Although Sandman is “right” as far as it goes, I am sure that “Vacation” is only for full time employees.
There is a complicated table for how much time off you get, and an even more complicated one for how much you are fined for “sick” day off.
As for the OP. You can fight a fine as they have to prove “loss”, but they can do it and its hard for you. If you really need a vacation you could get sick. The best way to get sick is to visit a hospital. I always get sick when I go there.
OK. So after being told that i would be there for a year, then being told i would get 2 six month contracts, i walked into my brach the other day to see a request form for a new teacher to be sent to replace me in August. Clearly the 2 six month contract thing was a way of keeping me at the school until August when a new teacher would easily be available.
So, taking the advice of neijaru, I have handed in my notice and will swallow the fine and remember it for the future. Thanks for the advice and stuff guys! BEWARE THE HIPPO!
What caliber gun are these ‘schools’ pointing at your heads to make you sign ‘contracts’ like these?
People are easily intimidated by Hess, and that’s what Hess relies on because it’s all it has.
I didn’t pay the Hess fine when I quit. Sure, they tried to intimidate me on a number of occasions in a number of different ways. It worked on some people I knew, who lost sleep over it, but I treated the whole thing like a game from the outset and I think I approached it in the right way.
Hess isn’t allowed to fine you up front though. If they do, you can go to the CLA and insist that they follow Article 26 of the Labor Standards Act:
“An employer shall not make any advance deduction of wages as punitive damages or indemnity.” They will pay you back because the CLA will come down heavily on them if they continue to break the law.
Hess had to return the money they fined me. It was then up to them to try to get that money back from me.
Of course, they will threaten to take you to court. If you bow to their pressure or you let it get that far then you haven’t fought correctly. The object is not to win, but in classic guerrilla fashion, to make it so expensive for them to win that it’s not worth them winning.
I ignored their letters or e-mails or stalled them, forcing them to send more, thus allocating more resources to my problem.
I took them to meetings with the CLA, during which they had three people (one of whom was a lawyer, I think) present, who had to travel from Taipei. Thus, I tied up more of their resources. I threatened further meetings and mediations, which would have tied up even more of their resources. For example, I threatened to take them before the CLA for unpaid overtime for all the extra hours they made me work outside of teaching hours. Would I have won? That’s not the relevant question. The relevant question is how much, in a best case scenario (where they won), would it have cost them just to get to the mediation to make me lose?
If necessary, you could go to the press. Writing letters to newspapers alone would force them to tie up even more resources in their attempts to restore their “good name” (and I use that term very loosely). Of course, why only do that when you could get some muck raking journalist to do an expose on how foreigners come here (and leave their friends and families behind and often take a pay cut in the process compared to back home) to help the Taiwanese improve their English, their economy, engage in culture exchange, etc. (lay what a benevolent bunch we are on with a shovel) only to be treated so badly, and really send them into damage control? If they insist on taking advantage of naive newbies, then make them lose as much face as possible for that – big companies have the resources to bludgen you into submission in the end, but they also risk sullying their reputation in the process, and reputation is twice as important here.
I know in my case they had at least five people dealing with this problem (and probably a lot more), and in the end, they probably realised I could string them along for a very long time with virtually no cost to myself, regardless of who might actually win in court (which, again, would cost them yet more resources and there would always be the risk of the media getting involved in that too). As such, I haven’t heard from them in months now.
Don’t get emotional, and don’t let them intimidate you: bleed them until they can’t afford to win.
What was your reason for breaking your contract?
A non-exhaustive list:
Being really sick from being worked into the ground with unpaid hours, and seeing the same happen to friends (some of whom were sicker and ended up leaving Taiwan as a result).
Being flat-out lied to about the number of hours I would have to work before I signed my contract, before I even came to Taiwan. It seems they had no intention of being honest with me from the get-go.
Being constantly told I was a terrible teacher. Their observations basically involved two pages and an hour of ripping me (and others) apart over often quite trivial details, with a handful of positives (that amounted to maybe an eighth of a page and were often quite trite such as “good voice”) tacked on at the end to supposedly perk me up. I’ve worked in education for a number of years and I haven’t received that sort of treatment before or since Hess. My ex-housemate was told he needed to “change his personality”. What sort of comment is that? Regardless of the fact that he’s a mellow guy (not some psycho – perhaps that’s what they were after?), that’s a ridiculous comment to make.
The school always taking the parents’ side over even the most inane of complaints, rather than backing me as a staff member. There’s a time to haul your employees across hot coals, but by doing it as often, as they did, over the things they did, and in the manner they did, they not only alienated me, but a lot of other people too. As anyone who has lived in Taiwan for a while can verify, Hess has a fairly bad reputation amongst foreigners, not to mention a huge attrition rate.
Hess is really good at leaving its employees out at sea. It’s really good at making them feel guilty to the students for not putting in free time. It’s really good at making them feel like they’ll be letting other colleagues down who will have to pick up the slack. Basically, it’s really good at manipulating everyone around it and making sure it carries as little of that (financial) burden as possible.
Whilst on that topic, also, the poor standards at the school itself. Seeing kids well below par constantly passed up to the next level. Seeing marks changed and grades inflated. All that kind of nonsense rather than actually be tough on the kids and honest to the parents and risk losing an enrollment. The irony, of course, is that if they had high standards, they’d have a much better re-enrollment rate, and they wouldn’t be losing students to other schools. They must be losing market share at a rapid rate. If I were here for the long term, I’d start my own school next to a Hess branch and poach students left and right. Actually, I wouldn’t even need to poach them. They’d come of their own accord. Certainly, as a parent, I would feel pretty upset if I’d shelled out five years’ worth of fees so my kid could speak very mediocre English. Then again, as a parent, I’d probably be a lot more involved in my child’s life instead of out working until 11pm every night, but that’s a whole other discussion, and it perhaps does beg the question of whether some of these parents just use Hess as a baby-sitting service and whether they’re happy to be lied to at a certain level. Anyway, aside from my own personal grievances with management, I didn’t want to be a party to their dishonesty.
Whenever I did bring any of these issues up, they were ultimately dismissed as just how it is. Others above me made similar complaints yet got nowhere. Ultimately, they’ll have to change eventually as they find it harder to get teachers and students, but I couldn’t handle it. However, the problem is always that as foreigners, we’re very well aware that unless we find another job and ensure a smooth transition, quitting means a very small window of opportunity before being kicked out of the country. Being a newbie, there was a certain level of apprehension over that, which I believe Hess is well aware of and uses to its advantage. I was aware that it was a put up or shut up situation. I had three options: 1) take their nonsense indefinitely, 2) rock the boat, get sacked and probably have to leave Taiwan, incurring great expense if I wanted to return, 3) up and leave when I found the right opportunity.
Was I a ruthless SOB in the aftermath of quitting? You bet. Do I have any qualms about that? Not at all. I could go either way, and they brought a feral fighter out of me. If they hadn’t treated me and some of my best friends so badly, I would not have played hardball with them.
I have since been working at a much better place. It has its issues, of course, but it’s a much more positive working environment and I’m quite happy there, and as a result, in general in Taiwan. Likewise, when the time comes to move on, even if that involves breaking a contract (which I hope it doesn’t), then I won’t play this kind of hardball with them. They’ve been pretty straight up with me so far.
Great posts Guy In Taiwan.
Birth rate’s dropping, so yeah, students will soon be drying up, but it’ll be across the board, not just affecting Hess. It has a good reputation among parents, and the teachers, as they have found out all too well over their many years in the business, are totally and utterly expendable. For every 22-year-old kid who bails at the end of a year they have a page or two of recruitment choices. In fact, they’re quite happy to have these kids leave after a year. I don’t think it really bothers them. They also operate pretty much above the law – what other schools are given carte blanche to operate English-language kindergartens using foreign babysitters? They have some very, very serious connections – another thing Freegay and lotus blossom should think about when they talk about their “connections.”
TomHill: Thanks.
I know there are bad foreign teachers here, but in the main, we’re a decent enough bunch. Most people come here to pursue some kind of goal or have a positive experience, and I think they’re fairly sincere about that (at least the people I met through Hess who may not have been particularly worldy, yet were pretty nice), and it’s really terrible when they have to limp home after X number of months. For many, it may be the only experience they have living overseas, or even just going overseas. What a terrible result!
The thing that’s so bad about Hess is that so much of its mid-management (and maybe upper management, though I don’t really know) is foreign, and so these are the very people who should have some level of empathy for the people at the bottom who are fresh off the plane and don’t know which way is north. Yet instead, they’re either directly involved or complicit in taking advantage of them.
sandman: I’m not so sure Hess’ reputation and connections can do that much, ultimately. The branch I worked at didn’t have a particularly great re-enrollment rate, which has to be hurting. Also, from my limited knowledge of the buxiban industry here, in the past five or so years, small buxibans have been popping up all over the place and taking a fair slice of market share. They’re usually known for having higher standards and cost less. There’s only so long a big player can coast through on its reputation in the face of that. For instance, right outside a local elementary school, there are five small buxibans in a row. They all look pretty shiny and new. In fact, I can’t remember if some were even there a few months ago. Now of course, maybe they won’t all last, though maybe if one goes under, one of the others will get bigger. In the meantime though, they’re all probably taking away say 20-50 potential students (if not more) from the local bigger schools (including, but not limited to, Hess). Maybe Hess is losing two or three full classes as a result. That’s probably up to 10% of its business. Most businesses can’t take a 10% hit without feeling it quite badly.
Regarding teachers, unfortunately, you’re right. They are expendable to a certain extent, and maybe to some extent, a high turnover is preferable from a power point of view. However, word from colleagues and friends is that there’s an island-wide teacher shortage, coupled with better pay or conditions in other countries. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if some 22 year old college graduate gets online and sees a ton of jobs both in Taiwan and elsewhere offering better pay and conditions, and then does further research into reputations, at some point, that would have to start eating into Hess’ ability to recruit. Likewise, I know they’ve lost at least one person back home who was right about to accept a job with them when all my situation was first unfolding. If they’d treated me well, they would have had me telling people to come and work for them instead of losing them. I know that they did/do have trouble replacing teachers, which puts even more stress on those teachers who remain, which is an endless cycle. Also, losing teachers always hits re-enrollments, so whilst it may work in a power sense, it just doesn’t work in a long-term sense. Surely having stable, experienced staff is always going to be preferable to a high turnover of new recruits unfamiliar with the curriculum. I can’t see how the little buxiban down the road that’s cheaper and can boast having an average employment time of say, three years, is going to be at anything but a huge advantage. Likewise, the parents and kids are going to feel the love in the class a lot better if the teacher appears happy to be there instead of just trying to make it through classes between hacking up a lung. Dunno. Maybe the Genghis Khan approach works though.
To pick up and expand on some of your points Guy In Taiwan.
Firstly, I worked for Nova in Japan, and I see many parallels between the two companies. Sycophantic white middle management, high turnover of staff and pupils, ridiculous fining policies.
My opinion after being at Nova was that as a teacher you had to want to play their game. And if you wanted to be anything other than a model employee then you were either sacked, or sent off to Middleofnowheresville. (Haibara, for those in the know!) I imagine Hess is very similar. Smile, wear a very white shirt, and suck up everything your ‘boss’ (6 years your junior, spotty face, washes his suit in the washing machine and irons it with a big stone, never smoked or drank,) says. Infact Nova went so far as to curb your human rights and banned teachers from speaking to pupils outside of school. (A highly sackable offense to even go to their house, let alone see their naughty bits.) So, to put it bluntly, control by fear.
Secondly, as Sandman says, I think Hess, like Nova, have no reason whatsoever to change. What worked at the start will continue to work. My theory is twofold. Firstly, the brand leader image. Hess has a well known name, and had been in operation for quite a while. People will trust the name. And they will trust that Hess must be a good thing if it has been around for so long. Secondly, motivation and ignorance. People don’t know if another school is better than Hess, because they are enrolled at Hess. And as you said yourself, Hess go a long way to smudging the results so that it appears that the child has improved. (Allegedly!) So it isn’t until the parent wakes up one day and thinks, ‘Jerry really is shit at English,’ that they will start to question Hess. And as most parents don’t speak a lick of English these kids get a good few years at Hess before the penny drops or the desire decreases. And also as was pointed out, many kids aren’t at Buxiban to learn English. So what do the parents care? The parent thinks ‘As long as ‘Apple’ is with her friends, or out of my hair for two hours (plus the obligatory one hour wait downstairs before and after class) what do I care?’
Nova had a more adult client base, but many went without the primary reason of learning English. It was something to do, or a status symbol, or a place to meet their friends. So I belive Hess will trundle along on its merry way. Economic downturn will see less honkies employed, economic upturn will see more honkies employed. Either way, the Taiwanese bosses will still cream the same amount of profit out of their cash cow day in day out.
Thats it. I’m spent.
TomHill: Yes, you make some very valid points. Interestingly, back in 2000, I got accepted to work for Nova, but decided to do other things (not in Japan) instead.
It’s all conjecture on my part, so maybe you’re right and a lot won’t change. On the other hand, maybe all these small buxibans will nibble pieces out of Hess and its ilk. That’s got to be a good thing for students, parents, and of course, us. Anything that smartens the industry up as a whole would be good. It’s also in Taiwan’s long-term interests not to have this three-card trick going on with learning English if it really wants to compete in global enterprises.
At some point, many parents, and students themselves, will wake up to Hess’ ways. They will realise that they’ve been ripped off (unless they really don’t care). They might come to that realisation via a dozen different scenarios, but it will happen. So it might only happen to a small percentage (although the poor re-enrollment rate of 50 something percent at my branch that had been there for a long time even before I joined – though I’d like to hope I managed to reduce that further, in a purely retrospective and accidental sense – might suggest it’s not that small), but word of mouth is everything here and it doesn’t take long for that to erode any reputation. Maybe I am reading too much into what the average Hess parent wants from Hess or the whole experience of his or her kid (supposedly) learning English. I don’t know. A lot of these guys are pretty wealthy, so they’re probably fairly intelligent with money. Why would they be any different in how they spend their money in this respect? (I know people often like to knock the wealthy as being morons, but as the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted.)
I don’t know that much about why Nova fell in a heap. The only explanation I’ve heard is that its locations were all on prime real estate and they couldn’t pay the rent, essentially. Is that accurate?
Taken from The Times:
[i]
Nova’s problems stem from an ill-conceived expansion of its branch network across Japan, backed by a massive advertising campaign. The company was unable to find enough experienced teachers to staff its classrooms, and many students defected to rival schools after complaining about the poor quality of Nova’s language courses.
Nova’s plight deepened in June, when it received a six-month ban on enrolling new students after regulators ruled that Nova had lied in its advertisements. The company is also notorious for its treatment of teachers and Japanese staff and has been accused of violating labour laws. [/i]
Of course, Hess could go down the shitter tomorrow, and we’d all be over the moon about it. But the chances are unfortunately slim.
The point about the rich being observant about their money… Outside of Taipei many people got rich through land, farming, exploiting China etc. These people haven’t even heard of Michael Porter, let alone anything as sophisticated as his 5 forces analysis. These are not business savvy people. Think of them more as a group of lottery winners. Added to that is the common factor that these people don’t speak English, heck, they don’t even speak Mandarin, so they have no standard with which to judge progress. Hess can keep on rolling.
[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]
At some point, many parents, and students themselves, will wake up to Hess’ ways. They will realise that they’ve been ripped off (unless they really don’t care). They might come to that realisation via a dozen different scenarios, but it will happen.[/quote]
You seem to be assuming you know what parents want from Hess. TomHill hit it on the head when he mentioned that the students aren’t sent to buxiban to actually learn English. In my experience at Hess, parents mostly were far more interested in the fact that their children were in school, getting high grades and/or certificates in speaking competitions. Proficiency in the subject matter or whether those grades were deserved was irrelevant. The most popular chinese teacher I worked with, beloved by parents and therefore by management, couldn’t give a damn about academics if you’d put a gun to her head. Working with her was a dream but teaching with her was a nightmare. Occasionally some parents did care but in my experience branch managers were smart enough to figure that out and make sure those children got placed with the right teachers. I don’t see anything wrong with the Hess scenario per se, they provide a service and their customers are reasonably happy with it. A lot of frustration can be traced to not understanding this, and Hess marketing materials certainly are complicit in creating this misunderstanding. The people I worked with were up front about the company so I can’t fault them there. It does suck royally though for the foreigner who comes to Hess uninformed, unlucky or both.
Despite the horror that Hess can be, it does have advantages that I definitely appreciated. The company has very powerful connections that even its foreign teachers can benefit from and it does not discriminate based on appearance in its hiring practices. Of course it can be argued that Hess does not discriminate AT ALL in its hiring practices, but I can’t fault a company for being open to letting me make money for it when other Taiwanese companies wouldn’t. Hess certainly doesn’t have to be the way it is and could operate in a more humane manner for all involved, but as has been stated it has no reason to do so nor do I see that changing any time soon. Besides, if not Hess, it’d be some other company. It’s not as if their business practices are an aberration in Taiwan. 
Naijeru: I am in total agreement.
How does one get a 6-month contract at Hess? Their webpage seems to require teachers to make a 1-year commitment. Is that a new requirement?
TomHill: Thanks for that information about both Nova and the country aristocracy here.
Naijeru: Look, on a cynical day, I’d be in total agreement with you about what parents wanted from Hess. I think you’re probably right. Yesterday wasn’t a cynical day though. (Well, not too cynical for me.)
You’re right though that if they provide a service and people are happy with that, then fine. You’re also right that it sucks that they market things one way to foreigners and then the reality is completely different. That was my major issue. If I’d really known how it would be there, I probably wouldn’t have come to work for them specifically.
As to discrimination, they probably do accept almost anyone. However, I have heard that within the company, they’re often somewhat discriminatory about who their public face is at speech competitions, etc. I’ve also heard one black guy got fired because the parents complained about him being black, and I’ve heard about similar situations with ABCs. That’s all hearsay though, and to be fair, they have mid-level management people who are not white.
[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]
As to discrimination, they probably do accept almost anyone. However, I have heard that within the company, they’re often somewhat discriminatory about who their public face is at speech competitions, etc. I’ve also heard one black guy got fired because the parents complained about him being black, and I’ve heard about similar situations with ABCs. That’s all hearsay though, and to be fair, they have mid-level management people who are not white.[/quote]
No doubt, I’m sure there were such situations. Based on the way some Chinese teachers treated me and other non-white teachers it’s not hard to imagine scenarios like that happening at all. OTOH, They had no problem with me being the public face of the branch after I did an open house that allowed them to open three classes. One of the big surprises for me was to learn that Hess is franchised so the branches I worked in belong to a completely different company from the one that hired me in the States. The only thing they have in common is the name it seems. One’s experience at Hess depends so much on the branch and that can be really variable based on who the foreign and local management is.
[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]TomHill: Thanks.
However, word from colleagues and friends is that there’s an island-wide teacher shortage, coupled with better pay or conditions in other countries. [/quote]
Does anyone else have the same feeling? I know that at my school they’ve been trying to hire a second foreign teacher since February, and they just can’t find anyone.
They did hire one guy (from Greece, I believe), but they fired him after one day of teaching because they said he played too many games and wouldn’t listen to the Chinese teacher’s (nagging, harpy-like) criticisms.
It seems like there is a teacher shortage, but the schools are still clinging to the old ways of taking their teachers for granted and teaching them as replaceable commodities. In reality teachers are getting scarce, the schools are just too stupid to realize it.
[quote=“barfomcgee”][quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]TomHill: Thanks.
However, word from colleagues and friends is that there’s an island-wide teacher shortage, coupled with better pay or conditions in other countries. [/quote]
Does anyone else have the same feeling? I know that at my school they’ve been trying to hire a second foreign teacher since February, and they just can’t find anyone.
They did hire one guy (from Greece, I believe), but they fired him after one day of teaching because they said he played too many games and wouldn’t listen to the Chinese teacher’s (nagging, harpy-like) criticisms.
It seems like there is a teacher shortage, but the schools are still clinging to the old ways of taking their teachers for granted and teaching them as replaceable commodities. In reality teachers are getting scarce, the schools are just too stupid to realize it.[/quote]
My school has been looking for a new teacher for almost two months now and they’ve had over thirty applicants - my boss screened out a few for whatever reasons(lack of experience, etc.) and that has brought the number of actual in-person interviewees down to about ten, one has been too loud and talkative, one had too much facial hair, one had his ears pierced, 6 were grossly obese and one was a grandpa - these are the explanations given by my boss, not me!
So perhaps there is an acute shortage of young, experienced, fit and clean cut foreign teachers out there but there still seems to be enough fugly useless white folks(I’m paraphrasing my boss’ words here, really) around to fill the Hess positions.
[quote=“wudjamahuh”]
So perhaps there is an acute shortage of young, experienced, fit and clean cut foreign teachers out there[/quote]
Strangely enough, I think I fit that description but still had an unusual interview experience recently. A few weeks ago, I went to an interview with Future Heir in Taichung City. Though I’ve spent the last six months teaching children here in Taiwan, my background is mainly in teaching business English.
As a result, I’ve always been an advocate of wearing professional clothes both to interviews and to teach. Teaching is a professional job, isn’t it? So, like every interview I’ve gone to, I wore a long sleeved shirt with a tie, dress pants and shoes. Apparently this isn’t the norm in Taiwan.
The woman at the school decided from the moment she saw me that I wasn’t what she was looking for. The interview lasted perhaps five minutes, with her saying I didn’t have enough experience (3+ years isn’t enough experience?). Strange, she’d seen my resume before she called me to schedule the interview. The feeling I had is that she decided my personality didn’t fit the school, based almost solely on the clothes I was wearing.
The school I’m working for now has interviewed about 10 or so teachers in the last couple of months, and all of them were wearing casual, if not dirty, clothing which I would consider highly inappropriate for an interview. Yet this seems to be the norm in Taiwan. If they place so much emphasis on appearance, why do they allow (and expect, it would seem) their teachers to wear such shabby clothing?