I can't believe I am posting again so (relatively) soon after my other experience as a freelancer. So, after being screwed from a major payment, and held literal hostage from complaining for another, I thought I'd add some salaried work to my income. You know, fixed income is best income, right?
So I went back to teaching. They hired me unusually fast, which I thought unsual, but ok. And they gave me a lot of classes, so I was over the moon. Decent fixed income! And going back to teaching, too, in my field (translation studies). They told me they would send me all material necessary so I could have my first few courses ready, as time was short. Fine, I set aside the entire week before the start of classes to begin preparing my coursework.
And then the issues began.
They didn't send me anything. They setup a “training session” mid-week before the start of classes, which I assumed would be from actual personnel of the Institute. It was one of the teachers, who had just begun a semester ago, and who gave me a talk about basic stuff I mostly knew about, and the others he wanted to show me I did not have access to as they had not provided me access keys to. I went to two official sessions in which they showed us absolutely nothing as they had not even setup a dummy class to let us see how the system works.
I was supposed to used virtual conference; no credentials given. I was supposed to have an institutional e-mail; none given. I was supposed to have the books (in teacher's edition); none given. Materials for the course? Syllabus, projected lesson plans, teaching materials? None provided. Their excuse was that they were “restructuring” and they were working round-the-clock to provide me “updated material”. The result? They sent me material from the last semester… 2 days before the start of classes! So on the Saturday before the start of classes I had an outdated syllabus that was badly formatted, no book, no virtual class session credentials, no institutional e-mail, and they had not sent me my contract to sign. I finally got sent PDFs of some of the books (pirated, by the actual academic coordinators. Of course, students have to buy the books directly from the institution at a considerable markup). What a great start.
Needless to say, I was sending message after message and email after email. Some had no response, some stated “we are looking into it” (which was almost the same thing). So Monday comes. I still don't have my virtual class session credentials, no book, no contract. I wing it through my first day. My students don't have their books, don't have anything, really. I was upset. I sent a very diplomatic email asking for urgent answers to my requests. No answers. I ask the colleague who recommended me. She gives me the full picture.
And it ain't pretty.
So apparently the owner of the institution decided to give management to the wife. Wife starts running business aground. Husband decides to have new management. And he puts in charge… his daughter. The daughter then proceeds to go on a power trip and places all of her friends, who are more interested in looking cool and executive than in actually getting their jobs done, and in fact have no idea how to run the business. But a business must run somehow. So what is their idea then? Let's have the faculty do everything!
Syllabus? Have the faculty take care of it. Class material? Faculty (Mind you, I am aware we have to create our own class material to supplement what they are supposed to have. They had ZERO. AND they wanted FULL INTELLECTUAL RIGHTS to said material. As in, even though made for my use, I was obligated to upload it, and once uploaded, BAM, it is theirs and they can use it forever. And no, I don't get paid extra for it. Oh, and they wanted multimedia files, as in video, audio, animations, interactive stuff, you now, things that take a lot of time.) Books for teachers? Pirate and download (which is illegal for an educational institutions anywhere. All administrative work they can get the faculty to do? Have them do it. It took me the week to realize the reason they had hired me so quickly was that they did not want to pay full-timers, in fact, they had reduced the hours of all faculty so everyone was part-time. But the workload was full time, since you had to make sure everything worked and was ready, and the system itself was very unfriendly.
So I was contemplating quitting. My sense of responsibility started kicking in though. Poor students, they had no fault, I thought to myself. And they could try to sue me for damages, as I would leave them without a teacher and cause students to requests refunds, I thought. But then…
I realized I had no contract. They had not even sent me a draft. Heck, they had not even sent an official communication stating my employment beginning. I had been so worried and stressed as to how I was going to prepare for giving my classes. All they had was some stuff they sent to my personnal email and some other stuff. So, I had no obligation to them.
So I “quit”. I made sure to let them know that the “working conditions” were not favorable to proper performance, and as I had no employment contract signed, there was no obligation to keep providing services, but that I was sending my notice as a courtesy. And I quit. Because if I had remained in that burning house of an institution, me being a part of the faculty would have hurt my professional reputation on the long run. Yes, I needed the fixed (additional) income. But not at the expense of my sanity and soul. And certainly not at the expense of my professional reputation. As I write this, I kept asking myself: I had become aware the rest of the faculty members were very dissatisfied with the working conditions. Why weren't more leaving then?
Then it clicked. They needed the income. But unlike me, this was not a secondary income, this was their main income. So they just “took it” and bowed their heads, and kept on taking it. I then realized how a bad manager/owner can really mess up a workplace, and how the need to bring food to the table can make many just accept it. Perhaps me quitting will be the start of a wakeup call. Perhaps not. But I will definitely be more careful now when I get teaching job offers.
As for that institution? I give it a year, tops. An academic year even, as in 8 months.
Edit: I corrected some minor spelling errors, if there are others, please forgive me, as I have not slept much trying to get things together until today, as I quit just an hour ago and I really needed to get this off my chest.