The only solution is to become a manager, or learn to outsmart them.
Right now mine’s pretty decent. She actually asks people for their advice sometimes and consults with teachers about things… it’s much appreciated.
Completely unlike the crap I put up with at Hess.
My “HNST”(head native speaking teacher) only spoke English as a second language(his native tongue was Afrikan) and I was constantly criticized there by local staff when my pronunciation of words differed from the KK in their freaking dictionaries. I stood up for myself, and basically for that I was given the choice of riding out my contract and not having it renewed, or resigning. Fuckers… at least I can take pleasure in the fact that I’m now working less than my old co-workers and making nearly double 
wadjamahuh!!!
Im in exactly the position now that you were in. How did you resign and not get stiffed for the 20g fine the lamp you with? Is it as simple as giving 30 days notice and they wont fist you? Who did you talk to at main office to get that sorted?
help very much appreciated.
sorry to drag the thread off topic a bit.
back to subject: Yeah, the managers would step over their own dying grandmothers to get ahead, unfortunately that means when theyre mismanaging a school into the ground and you suggest that maybe they need to reconsider their ideas that create loads more work for everyone with no benefit to anyone, they want to get rid of you. That’s at Hess by the way. Not all schools. Hess… that name again, HESS.
I’ve never had a Taiwanese boss who was open to suggestions.
In the US, I had a Taiwanese boss too. He would totally dismiss anything I had to say, but then down the road would miraculously come up with the same idea and present it as his own.
Since I’ve been here, forget it. Taiwanese manage from the top down. Workers do what they are told and bosses don’t want to be questioned. With a weak economy, most Taiwanese workers seem to be too afraid of losing their jobs to ever push the envelope.
I also get the distinct impression that Taiwanese bosses think we’re not much more than window dressing. What could we possibly know about educating Taiwanese?
[quote=“CraigTPE”]I’ve never had a Taiwanese boss who was open to suggestions.
[/quote]
It’s a manager/social climber thing, not a Taiwanese thing. Never met a British/French/Thai manager who behaved any differently from the above.
British managers behave exactly the same. It winds me up more because there’s less of a language gap.
Sure, an insecure manager of any nationality may feel threatened by a subordinate’s suggestions, therefore rejecting them. Most of the people I worked for in the US, though, were at least on paper open to suggestions. Some companies even had formal procedures by which employees were encouraged to submit ideas.
Granted, I’ve only been here 3 years, but in my experience and from the feedback from local and foreign workers, Taiwanese typically manage from the top down. I rarely here of a boss here open to suggestions.
[quote=“CraigTPE”] Some companies even had formal procedures by which employees were encouraged to submit ideas.
[/quote]
‘You have the right to free speech! (As long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it…)’
Lotusblossom wrote:
I think that’s the wrong premise to work off of. From what I understand, most of these bosses are not in the business of furthering education. They’re in the business of making money. Sometimes furthering education means more business (ie to better compete), but I think that doesn’t register with people sometimes.
[quote=“robinhood5000”]wadjamahuh!!!
I’m in exactly the position now that you were in. How did you resign and not get stiffed for the 20g fine the lamp you with? Is it as simple as giving 30 days notice and they wont fist you? Who did you talk to at main office to get that sorted?
help very much appreciated.
sorry to drag the thread off topic a bit.
back to subject: Yeah, the managers would step over their own dying grandmothers to get ahead, unfortunately that means when theyre mismanaging a school into the ground and you suggest that maybe they need to reconsider their ideas that create loads more work for everyone with no benefit to anyone, they want to get rid of you. That’s at Hess by the way. Not all schools. Hess… that name again, HESS.[/quote]
My HNST and branch manager noticed how unpleased (bitter) I was with the situation. I’m guessing that when it came down to it, they realized that it was better to let me get out at my leisure without bashing the school and telling parents and students about the drama - which, clear to them, I wouldn’t have hesitated to do if they gave me any grief about getting out of the contract before it ended.
If you want out, I’d suggest asking nicely first, and if that doesn’t work, make them increasingly want you to leave. Checking references and calling past bosses seems to be pretty rare in Taiwan.