BlogGang.com : : kerrie : Another day in the madhouse....

Another day in the madhouse....

Gonna be another fun day at school today...

It's now 7.20 I arrived at school this morning to find that we're 2 teachers down.1's off for a couple of days. He's somewhere in Phuket with his family. The other's left. We'd got a replacement, or so we thought. He seemed a nice enough guy. He came in on Thursday last week to learn a bit more about the job, check over the teaching materials etc.

The 'new guy' was working at a government school in Bangkok. He'd no prospects. A move to a well resourced private school, with its own English program, air con classrooms, the chance to teach the same classes everyday, and to actually teach something rather than just act like a monkey for 20 different classes 1 hour a week, not to mention a pay rise would have been a good career move. All seemed OK. He was due to start this morning.

J, my English boss checked his e-mail yesterday. The new guy had sent him a mail. It said he could no longer accept the job. When he'd told his old school that he was leaving, they'd threatened him. I've no idea what the threats were, J didn't go into details, but the guy was married with a Thai wife and young baby. I guess he was pretty scared of what the school would do.

Last year's new government regulations (where you have to wait for a personally addressed letter of verification from your old university, before you can recieve a teachers license) make it near impossible to change jobs 'legally.' There's always a short period (a week or so) whilst you are waiting for the letter, when you will be working illegally. You have to be on good terms with you old school when you leave. No one who leaves a school mid-term, when the school have recieved no notice that you want to quit your job, and have no time to find a replacement teacher, is going to be on 'good terms' with their Thai bosses. And these guys can be pretty powerful. Who knows what they would do. I guess the guy just he didn't want to risk it. He quit before he even started.

Either that or he had second thoughts about the job, and just didn't know how to say so. We're all English (or Irish.) Unlike some other schools in BKK, we take our jobs seriously. Maybe he just didn't want that. Maybe there are no Thai staff threatening him at all. It's just his excuse for not wanting a job where he would have to do some 'real' teaching. One thing thats odd is that he never called. He just e-mailed on Saturday, turning the job down. Normally, if you want to tell someone that you don't want a job, and you've already met your new boss etc., it's polite to call them and explain your reasons in person.

Anyway... this means we've 10 periods to cover today. Staring in around 10 minutes... Fun, fun, fun...

Create Date : 03 กันยายน 2550

Last Update : 3 กันยายน 2550 18:18:09 น.

0 comments

Counter : 306 Pageviews.