Dear Dr.
Spilchuk,
I
am a former teacher (14 years) and school administrator
and have been working for
a major educational placement organization for
over 10 years. I would like to provide some advice
to teachers which I believe, based on my experience
with thousands of candidates and hundreds of
schools, is sorely needed. It concerns the topic
of reneging
on an agreement. First, at all costs avoid breaking
your word, written or verbal. It may sound “old
fashioned,” but your word and your reputation
for integrity are important as you go through
life. Here are some ideas to consider.
1.
The best thing you can do is to avoid getting yourself
into a situation where you are tempted
to violate an agreement you have made.
2.
If you receive an offer of employment, do your
homework and do not be pushed into a hasty agreement.
If you feel uneasy about a school, ask the recruiter
to provide you with phone numbers of one or two
teachers of your status -- single females, married
couples, or whatever-- who work at that school
now or have done so recently. Spend a few dollars
and call them up. You will get an honest response
to your questions. (You could also e-mail, but
a phone call in addition to a brief e-mail is a
far better approach.) The bottom line – it
is best NOT to accept a contract unless you feel
confident that it is a reasonable (not necessarily
perfect) fit.
3.
If you are a risk taker and you are very eager
to teach abroad, and you have some misgivings about
a school but are willing to take the risk with
your eyes open, that is also a reasonable course
of action. HOWEVER, if you do that, don’t
whine and complain later on that you made a mistake.
Suck it up and make the best of it, and when the
contract is over then move on to something better.
4.
There can be some legitimate reasons for extricating
oneself from a contract. For example, the candidate
(or a parent, spouse, or child) develops a serious
health problem or, God forbid, there is a death
in the family. Schools will always understand and
sympathize in these cases -- although more than
one candidate has invented something like this
as an excuse, with unfortunate consequences.
5.
There are other reasons for which a teacher may
be very unhappy with an agreement he or she has
made, and there are many ways to approach that,
most of them bad. I am going to list below the
types of approaches which I have seen many times
over in the past 30 years, starting with the worst
ones first. All of these are based on actual events:
a. A
teacher and all his belongings disappear over the
Christmas vacation, leaving behind a trashed apartment,
hundreds of dollars in damages and phone bills,
and a note asking a friend to tell the school head
that he won’t be back.
b. A teacher in the middle of a two year contract
sends an e-mail to the school head in July, saying
that he got a better job in China and won’t
return -- and would the school please pack up his
belongings and ship them home.
c.
A newly hired teacher sends an e-mail in May saying
that he has thought about it more and has decided
he made a mistake in accepting the offer and will
not be coming after all.
d. The teacher in the first year of a two year contract
sends a note to the school head in May saying she
is not happy and will not return for the second
year.
e. A newly hired teacher sends a note to the school
head in April and says he is starting to have misgivings
about his decision, and would like to set up a
time for an extended phone conversation to discuss
these and to get reassurances.
f. The teacher in the first year of a two year contract
asks for an appointment with the school head in
January. She sits face to face with the school
head, says that she is really unhappy at the school
because of _______________, and asks the school
head to please help her. (A honest, open, and timely
conversation like this often leads to the school
making changes to accommodate the teacher, or the
teacher being released without prejudice.)
g. The
teacher either has misgivings about going to a school,
or is unhappy after being there, and
calls the placement agency to seek guidance. This
has happened in our company a few times, and invariably
we are able to bring about a reasonable resolution.
There
are many other examples which I can give, but I
am sure the reader has gotten the point. There
are various ways to approach an unhappy situation,
and some ways are a lot more honest, ethical, and
responsible than others. In general, a good faith
discussion with the school head and / or the recruitment
agency well in advance is far more courteous and
professional than a precipitous and unilateral
action or decision.
There
are two other topics I would like to address briefly:
1--There
is a HUGE misconception “out there,” bordering
on paranoia, about school heads “black listing” a
teacher. I am reminded of the biblical phrase “the
thief flees through the night, whilst no man persueth.” I
give you some examples. In many years of working
with thousands of candidates, and reading tens
of thousands of references, there is scant evidence
of “black listing.” (In our company
we use the term “drum out of the regiment.”)
In the past 5 years I can think of four instances
in which a school head contacted us specifically
to warn about a candidate. Two were proven pedophiles,
one fell into category “a” (above)
and the other fell into category “b” (above).
Bottom line –- folks, it just is not happening
out there as ISR postings would have you believe
and, in the few instances it does, it is usually
justified. Most placement agencies, certainly the
one I work for, are VERY PROTECTIVE of our teaching
candidates. If we have reports from any of our
teachers that a school is mistreating them, we
promptly investigate. If we find this to be true,
we “drum the school out of the regiment.” In
some cases, we require a school to provide air
fare and a consulting fee to bring me or a colleague
to the school to investigate. And if we do not
like what we see, we will not allow the school
to recruit through us any further.
Over
the past 10 years, we have drummed at least 80
schools out of the regiment or refused to allow
them to recruit with us because they did not meet
our standards. I sit on several school boards,
one international. If our board members ever got
word that a teacher was being treated unjustly
or with lack of due process, WE WOULD ACT PROMPTLY,
and I believe most school board members would do
the same. Oddly enough, most boards believe in
due process for the teachers much more than they
do for school heads, and if space permitted and
if I were free to reveal confidential information,
I could provide MANY examples to support that assertion.
Finally,
I must say that I write all of the above advice
with serious misgivings because I strongly disagree
with the policies of ISR. and would prefer not
to be associated with these policies. Specifically,
I think it is appalling that ISR allows anonymous
and hurtful comments to be posted about school
employees—or about anyone! No reputable or
professional organization would permit such a thing.
It is an open invitation for people to hurl “cheap
shots” and to carry on personal vendettas –and
make no mistake, this is being done. I call upon
ISR to renounce this unfair and repugnant practice.
In doing so the organization will gain credibility
and respectability which it presently lacks among
many thoughtful and fair minded readers. When ISR
requires everyone to add their names to their commentaries,
I will be the first one to comply.
Sincerely,
Recruiter
**********
Dr.
Spilchuk's Reply:
Dear
Recruiter,
With
respect to the black-balling of teachers, please
be assured I have been privy to many emails from
teachers that have included their correspondences
with recruiters when problems have arisen in their
contracts. I have observed, first-hand, language
from recruitment agencies that clearly indicates
black-balling does occur. These communications from
recruiting agencies often indicate financial penalties
that have exceeded the acceptable and legal enforcement
standards of any monetary fine noted and supported
within a teacher’s contract. I have also noted,
an extension to practices that are not transparent,
written or agreed upon within the teacher’s
contract during these communications between a recruiter
and a teacher.
Some of these unwritten, nontransparent and, therefore, illegal and unethical
practices include:
Level 1.Threats
of a collection agency during a stage of open communication
between the agency and a teacher candidate when there
is an obvious desire stated by the teacher to resolve
a contract dispute positively,
Level
2. Threats of internal red flagging of a candidate’s
file even after a fine has been paid, red flagging
that documents a teacher’s decision not to
continue with a contract even given what appears
to be reasonable circumstances, that is, a diversion
between written contract promises and a school
failing to fulfill these promises.
Level 3.
Threats to label a teacher widely outside of a
recruitment agency by informing all other recruitment
organizations that a teacher is a ‘reneger’.
Level
4. Threats to directly contact the teacher’s
referees, thereby attempting to undermine the teacher’s
credibility with even the closest of advisors/mentors/referees.
The
first level of the ‘threat’ processes
can be justified by the recruitment agency as a
lawful follow-up process to a contract clause that
specifies a monetary fine if the teacher does not
follow through on a contract. After all, if the
teacher signed the document, the teacher should
have understood liability to the fine. However,
if this is a first time offender and there is no
life or death situation that has occurred, no pedophilia,
no sexual deviance that might harm a child, no
other practice that would irrevocably harm the
school, children and parents, it would seem reasonable
that the recruitment agency goes to all lengths
to attempt to mediate the situation prior to threatening
and then following through with a collection agency.
Concerning Levels 2,
3 and 4: On the other
hand, if the teacher
is given to understand
that Levels 2, 3 and
4 will also be applied
as penalties alongside
the threat of a collection agency, my position is that ‘all bets are
off’! At that point, when the agency is prepared to enact multiple liabilities
to the teacher, liabilities that are organizational practices not transparent
within the contract, I believe the teacher has the right to respond by insisting
upon the terms stated within the contract in order to resolve the resolution.
Contracts are designed to protect all parties…and this certainly includes
the teacher. If this means refusing to pay the fine until the recruitment agency
prepares a written document guaranteeing that the practices noted in Levels
2, 3 and 4 will not occur, particularly after they have been threatened in
writing, then so be it. Due Process extends all ways: Recruiter to school,
school to teacher, recruiter to teacher and vice versa in all situations. Even
one teacher having to deal with bullying of this nature is one teacher too
many from my experience.
I
would also like to respond briefly to another of
your comments:“It
may sound old fashioned, but your word and
your reputation for integrity are important as you
go through life". I couldn't agree with you
more on this point. When you give your word, you
should keep it. The problem, however, comes in when
schools misrepresent themselves at recruiting conferences,
and even go so far as to even expect teachers to
sign altered contracts upon arrival at the school.
Agreeing to a set of conditions and giving your word
is one thing, to "suck it up and make the best
of it" for two long years because a dishonest
administrator misrepresented their school would be
just plain foolish and unrealistic for a slough of
reasons I think are quite obvious.
In
our Contract Satisfaction survey, teachers tell us
under what circumstances they feel it is appropriate
to break an international teaching contract. Many
sight that they were mislead at the conference. go
to article.
For
additional information on this topic I also recommend
1. Signed
Sealed and legal - How
secure is your contract? 2.
When is it Okay to break your contract?
Sincerely
Barbara Spilchuk
_____________________________________________
To
top and full article
Readers'
Responses to This Month's Dr. Spilchuk
Major Recruiter Advises
Against Reneging on Contracts
Dear Dr. Spilchuk,
The letter of advice to teachers from the recruiter requires
an immediate response. Please, Dr. Spilchuk, don’t
allow teachers new to international teaching to think
that telling a school director
mid-year that you are unhappy is a good idea. Please warn
people that a meeting in which you lay your cards on the
table can have devastating consequences. Even a mild hint
that you are dissatisfied with your placement can have
a catastrophic effect on your family. Until you have a
plan, you should remain quiet. You need to first figure
out how to extricate yourself from your situation should
that become necessary. Think through what to do if you
are locked out of school tomorrow, next month, after vacation,
or whenever. Have some cash on hand. In some countries,
you need an exit visa to leave the country. In some countries,
your school must attest that you are free of any debts
before you can get past immigration and out of the country.
Find out first. Figure out what stuff you can leave behind
and what stuff you need to take with you on short notice.
Once you have a plan, then you can take steps to deal with
whatever conflicts arise. Going to a meeting with a school
administrator can lead to unexpected consequences. You
can endanger your whole family by upsetting the administration,
the wrong parents, the wrong group of teachers, or the
school secretary. Your safety and security are in the hands
of the people who you work with. Don’t ever forget
that. Anyone who thinks this is over-dramatizing the possible
consequences has never been trapped in a country with officials
who are angry. Have you ever been in a third world country
and been given three days to move your family out of your
apartment? On a smaller scale, have you ever had a minor
misunderstanding escalate in a matter of days? You may
think that the director is a nice person. Maybe she is
from your home town, or maybe he’s a minister. And
then it turns out that three teachers in the past somehow
disgraced her or robbed him or broke a contract. You could
end up the object of retaliation for things that you had
nothing to do with.
It’s true that leaving a school in less-than-perfect
circumstances can lead future job prospects to wonder about
your reliability. Of course you should always conduct yourself
honorably and with respect. Breaking a contract does not
have to be done in a shameful way. Do whatever you can
to prevent harm to your reputation. Even if you have to
do a lot of explaining later on, walking out on a contract
can often be the most sensible thing you can do. Recruiting
agencies have not been able to protect teachers from ruin
at the hands of their schools. Many, many schools have
failed to be honest and treat teachers fairly. School directors
have not been successful in policing themselves. Don’t
let their holier-than-thou talk about honor shake you.
If you leave a school with an unfilled position, it will
be an expensive problem for them. Still, that is the cost
of doing business. They can hire someone locally or fill
the position with a supply teacher if they must.
It's the school head’s responsibility to be prepared
for situations such as losing a teacher. If he or she has
done everything possible to maintain the integrity of the
school, having a last minute teacher opening should not
be a catastrophe as you may be led to believe. School directors
earn very, very high salaries. It does look bad when they
lose an overseas hire, but they will recover. Responsible
management of the school’s finances and reputation
should make it possible to deal with sudden losses.
School directors hope that the funds they set aside to
deal with unforeseen events can be used for other purposes
at the end of the year, and they certainly resent situations
that require it to be spent. When you and your wife need
to be airlifted out of the country due to medical complications
during pregnancy, for example, it can actually have an
effect on the school director’s profit-share or bonus.
Or, it could mean that the recruitment team will need to
spend less at their next job fair – flying coach
or sharing hotel rooms. The bottom line is that breaking
a contract will have consequences for both sides. The way
that directors lessen the chances of teachers breaking
their contracts is to lay out the horrible consequences
that will befall them if they walk out: “You will
be drummed out of the regiment by the recruiting agency!” What
have they got to lose by scaring teachers in this way?
When teachers break their contracts, school heads get mad,
and then they get even. It’s the way it works. You
should keep this in mind when you decide whether or not
to leave. Do
what you can to break your contract in a responsible manner.
You don’t have to leave a mess in your apartment
and a stack of unpaid bills. Be willing to work out a fair
settlement.
Dr. Spilchuk, does the recruiter who wrote to you
really expect us to believe that a school head will give
you the
names of teachers you can contact who will give you an
honest assessment of the school? Most currently employed
teachers would not be reckless enough to tell a potential
recruit that the school head is incompetent, that he’s
been accused of stealing funds, or that teachers are afraid
of him. Administrators will give you the names of teachers
who they can count on for favorable reviews. One director
convinced me to write up a nice article defending the school
against negative reviews. I was also invited to speak out
in defense of the school at public meetings. I had seen
colleagues lose their jobs for voicing their complaints,
and I thought that that it would be in my best interests
to be a positive voice. Currently employed teachers are
not the best source for an honest review.
Dr. Spilchuk, I am sure that you will hear from lots of
teachers who were not able to get any help from the recruiting
agency in dealing with their schools. The recruiter
states that the agency invariably is able to bring about
a reasonable
solution. Reasonable to whom? What if the agency has just
contracted with the school to do an administrative search
for a new school head? If that is the case, then it is
indeed reasonable for the agency to tell the teacher, “We
are sorry, but you are going to have to suck it this time.” Who
is the agency going to drum out of the regiment --the school
that pays their fees or a teacher claiming to be unhappy
with his placement? The recruiter writes that teachers
who are treated unfairly are always supported by the agency.
It is convenient to have a few clear cases of abusive schools
and say that they were drummed out of the regiment. In
most cases, however, those schools were probably not looking
like lucrative clients anyway.
This does not address the more frequent cases where schools
are just jerking the teacher around in a way that cannot
be proved to a school board. Furthermore, most international
schools do not have boards with any authority over teacher
hiring, firing, or discipline. The fact that they look
less favorably upon administrators than upon teachers does
not mean that they can mediate a conflict effectively.
In fact, the board’s agenda will more likely be to
retaliate against the school head for some other issue
having nothing to do with the teacher. The situation will
go from bad to worse if the teacher tries to hitch a ride
on the board’s agenda.
With regard to the “black listing” of
candidates, the recruiter accuses teachers of paranoia and
introduces the euphemism “drum out of the regiment.” This
is charming, but silly. It’s the same thing. Maybe
the recruiters do not publicly announce that, “So
and so has been put on the black list,” or, “So
and so has been drummed out of the regiment,” but
the effect is the same. Teachers: If a school head or a
recruiting agency gets word that there was a conflict involving
you, and that you did not suck it up, you can find yourself
unable to get a phone call returned, much less a job. The
sound of your phone not ringing is the same sound as the
thief fleeing through the night whist no man pursueth.
My last word is about your web site, ISR. The
recruiter lashes out at the anonymity afforded the teachers
who post.
This recruiter must be a senior citizen who has not accepted
that the Internet has changed the world forever. We are
all in this business together, and feelings are going to
get hurt. Lies will be told, careers will be harmed and
reputations will be sullied. Still, getting a heads-up
that a school is especially bad helps us do our homework
before deciding to sign a contract. Teachers may be swayed
less by the bile they read on ISR than by the number of
complaints or the lack of supportive assessments. We all
know that people can be cruel and take cheap shots. Lord
knows, teachers have all had their share of swipes from
principals, parents, colleagues, school board members,
politicians, angry students, and recruiters. Teachers know
they have to take what they read with a grain of salt.
Even teachers who are new to the international teaching
world are capable of this.
Some teachers have gone through
college with MySpace and Facebook and all
manner of ways to trash each other online. It’s a
wonder any of us has any friends left! As long as a school
or an agency has acted responsibly, they should have nothing
to fear from anonymous reviews. Remember that most references
required by recruiting agencies must be given confidentially.
Candidates are not able to see what is written of them
much less reply publicly. If agencies really do not want
to give anyone a chance to take cheap shots or carry out
a vendetta, then they would change this requirement promptly.
Thank you for the chance to respond.
Signed,
Teacher
**********
Dear Teacher,
Thank you for your candid response. You have written
an excellent letter detailing many situations that
prospective international teaching should consider.
The more ISR hears from knowledgeable teachers
like yourself, teachers who are/have been in the
field and who have had wide experience, the better
we are able to serve others by sharing your letters
of warning and advice.
I agree with
you that a teacher should not go mid-year to a
Director to indicate unhappiness.
Doing so is likely to set in motion a situation
that cannot be reversed at a later date. I also
agree that every international teacher should have
an exit plan and enough cash to carry through with
a quick exit. There are many reasons for doing
so including sad news from home. And finally, I
certainly agree with you that in the end, it is
best to rely on your own good sense and planning.
A recruiter will not extricate you from a bad situation.
You must do that yourself while minimizing the
damage to your own reputation.
Thanks so much
for sharing,
Barbara
__________
Dear Dr. Spilchuk
Absolutely!!
Thank you for supporting teachers. Shame on these
administrators that use teachers' morals to guilt
them into fulfilling bad contracts from bad schools.
Slavery ended some time ago. No one has to stay
in any job they don't want to. PERIOD! Regardless
of the reason. Most International Administrators
do what they want without recourse. International
Teachers have no union or anyone for that matter
that can or will protect them from these scum bags
who, if they tried this in the US would have been
drummed out of the business long ago.
Thank you for your support,
A Supporter
**********
Dear Supporter
You are most welcome. It is the very least that
we can all do to insure that international teachers
are protected in their contractual issues.
Take care and fair winds
Barbara
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