It's More Than A Paycheck

I signed a new contract this past week. If you have been following my blogging, you know that I have been anticipating this event. I had planned on going into the meeting with an agenda. The agenda included a decent pay raise. The meeting took place a few days ago and much to my surprise, I didn't have to debate my boss on one matter. She expressed her satisfaction with the job I have done and gave me the exact amount of pay raise that I had planned on asking for...I didn't even have to ask!

Regardless of the pay raise, I love my job! Making lots of money is a great thing, but so is contentment. The positive atmosphere and wonderful reinforcement I get from my boss and co-workers is priceless. I will never get rich doing this work, but I will sleep well at night.

Just this past week, I have had several great interactions with my students. Tonight, one of my students took my picture so that she could include me in one of her projects at her regular school. Anne, the student with the project, is exceptional. She is a kind-hearted, hard-working kid that always brings a smile to my face. She is very quiet and shy, but I can always get a giggle or two out of her. I think she is going to be a teacher, a GREAT teacher.

As much as I'd like to live closer to everyone back home, it looks like I am going to be here at least another year.

Workplace Issues

Lately, the foreign teachers, including myself, have been mumbling and grumbling a lot. Seems like we have been getting the short end of the stick recently. For the past few months we have been negotiating our office hours with the boss. It can be frustrating at times because we are required to "work" 34 hours a week, while only teaching about 15-20. This leaves us with an awful lot of time at our desks. We are all competent teachers and don't that mush time to prepare for our classes. Therefore, we spend a lot of our "office hours" doing something close to nothing. It has always been this way and I am alright with it, for the most part...easy money. Carrie & John on the other hand, are much more type A, and don't dig the down time. I can understand where they're coming from, it can be mind-numbing. They have managed to convince Carol (the boss) to cut down our Saturday and Wednesday hours and we all are liking the changes. Perhaps some more changes are coming in the near future?

On a related note, corporate HQ recently decided they were going to start docking us pay if we came in late, even one minute. We arrive at work each day at three o'clock, but don't start teaching until five. The train I had been taking for the past 6 months arrives at about three minutes until 3:00...sometimes it's a minute or two late. As a result, I am late by a few minutes a lot. I didn't think this was a big deal because we often stay well past 9:00, when we are scheduled to go home. Apparently, HQ didn't like this and recently started a policy of docking us pay after the third episode of tardiness in any given month. As a result of the punitive, child-like move, I am now taking an earlier train. I arrive at work about 30 minutes early every day and am not gonna be paid for it...the price you pay for being on a salary. As crappy as this is, I am not about to rock the boat. I am still very well paid for what I do and I love my job.

The latest frustration happened today. We are supposed to be paid on the 10th of every month. The 10th was yesterday, Sunday. We all showed up for work today expecting our pay to be in the bank. Much to our dismay, none of us our pay directly deposited as it should be. I'm sure it'll be there tonight or tomorrow. The beef here is if we are expected to march to their drum beat and follow some of these petty new rules, then the least they could do is be sure we are paid on time! A valid argument that will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

Scott spoke with Brent over the weekend. Brent is the guy who taught at the school for 8 years and now is living back in Canada. Scott brought up the subject of the contract completion bonus and Brent said it has been a problem for years. The school has a long history of attempting to keep their teachers from collecting. They purposely set your hours every month so that at the end of the year you come up just a hair short of 900, the total needed to get the bonus. As I said before, I haven't got up enough nerve to address the subject at work because I am afraid the evil side of me will prevail and I'll say some things I'll regret. I am somewhat optimistic that I will get the bonus...

Contract Issue

Scott, one of the other foreign teachers at work, recently signed a contract for another year. This means he was in line for the "contract completion bonus". It's standard policy for schools to give the foreign teachers a sizeable sum at the end of each yearly contract. Well, it appears that there is some fine print in our contracts that states you have to teach for 900 hours during the contract period to get the bonus. Scott's total teaching hours came to 854, he did not get the bonus. He was not happy to get this news. He was in the process of getting a new apartment and using the bonus cash to make it happen.

I am not certain what my total hours are. I am going to make a trip to the head offices this week to find out. It ain't gonna be pretty if they tell me I don't have enough hours to receive the bonus. As most of you know, I am not passive aggressive. I will not go lightly.

What happened to Scott is just not cool. He is a good teacher and really needs that cash.

What irks me most about this situation is that we are full-time employees. None of us has ever asked for a reduction in hours. We all assumed that we were on track for the 900. It almost feels like a fix. It's as if they may be making a concerted effort to be sure we don't reach that plateau and cash in. It's a substantial amount of money, about a third of a month's pay.

I have done some figuring with the paperwork I have. According to my calculations, I should get the bonus as long as I have a normal month in September. I was mentioning this to my boss and she said that my contract with the school is different than the one the government has. She said that the school's contract started a month prior to the governments and therefore the contract that counts started in August. Well, that's not a good thing. I spent the entire month of August training and observing classes. I didn't teach at all in August. If they insist on counting August, I may be out of luck. Again, this feels like collusion on the part of my boss and the corporate folks.

To me, this is bad business. Why would you screw with the folks that pay your bills? Without good foreign teachers, a school is bound to fail. I certainly don't want this to taint my 2nd year as a teacher.

Needless to say, I am gonna raise heck if this deal turns sour.