Post by Escaped Lunatic on Nov 21, 2006 23:00:29 GMT 7
Beware: china-teacher.com aka World Star International HR Ltd
Before I found my supremely excellent job, I made the mistake of sending an inquiry to this place. They seem to specialize in placing people in the southwest, especially Yunnan Province. Everything looked very good at first, but then the recruiter slipped up and showed me where the traps were (and there were some very nasty ones).
The recruiter seemed nice and friendly at first, answering my standard deluge of questions promptly. He was trying to get me into a middle school in Zhaotong City at 5000 RMB per month for a maximum of 20 teaching hours per week - not a bad rate for that area (in retrospect, perhaps too good of a deal for that area). Then things got . . . interesting. I asked about how the classrooms were equipped and he said they had chalkboards (only chalkboards, no overheads or other useful equipment). I offhandedly mentioned that I'd miss whiteboards. He then claimed that there were too many students in the class for a whiteboard to work.
This seemed rather odd, so I told him that I'd been in huge lecture halls equipped with either, and that from the student point of view, there wasn't a significant difference, but that from a teacher point of view, I would definitely miss whiteboards. He then admitted that the chalkboard vs. whiteboard situation was for reasons that were economic, not ergonomic. That was a little odd, but not enough to set off serious alarm bells. There were a few other bits of strangeness, but I decided those were just the usual weirdness of dealing with someone from China (and assumed that he probably had very similar thoughts about me).
Then, there weren't just alarm bells, but a full-on 4 alarm fire.
The contract said that teachers had to work every other Saturday. I asked about this and was told: No, but one of the 2 teachers will have to work Sunday mornings as well as Monday-Friday, the other works only Monday-Friday. Which position would you like?
The contract said that every class session would require homework that would need to be corrected. A little bit of math regarding the number of classes and students came up with a minimum total of over 45 hours just to deal with correcting assignments. I was told:
It's only Oral English. There are no homework assignments.
I asked about getting the contract changed, especially the part about homework, since I didn't want to sign a contract that obligated me to do things that weren't part of the true assignment, and since there would always be a possibility of the school's headmaster changing and the new person deciding to enforce the letter of the law.
I even offered to rewrite the relevant portion of the contract for him (subject to he and the school approving the changes). He replied (direct quote):
"no, you do not need to do that. the salary you will get 5000rmb, it is after duties"
Oh goody - I try to ask about correcting a deal-breaking flaw in the contract, and he waives a fistful of RMB in my face while dismissing my question.
I already knew what the salary was supposed to be. I'm not a lawyer, but I know this is a very bad sign in any sort of contract negotiation.
I wrote back that I would be uncomfortable signing a contract that obligated me to work on Saturdays (and maybe Sunday mornings) when I was only supposed to work Monday-Friday, and that also obligated me to spend huge amounts of time correcting homework assignments that I wasn't really supposed to give.
I got no response. I waited a few days, wrote back, re-iterating that I thought the job as described by him sounded good, but that I really needed the contract to match the actual job as described (I don't think this is unreasonable). Once again, no response.
One additional note - the contract would have been between me and World Star International HR Ltd., not the school. Therefor, I'm not even sure if it would have been legally binding on the school whether or not any of the changes I asked for were made.
Before I found my supremely excellent job, I made the mistake of sending an inquiry to this place. They seem to specialize in placing people in the southwest, especially Yunnan Province. Everything looked very good at first, but then the recruiter slipped up and showed me where the traps were (and there were some very nasty ones).
The recruiter seemed nice and friendly at first, answering my standard deluge of questions promptly. He was trying to get me into a middle school in Zhaotong City at 5000 RMB per month for a maximum of 20 teaching hours per week - not a bad rate for that area (in retrospect, perhaps too good of a deal for that area). Then things got . . . interesting. I asked about how the classrooms were equipped and he said they had chalkboards (only chalkboards, no overheads or other useful equipment). I offhandedly mentioned that I'd miss whiteboards. He then claimed that there were too many students in the class for a whiteboard to work.
This seemed rather odd, so I told him that I'd been in huge lecture halls equipped with either, and that from the student point of view, there wasn't a significant difference, but that from a teacher point of view, I would definitely miss whiteboards. He then admitted that the chalkboard vs. whiteboard situation was for reasons that were economic, not ergonomic. That was a little odd, but not enough to set off serious alarm bells. There were a few other bits of strangeness, but I decided those were just the usual weirdness of dealing with someone from China (and assumed that he probably had very similar thoughts about me).Then, there weren't just alarm bells, but a full-on 4 alarm fire.
The contract said that teachers had to work every other Saturday. I asked about this and was told: No, but one of the 2 teachers will have to work Sunday mornings as well as Monday-Friday, the other works only Monday-Friday. Which position would you like?
The contract said that every class session would require homework that would need to be corrected. A little bit of math regarding the number of classes and students came up with a minimum total of over 45 hours just to deal with correcting assignments. I was told:
It's only Oral English. There are no homework assignments.
I asked about getting the contract changed, especially the part about homework, since I didn't want to sign a contract that obligated me to do things that weren't part of the true assignment, and since there would always be a possibility of the school's headmaster changing and the new person deciding to enforce the letter of the law.
I even offered to rewrite the relevant portion of the contract for him (subject to he and the school approving the changes). He replied (direct quote):"no, you do not need to do that. the salary you will get 5000rmb, it is after duties"
Oh goody - I try to ask about correcting a deal-breaking flaw in the contract, and he waives a fistful of RMB in my face while dismissing my question.
I already knew what the salary was supposed to be. I'm not a lawyer, but I know this is a very bad sign in any sort of contract negotiation.I wrote back that I would be uncomfortable signing a contract that obligated me to work on Saturdays (and maybe Sunday mornings) when I was only supposed to work Monday-Friday, and that also obligated me to spend huge amounts of time correcting homework assignments that I wasn't really supposed to give.
I got no response. I waited a few days, wrote back, re-iterating that I thought the job as described by him sounded good, but that I really needed the contract to match the actual job as described (I don't think this is unreasonable). Once again, no response.
One additional note - the contract would have been between me and World Star International HR Ltd., not the school. Therefor, I'm not even sure if it would have been legally binding on the school whether or not any of the changes I asked for were made.
