I recently interviewed with an international school whose job posting I saw on the ISS website, but I myself am not registered with ISS. I agreed to the job and signed a letter of intent with the school.
After a few weeks, I received the employee information package and contracts in the mail, and began reading. It turns out there are very restrictive terms and conditions regarding living in the country and gaining residency for tax break purposes, etc.
I was not told any of this during the interview. In fact, it was glossed over as not a big deal. I now feel that I made a very uninformed decision when I signed the letter of intent, and I just wrote to the school to tell them I could no longer accept a position with them for that reason.
Now my question is this: Will there be any reprocussions if I try to join ISS in the future? Can the school report me if I am not registered with ISS? If they do, will ISS refuse to support me in the future?
Consequences???
-
guest33
ISS and You
It's difficult to say what will happen. ISS seems to have a habit of blasting teachers that do not honor their contract and some schools have a habit of readily reporting teachers that do not honor their contract even if the contract in question is not the one agreed upon at the interview. ISS is in the business of placing teachers and seems to have little interest in weather or not your placement is good or bad. Remember they are a non-profit which means, in their case, that they are not profits or nice people.
How were you able to access their web site and look at jobs if you are not a member? It does seem unlikely you could be blackballed if you are not a member but you never know. You might try waiting a few weeks and try to join and see what happens. There was an article on this site some time ago called signed, sealed and legal in which a couple shows up the first day of school to find the school wants them to sign a new contract that is not to their advantage. The couple refuse and is blackballed by ISS whcih sides with the school. You can check it out at
http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... sealed.htm
Good luck!!!
How were you able to access their web site and look at jobs if you are not a member? It does seem unlikely you could be blackballed if you are not a member but you never know. You might try waiting a few weeks and try to join and see what happens. There was an article on this site some time ago called signed, sealed and legal in which a couple shows up the first day of school to find the school wants them to sign a new contract that is not to their advantage. The couple refuse and is blackballed by ISS whcih sides with the school. You can check it out at
http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... sealed.htm
Good luck!!!
-
maria
-
Jody
Honesty
To be honest- don?t be honest. Best thing is , sorry to say, lie -tell the school that you can not honor the contract or letter of intent because there is a health or family problem and you are so devastated etc..- they may still report this , but if you tell them you will not come because they lied to you- then they will most likely blame you and try to smear you? What a business. I have been in international schools for nearly 20 years and I can assure you they are generally not the place to preach integrity and morals cause believe me ISS, SEARCH and many school directors would drop you and screw you in a minute if it is in their best ,or vested, interest, also I know a number of directors that have agreed to one job only to drop out when a better one came along- like a lot of corporate executives, and I should state that two of these directors are well know in the ISS circuit.
-
eyesopen
honesty in contracts
I wish I didn't agree with Jody on her recommendation to combat lies with lies, but I do. After over 20 years of teaching and no problems with contracts, either stateside or overseas, I landed in a school where the oral explanation of the vague terms in the contract did not match the reality. Knowing the school had once been a generous employer, explanations were accepted, only to find upon arrival that things were far, far different. Still, I honored the contract and returned the second year - stupid, stupid me. Yes, I can move on with a recommendation - but I was cheated out of so much that the bitter feelings make me realize it just wasn't worth it.
Advice to those looking over contracts? Verify everything - in fact, if the school doesn't spell it out, if you have to verify things - run, don't walk. There's a reason school administrators are vague, and it's because the truth wouldn't serve as a very effective recruiting tool.
There many good schools and honest administrators; no need to stick out something that dehumanizes you.
Advice to those looking over contracts? Verify everything - in fact, if the school doesn't spell it out, if you have to verify things - run, don't walk. There's a reason school administrators are vague, and it's because the truth wouldn't serve as a very effective recruiting tool.
There many good schools and honest administrators; no need to stick out something that dehumanizes you.
-
Teache me
You're right
I just recently saw an example of the above. One of the teachers at my school devcided to leave at the end of this school year and not complete his second year. He wanted to give the board plenty of time to find a new teacher and so he went to the director with the word that he would need to leave at the end of the year. He was then cheated out of two months pay, bonus and black balled every where. Feeling totally abused he left for the States one morning and just vanished.
Interesting thing is that the director of this school went to the ISS fair this year to hire teachers and was offered and took a new job herself, broke her contract and is leaving to be the principal at another school. Yes, be sure not to tell the truth and for sure forget about acting in what you consider to be a responsible manner. The system is set up to punish those that do. And, if you feel you are leaving because the school has treated you unjust, be sure to keep that to your self as ISS will slam you for this. Better to say you need a kidney transplant.
This is the unfortunate reality of some international schools. It's like the golden rule as adapted to overseas teaching which is: those with the gold make all the rules and us teachers.....well you know.
Interesting thing is that the director of this school went to the ISS fair this year to hire teachers and was offered and took a new job herself, broke her contract and is leaving to be the principal at another school. Yes, be sure not to tell the truth and for sure forget about acting in what you consider to be a responsible manner. The system is set up to punish those that do. And, if you feel you are leaving because the school has treated you unjust, be sure to keep that to your self as ISS will slam you for this. Better to say you need a kidney transplant.
This is the unfortunate reality of some international schools. It's like the golden rule as adapted to overseas teaching which is: those with the gold make all the rules and us teachers.....well you know.
-
Guest
Re: You're right
Why can't you tell us which school this happened at, and the name of the director? That is the type of information we need!
Teache me wrote:I just recently saw an example of the above. One of the teachers at my school devcided to leave at the end of this school year and not complete his second year. He wanted to give the board plenty of time to find a new teacher and so he went to the director with the word that he would need to leave at the end of the year. He was then cheated out of two months pay, bonus and black balled every where. Feeling totally abused he left for the States one morning and just vanished.
Interesting thing is that the director of this school went to the ISS fair this year to hire teachers and was offered and took a new job herself, broke her contract and is leaving to be the principal at another school. Yes, be sure not to tell the truth and for sure forget about acting in what you consider to be a responsible manner. The system is set up to punish those that do. And, if you feel you are leaving because the school has treated you unjust, be sure to keep that to your self as ISS will slam you for this. Better to say you need a kidney transplant.
This is the unfortunate reality of some international schools. It's like the golden rule as adapted to overseas teaching which is: those with the gold make all the rules and us teachers.....well you know.