I'm sorry in advance, I'm on mobile, I'm ill as fuck and I need to rant so please excuse any mistakes!
That being said, I'm an ESL teacher (English as second language) in South East Asia, so I really shouldn't have any excuse.
Back in October 2020 I moved out here to teach in public schools. The company I worked for was pretty dodgy and were definitely under paying us, so mid April 2021 I got a second job at a private English centre (better pay, smaller classes, higher level, it was a no-brainer really), with the plan to quit the first one at the end of the academic year. This second job has a pay period from the 24th-23rd of each month, so my first pay was only for a week of work.
In mid-May the fucking 'rona decided to come back with a vengeance so we had to close all schools here, and teachers at my company were only paid 70%. Our hours dropped massively too because not every student here has access to computers and such. We believed that this would be for a short time, but ho boy were we wrong.
Covid kept getting worse, districts and amenities kept being closed until eventually it was made illegal to even go outside. I live in a small studio flat, and my girlfriend had to move in with me because her housing was not sustainable at that time and we spent 3 months in total lockdown. Everything didn't open again until January. I had to get a second online job, because God-forbid my landlady would lower the rent, I worked long ass hours just to stay afloat, while my physical and mental health slowly deteriorated.
All this time there was no word of when we would be receiving full pay again and we just had to keep working for pennies.
Schools opened again for us two weeks ago, and we were told that there would be precautions – students had to take regular tests, must be vaccinated, we would recieve regular tests, there would be enforced social distancing, the whole she-bang. As you can imagine, many teachers left the country as they couldn't sustain themselves so we are perilously understaffed, while it almost seems like the parents are sick of having their kids around the house after nearly a full year so course enrollment is sky high, and theres not enough teachers to go around.
I'm pretty rigid when it comes to my available hours, I have other commitments, but I was willing to help out with substitutions because 1) dollar dollar dollar, 2) I'm up for a raise in April.
But those precautions we were told we had? They don't exist.
The covid “test” is a temperature check at the entrance, which is fucking useless, what if the kids are asymptomatic but still infectious? What if they are symptomatic and slowing down the flow of students and parents into the building (which basically leads to a crowd of kids milling around in close proximity to each other) is just causing it to spread more? It's too fuckin late by the time they get to the door, they have already been rubbing shoulders with everyone, hugging their pals, etc.
The social distancing? A seating plan for each classroom. Shame that before class, after class and during break they're more than happy to start touching each other, running around, even going to other class rooms.
In addition there is a mask mandate, that kids will just ignore. I was teaching a class, and was helping a student with some written work. He pulled down his mask and proceeded to have a coughing fit all over my face. This kid is 12. If your child cannot understand the need for this stuff, he should not be here.
Due to all of this, students and teachers are dropping like flies. If a student gets a positive test (and they actually decide to tell us about it, most of the time we don't), we get a text telling us to finish our classes for the day then go get ourselves a test. Like fuck you, with the 30% cut you took for ten months you can afford roughly 5 tests a week per teacher, let alone the money saved on extra expenses while the schools were closed off.
Last week the most students I had in any of classes was still ~55% of the total number. We were often told by friends in their classes that they had tested positive but their parents dont think to inform us so we can take extra measures for the class to keep us all safe. Not like any of our safety matters to those fuckwits.
I am exhausted, I'm over worked and I was looking forward to having today and tomorrow off, but guess what? I woke up today sick as a fucking dog. I told my work about this and they told me to go to the hospital for a proper test. BITCH I CAN'T EVEN SIT UP WITHOUT NEARLY PASSING OUT, I HAVE A RIDICULOUS FEVER WHILE IM SHIVERING MORE THAN A NUDIST ARCTIC EXPLORER AND YOU WANT ME TO DRIVE ACROSS THE CITY TO A HOSPITAL, WHEN ITS YOUR LACK OF PRECAUTIONS THAT HAVE LIKELY BROUGHT THIS ON ME??
If I don't work, I don't get paid. I haven't had a full paycheck for 10 months, soon to be 11 because if it turns out I have COVID-19 I have to quarantine for two weeks. I had big performances that could have been life-changing for me coming that i will now have to cancel. I still have to pay my rent. If I get worse I'll have to pay for healthcare. I'm thousands of miles from most my friends and family. If this isn't COVID-19, then it's because I'm exhausted and burnt out. Fuck this shit.