Caveat Emptor

[Adiccavamso]

I would like to share my first and thankfully brief experience of working for a Thai-run teacher agency. The variously described manager or director was a Thai woman who has difficulty making herself clear in English, written or spoken, and is very unpredictable, at times aggressive and domineering and at others times inaccessible. She offered health insurance (never delivered), a draconian and one-sided contract (which I didn't sign; it stipulated, for example, that lesson plans should be prepared two weeks in advance - an absurd provision when lessons are subject to change or cancellation at the last moment) and a wage of 35,000 baht a month (but her farang teachers are not paid during holidays, and 2,000 of that monthly wage are dependent on the teacher working the full contracted eight hours daily, even if the last lesson ends by noon). She had a habit of ignoring emails and phone calls, or only acknowledging them after a couple of weeks at best. At other times she thought nothing of calling after 2230 (10.30 pm) and would summon employees to meetings even on (unpaid) holidays. She promised to deliver textbooks which never arrived, as well as documents for opening a bank account (these were not fothcoming, either, but fortunately were not really necessary). Her relations with the school were poor to say the least and there was much bad blood between the two sides. When I started, I wondered why my two predcessors and sole farang colleague simply walked off the job, apparently without giving notice. Now I know. Essentially, the best I expect from a Thai employer is benign neglect. I am grateful to this firm for teaching me three important lessons:I will again never work for Thais because they are not to be trusted or relied upon, or, if I do, I will ensure there's a farang management layer to insulate me from the Thai senior management; I will only work with several other farangs in a team for mutual support, not with Thais (who are disorganised, care little for the job and do their best to avoid anything resembling a problem or responsibility, perhaps not surprisingly given their low wages), and finally, only teach people who are paying good money (600 b an hour) to learn English because that's some guarantee of motivation. Thai school students are generally not keen to learn much, and what they are taught by our Thai colleagues isn't English but 'Thainglish'. The warnings signs at the outset - which I missed - were these: an employer in a rush to sign me up, lots of verbal promises not matched by anything in writing, and finally an apparent inability to communicate. You have been warned.

Edited October 25, 2010 by Scott
Name edited out/Scott

[Scott]

Several posts have been removed. This sub-forum is for and about teachers. The grammar and spelling Nazi's aren't appreciated. My apologies to those who replied to an early troll post and thus had their posts deleted.

Please stay on topic.

I also would like to note the name of the school (agency) was edited out. Naming and shaming is not allowed, in part for legal reasons. If you want to know the name of the agency, then I suggest PMing the OP.

[otherstuff1957]

A sad, but all too common story. I now work directly for a school, which isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than working for an agency.

[aussiebebe]

Sympathies to the guy about this agency, good luck in the future. These stories are quite common, but have everything to do with agencies and really nothing to do with nationality, culture or ethnicity; it's xenophobic or racist to suggest otherwise as anyone from anywhere can prove to be useless...and they do. I've met teachers working for various agencies run by all sorts; Indians, Thai-Chinese, Malay - the common denominator is that they are incompetent, untrustworthy and deceitful - fairly universal traits wouldn't you say?

I never understand why people work for agencies in the first place - it's far easier to forward your CV online to numerous schools and visit them to get hired directly - how do agencies help? I've met loads of people who complain, but really what can an agency do to earn it's cut?

In most cases the issues may be cultural - a Thai may be unaware of the needs of foreign teachers and make promises they can't keep (health insurance). An unexperienced Thai may expect foreigners to be self-sufficient in terms of materials and resources as a Thai might be, setting up a bank account is simple so they may not see that as such a high priority (you want them to drive you to the bank?), and the 2-week advance lesson plan isn't unreasonable as most teachers will write a long-term plan covering several months, if not an accademic year, anyway.

Edited October 28, 2010 by aussiebebe

[canuck1941]

" I am grateful to this firm for teaching me three important lessons:I will again never work for Thais because they are not to be trusted or relied upon, or, if I do, I will ensure there's a farang management layer to insulate me from the Thai senior management; I will only work with several other farangs in a team for mutual support, not with Thais (who are disorganised, care little for the job and do their best to avoid anything resembling a problem or responsibility, perhaps not surprisingly given their low wages)"

Yeah, agencies are bad news, a parasite on the industry. Avoid them. And in my experience, 15+years, 6 countries, I got more grief from farangs than I ever did from the locals, although they were nothing to brag about, except this one in China, but I digress. Now, you are older, wiser, and probably a soon to be better teacher in your next gig. Good luck. And in 100 years, who'll care?

[bankei]

You have one bad experience and conclude all Thais are the same?

[Scott]

I will repeat this one more time. This thread is about an agency and about a negative experience with management. It is not, nor has it been stated that it applies to all Thais.

This thread will not go in that direction. The applicable rule is:

8) Not to post extremely negative views of Thailand or derogatory comments directed towards all Thais.

[Colabamumbai]

Would this agency be in Korat by any chance?

[ricklev]

My Momma, God rest her soul, sure enough taught me that paragraphs were an act of kindness performed by the writer for the benefit of the reader.

Edited December 26, 2010 by ricklev

[Scott]

I suppose that I should delete the above post for being off-topic, but it would be disrespectful to someone's Momma. And she sounds like a wise lady.