Posts Tagged ‘contract’

Having worked in an office environment for almost a year, I have come to fully appreciate how much better your quality of life can be working in different environments each day.  Not just stuck indoors, at a desk, looking at a screen most of the day.  Being around  different people and having the freedom to choose how you approach your daily life does have its advantages.

I guess I am in a better position now to reflect upon these things, I guess strangely what’s best about this is that having the experience gives you the chance to put  things into a perspective that others don’t have; helps you see things in another light.

I spent almost 3 years teaching English in China full or part time and it was one of the most interesting and rewarding things I’ve ever done. At times it was tough, frustrating and difficult, but overall I still beleive it’s a positive thing to do if you ever get the chance.

Saying this,  teaching is an incredibly tiring thing to do. It is not like a desk-job – you have to constantly be on the ball and the amount of speaking/exertion of energy is quite high, which can really drain you.

I would say that it is more tiring than the 7am-7pm day I  have at the moment, even with all the commuting.

This is why teaching contracts seem quite few hours (if unfamiliar to the way things are), when in fact doing 9-5 solid teaching is almost impossible if you try to teach properly (I tried doing 60 hours in various jobs for a couple of weeks) and it will almost-kill you!

I think going to China for a semester or two to teach is something that can really help you to appreciate more about the world in which we live.

If you go in with an open mind then things are easier to accept and adapting to the different way things are done takes less time.

I think one of the most important things I came out of being in China was to learn not to take yourself too seriously. Smile, enjoy things- be positive.

Sometimes It’s very easy to get frustrated by constant intransigence but trying to change things by getting angry ‘the angry laowai syndrome’ is a total waste of your time. Realising that there is a time and a place certain things, trying to ‘teach’ your students in the classroom about the ‘real’ history behind China and the communists will only alienate yourself and could get you in trouble.

Learning to live with ‘It’s just the way it is’ and keeping an open mind I believe are probably the two most important things to embrace whilst teaching in China.

Often if you take things too seriously, you may find that the students won’t and you’re almost certainly find the administration won’t!

Taking everything into account, I am glad I have done it and I think I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to do so.

Here’s a list of some of the best and worst things about teaching in China that I encountered:

Ups:

Not 8-5, stuck in an office. Each day is unique. At times really enjoyable. Huge flexibility, give you a chance to do things you really want to do – learn the language, a musical instrument etc…

Immensely satisfying, being able to help others. Watching your students (those that actually come to class!) progress over the year.

Respect – being a teacher commands a level of respect that died long ago in the UK for being in such a job. You will be called by your title ‘laoshi’ teacher – takes a while to get the students to address you differently.

Meet new people most days, huge eye-opener on how others live.

Pick up new ideas, thoughts, understand other ways of life.

Learn more about oneself – broaden your own feelings, beliefs.

Long Holidays – Couple of months paid winter vacation.  Not having to worry about planning to take time off, enough downtime to actually do things you want to do.

Location – often will be within walking distance of work, little time wasted commuting.

Freedom to teach as you please (certainly at universities) -  you can create your own curriclum and choose how you wish your students to learn.  It is up to you how you decide to do this, gives you enough responsibility to make the classes unique.

Downs:

This list may be a little longer but that’s just because I’ve gone into some detail

Not a challenge. Once beyond the initial shock of it all, start to realise that the job is rather repetitive. Not realising full potential. Despite the relative level of good pay, not a professional career by any means. you are always the ‘waijiao’

Not professional, often taken as a joke. There just to make up the numbers – the system can make things almost impossible to do you job well at times.

Insecure – Not long term – Let’s face (however much fun it may be) for somebody with an ounce of ambition, you can’t be an English teacher in China all of your life. (There are some older guys ((and it is almost all men)) that are trying to do this – but this is because they can’t go back home for whatever reason)

Pay – stuck on the same salary forever, little room for increases. You will never get rich teaching English in China.

No promotion – you are a Foreign teacher and that is it.  You may move sideways into  other educatonal  spin-offs but the scope is  limited.

Stuck – It took me a few months to be able to get back into the job market back in the UK, It was really, really tough.

I thought it would be easier and that employers would be interested in my skills and talents acquired whilst in China, but actually besides curiosity it did not give me an advantage – more of a dis-advantage as my work-experience was often not deemed relevant enough and being a couple of years older meant I had more competition to compete with.

I have no doubt whatsoever that being in China too long will hurt your prospects of making a career ‘back-home’. I dare say if you stay too long, very few professional employers will want to take you on when you come back.

Furthermore often the experience you gain in China is only of limited worth /not really recognised in the west, in the world of work. Unless you have some serious connections, I have found that it cannot really be used as a stepping stone into a job back home.

Here are some of the more important parts of a particuarly bad contract that I once signed with Star Education – It’s bad but not the most unfair contract I’ve seen in China. Most teaching contracts are set out in a similar fashion to this and do I hope this can be of help to anyone who wishes to sign a contract to teach in China.

In the contracts there’s all sorts of waffle that really isn’t so important to you, most of it is there as it’s government policy to put these things into work contracts.

Below is taken from the annex or the part of a contract that is written by the host institution (i.e a company/language centre), not the government SAFEA booklet as that’s standard accross China and only used by mainly public universities and colleges.

3.1

This is a real trick that could get you into a lot of difficulty with a dishonest employer. Usually you should ALWAYS have the amount of hours you work PER WEEK – and state that what exactly a week is i.e. – Monday to Friday.

Having hours per month means that you will probably have different class times each week, no real fixed schedule. It will mean lots of travelling between schools and will kill your free time.

The employer will say that 20 hours a week = 80 Hours a month, If so then why not put 20 hours per week into the contract not 80 hours per month?

The worst thing is that if you only get paid if you work all of the hours in the contract (i.e handing in timesheets) , and if the company you work for can’t give you all the hours – for whatever reason – you will not get paid fully.   Also if the company says you must work 60 hours this week to make up all of the hours you are meant to work in a month, you have to do it – essentially it puts lots of strain on your time

It is in the employers interest to have contract that specify monthly hours, not yours. It is a practice used by farming companies and some private schools.

3.2

This is too general, try to get it narrowed down to exactly what you will be teaching. I.e oral English, English writing or whatever it may be.
3.3

Again far to broad. Changchun – although not a big city in China – still has about 7 million people living there.  Also the way the Chinese designate their cities through the various sprawling districts, you could end up working 40km away from the city centreitself as it’s still classed as Changchun.  I once worked an hours coach trip from the centre of Changchun in a place called shuangyang （双阳）which is still considered part of Changchun by the government.

This means that you may have one class in the east of the city in the morning and anoter in the west in the afternoon.  You’ll have no time for lunch because it will take you all the time to get there.  You may have to take a taxi because the buses take too much time and and the end of a days work you may have made very little and be totally exhausted.

Try to get the locations fixed, the names of campuses, buildings if possible.  If you have to work elsewhere – get transport (i.e taxi) paid for - good schools will have no problem doing this.   

3.4   

Again get it as specific as possible unless you don’t mid teaching all ages.

 4.  

This is a trick clause and should be removed from all contracts before signing.   Bsaically what it is telling you is that the company/school probably can’t get you enough classes  and so don’t want to pay you all of your salary.   It puts you in a very diffcult position if the employer has no work for you, as you are still employed by them but are not being paid!   A good employer will never have anything like this in it’s contract, if you see it in an initail contract it’s a big red flag.  Avoid.

4.2

So leading on from the previous point, when you dont work 80 hours a month you will only be paid pro-rata at 62 an hour.  This is very bad indeed.  Furthermore as most classes last 40 or 45 minutes you will only be paid 42 or 47 yuan per class.   If a class is cancelled (as they often are) you will  have to make up the hours in your free time. 

 To put this in perspective, I know Chinese English teachers who make more than this per hour and they work far fewer classes a week.

Good organisations do not do this.  A class, whether it be 30 mins, 40, 45, 50 or 1 hour is classed as a teaching hour.   Again, if you see this in a contract – run.

4.3, 4.4

 Repeats the above condition. Just remember, why would an employer put a clause like this into a contract?  What are his/her motives?   It certainly isn’t in the interest of his employees… 

You get paid  for the months classes, so if you start mid-month, will only get 2 weeks pay.  Basic meaning is that you will be paid in arrears.   Universities don’t pay in arrears, they pay on a fixed date (usually the 15th) and the pay is for the full month.

 Agreeing to this could cause you to lose half a months pay – as you may never see the pay for the arrears worked.   

Your overtime will be paid at 80 yuan an hour – but only if it exceeds 80 hours a month.  So if you have only worked 70 hours in the month, there is nothing stopping your employer making you work 10 hours in one day and you will not see any overtime.

This clause protects the employer from ever paying overtime to his employees, he/she will give the work to those people that have not made up 80 hours a month rather than pay over time.   Incidently, overtime is always paid at a miniumum of 100 Yuan an hour and personally I wouldn’t put this into the contract.  I would deal with any overtime as it comes, on case-by-case basis, and negotiate at the actual time.  I have been paid 200 yuan an hour for some jobs, It depends on the actual situation. 

4.6

 No holiday or vacation pay.  Very bad indeed, everyone should get paid for at least the October and May holidays.  And make up the classes missed.   No winter vacation pay, so will have at least 2 months where there is very little work available and no guaranteed income.  Unless you moonlight. 

4.7

Probably the most straight forward part of the contract, you get 800 Yuan for rent each month.  This is extra to your salary and you get it each month regardless of how many hours you work.  800 really isn’t enough to get a decent apartment in central Changchun, for that you need more like 1500 yuan a month.   

Actually I was told that this 800 would not be paid to me as the company had no classes for me – and so I wouldn’t be teaching for 2 months - As you can see that is basides the point, I get this regardless of how much I work.  This eventually led me to perform a runner from the company as it was my only prudent choice of action at the time. 

5. 

Note the wording ‘fulfill the contract’ this can be misconstrued and twisted by any employer.  Get dates i.e. 31st July 2007 will get paid …. for  Flight ticket – this leaves no ambiguities.  Also only from Beijing, you still have to get to Changchun.  Wihout discount that’s another 2000 Yuan to your ticket price.  To be honest to get to the UK from Changchun return, if you include all transport costs is 7000+.      

The final passage is next to meaningless as it says should not, which in legal documents means nothing whatsoever.

7.4

Again badly worded, can be misconstrued.  Get exact pay dates into the contract.

7.5

This is potentially disasterous for the teacher.  If a school re-schedules, you MUST obey any class shifting – even if you are only given 30 mins notice.  This should never be agreed to, it must be reasonable.

8.3

Standard government stuff, but is far to sweeping and needs to be tidied-up.  Not to enagage in any mass activities is far too excessive - you could argue that by signing this you cannot teach as that in itself is a mass activity!     

8.7

Ignore, not important – almost all contracts have something like this in it.  Just don’t tell party A,  but make sure other work does not clash with one this work. 

8.10

Ignore.  Just dont tell them, it’s  none of their business what you choose to do in your free time.  They are trying to cover themselves if you get hurt or injured whilst not working as technically as an employer they are vicariously liable for you.

10.4

Designed to scare you more than anything else.   I highly doubt whether this is based on actual fact, but to be honest it’s not important.  You have to ask the rhetorical question – Why would somebody ‘ sudden disappearance/departure of party B from his or her post’ ?

Clearly they have had problems previously and are trying to scare people into not running from a contract that has been dishonoured by the employer.   In my experience people don’t just run for no reason.  Some are home sick and leave very soon after arriving in China, but most do it because their employer is screwing them/going to screw them.