The Firing of Wendy

I did not talk about Wendy getting fired after it happened despite being asked questions about it by several people. Many people don’t know or don’t care why she was fired. I mean she was fired, she must have been a bad teacher right? That is the furthest thing from the truth. I mentioned Wendy in my own resignation letter because what happened to her changed how I viewed the school.

She taught history to middle school students including Chinese History. For some reason the class she took over was behind the other classes (I don’t know why) and there was a problem with getting the students caught up for the mid-term. The entire department she was in consisted of Chinese teachers including her supervisor. Information was not given to her until late in the term about the issue with the curriculum, which caused problems with the mid-term. Because the students were not given the material, they did not do well on the mid-term. What happened next? The parents complained. Of course this must have been Wendy’s fault because she was suppose to read the mind of her supervisor who was too lazy to communicate the problem. Instead at the meetings she attended the Chinese teachers made no attempt to include or communicate with her.

Huijia was told what happened, but by that time it was too late. The higher ups had already decided to fire Wendy. My guess is given the choice between believing a Chinese teacher and Wendy, they chose their own.

Wendy was a gifted and talented teacher who was kind. Thankfully she moved on to bigger and better things, but seeing her treated like garbage was an eye-opener.

Contract Violations

When you sign a contract with a company it is an agreement that neither side should break. Unfortunately for teachers working at Huijia, that is a one sided deal. I started at the school in August and since my visa paperwork had not been finished, I could not get a bank account. The school had to pay myself and other new teachers in cash. Now as far as I can tell, there is no cash flow problem. Huijia charges the parents of these students quite a bit of money. The problem is that the HR and Finance Departments can not coordinate the payment of teachers on the correct day. Both in September and October all of the new teachers were paid late.

Unfortunately, this was not the only issue. In the contract it states that the teachers will be reimbursed for airfare. This was a promise that was in the contract, not an option for the school. October went by and myself and others started to ask about turning in the receipts for our airfare. They were collected, but yet no payment was made. Then comes November, still nothing. Myself and others continued to ask. This is where I will share a quote from another blog about Huijia:

Reimbursement

 

Me and the other teachers have been really patient in regards to the contract because the HR team has not been honest with anybody nor have they honoured the contract but expect us to honour our end. We were supposed to be paid the first part of our plane ticket on September. Did they? Your having a laugh. Lauren (HR operative) and the others in HR would constantly ignore me about this and not only that but Hena (HR operative) would be snappy and rude. There is no point kissing their asses because you will still get nothing in return for it.

I emailed and messaged Lauren and Eric about the reimbursements and got the same response, nothing. They continued to ignore anyone who asked about this. December came and still nothing. It took Tom (our now ex-Executive Director) busting his balls to get the money released to us just a few days before Christmas vacation.

The moral of the story here is that if Huijia violates the contract, no big deal. If a teacher violates it they are fired on the spot. Hypocrisy anyone?

Huijia Are Cheaters

I am linking a blog that was made by a coworker at Huijia who was royally screwed by the school. Huijia Are Cheaters Blogspot is written by CEM, who worked at Huijia during the same time I did. He has good insight and has provided evidence of how the school treated him while he worked there. The school failed to pay him in full for his work. Take a look at what he has written and as well as some of the screen shots from WeChat.

Have Information to Share?

If you have information about Huijia feel free to send it to me and I will publish it anonymously.

Digging a bigger hole

Huijia continues to dig itself a hole by not replacing the principal/executive director and letting the power hungry Principal Zhao maintain control of the school. An international school with no foreign principal. Essentially anyone at anytime could be fired by Principal Zhao now. I hear some heads are already on the chopping block as we speak. These are good hard working teachers. At least a half dozen teachers have been let go or told their job is no longer available since November. Who is next???

We are now listed on Google.com

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

Here’s another shout out to the 80’s

Apparently there is a rumor going around that I was going to get fired from Huijia. This is of course what I have come to expect from the scum there.

Their Tongues Are Tied

So, it seems as though people’s tongues are tied at Huijia over the recent resignations (unless your name happens to be Kevin). Who is more scared the administration or the teachers? The jury seems to be out on that one at this point.

It is time that the teachers at Huijia grow some spines and actually stand up to the lying administration. That new contract isn’t coming. Now the administration is trying to screw teachers out of their airfare.

The third principal in a year has left (two fired and one quit). I find it quite interesting that an IB school that is suppose to be as prestigious as Hujia can’t keep someone in a leadership position.

How many more reasons do you people need? The ship is sinking fast. This November when the IB review takes place, a panic will set in. The school’s high rate of turnover will continue to pressure on the administration to pass the IB review and when they don’t, the school will close without the accreditation.

Who will be blamed? As the Taoist dictator Chairman Wong and Principal Zhao have stated, you will!

In the immortal words of Edward R. Murrow, “Good night, and good luck.”

Full of hot air!

From our “dear leaders” in HR:

A letter to foreign staff

Dear foreign teachers,Huijia HR team regrets that Cem is leaving. We thank him for what he has done for his students!

We are aware that there are certain issues that we could have done better. To provide better service to all staff is always our top task.

Unfairness is never intended by Huijia, but in a large organisation it can seem that way – we will do better and we apologise.

We suggest that we use a special mail address to receive your complain and suggestion. We will investigate and try to answer it in one week.

We belong to the same Huijia family. Hope we work together towards building Huijia to a wonderful place to work in and a good school that the students and their parents trust.best regards!

from Huijia HR team

Now let me explain why the person who posted this is full of hot air….

Back in the fall I wrote a letter of complaint about several things, many of which are listed in my resignation letter. I was then assured by this person that they would be looked into (I am sure my letter was round filed immediately). The point is that there is no mechanism for foreign teachers to resolve issues and that the administration doesn’t care. The Human Resources Department is a joke. I can not tell you how many times that I had to chase one of their people down to get something done. It often involved 2 to 3 trips before the issue was resolved.

Here is my letter:

Eric,

I wanted to write you to express my frustration with what happened today. There are several different things that upset me and I want to address them each.

1) The pay issue-Not only did we not get paid, but we were not notified. It was only through my pushing right before lunch that I found out. Several of the new teachers had plans for the weekend and had to cancel them. Luckily I was able to salvage mine, but it still was a major inconvenience. If HR had just been forthright and told us via email yesterday that there was a problem and maybe offered to advance everyone 1,000 Yuan it would have been different. I asked in advance so I could plan my money accordingly. This is also a violation of our contracts.

2) The issue with the paperwork and my passport-This is what I call ‘small ball’ stuff and it drives me nuts when these issues aren’t handled. First it was the staff in the office not being able to find the paperwork, then it was the question about where my passport was. I had expressed to Hena that I didn’t want to deal with Zoe. I expressed to both of you that I did not trust Zoe with any of my documents. Before my passport changed hands someone should have told me. That passport doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to the U.S. Government, but I am responsible for it. I made it very clear that I did not want to deal with Zoe anymore and yet Hena didn’t tell me this would happen until it was already arranged. I have expressed to her that I am not happy about it and I am putting in a formal complaint about this.

3) Transportation to the police station-I was suppose to be transported to the police station, however Hena stated that a car was not arranged. She has not told me the address. This was all set up for the teacher who went today, but I am being left in the lurch to try to find out what I’m suppose to be doing. This is not fair to me and will not be fair to me when I’m blamed for not arriving at the right place.

I know not all of this is your fault, but you are the only one I can communicate with through the school.

 

 

Burning Down the House

There are quite a few posts with interesting information on here, but I just wanted to say please check back often. I am not yet done. I intend to burn down the house.

If you like my blog feel free to sing the song in the halls of Huijia. Let the administration know the secret is out.