I cannot say these things even with proof
about any academy in particular. (I’ll leave that sort of big-league reporting to the major
papers though I seriously doubt that they'll even bother with
it.) In fact, I can’t ever attack any academy directly with
any hard accusations like they’re “thieves,” “liars” or such,
because I’m just a “poor” teacher like this guy and I can’t
be wasting time and money in court. (In the meantime though,
I can continue to speak in general about the sorts of things
that can and do happen to unwitting cannon fodder that flock
to Madrid annually.)
Point by point:
For starters: 10 euros is, in fact, “competitive.” In my experience
teaching in Madrid, “competitive” means pretty poor and when
an academy pays decent wages, they say so and how much (give
or take a euro or two). For example, “competitive” in the airline
industry might mean that you could be sitting between two guys,
one who’s paid twice as much as you and another who’s paid half
as much. The same has been true in academies regarding wages.
By the way, there's absolutely no good reason to accept
10 euros an hour from anyone. Companies are used to paying
from 30 to 35 euros an hour for English teachers. What is
your boss' excuse? Is your company undercutting the competition
by a huge amount? Do they have some huge expenses? Or is the
real reason that they're taking both their clients and teachers
for incredibly huge suckers? (i.e. by giving their clients
a 10-euro-an-hour totally inexperienced wet-behind-the-ears
teacher for 30-35 euros an hour.) Frankly, If you accept that
"paltry" amount, you're not only hurting yourself,
you're hurting all of your peers. At the very least you should
be getting around 15 euros an hour for a total beginner and
18 euros an hour is a better place to start. Don't waste your
time with the others unless you have some seriously weak points
on your cv.
As for the “tutorials,” I’ve never had to do one, but I think
it could be reasonable to ask teachers to do one. However, apart
from the fact that I’d never accept such low wages at this point
in my life, if they asked me to do a tutorial, I would find
greener pastures as quickly as possible. There are plenty of
better paying agencies in Madrid that won’t mis-use you in this
way. (I don’t clean windows, make beds or mop floors either,
by the way. If you want to be treated as a professional, make
them respect you from the word go. If they don’t respect you,
there’s no hope for anything better ever out of them. Also,
if you’re already accepting such low wages, it’s easy to understand
how they could disrespect you by making you do the menial labor.)
The fact that some academies don’t "look out for their
teachers" is not news to me. The business often requires
that classes be taken care of as they come in as quickly as
possible. It’s not ever neat and tidy especially when everybody
is overworked and underpaid. And, like in meat markets, you
just can’t always make the clients wait their turns patiently
in line. Sometimes they just get up and find another market.
In other words, if you’re the meat that’s closest at hand, you’re
it, lest they lose the clients.
As for personal names, there’s no way I can ever mention them.
As far as I know, they could be working stiffs just like you
and your other colleagues. Even if you told me the person mentioned
was the director and person directly responsible for everything,
I couldn’t publish it. Heck, I’ve been "robbed" by
an academy or two myself and I haven’t said who, though I’ve
said how somewhere on this site. If you can’t stand the heat,
stay out of the fire. It was burning when I got here and I don’t
guess I’ll ever make a very good fireman.
As for the site being more "truthful" or not, I think
it’s about as much so as it can get. I think plenty of information
about just how hot it can get here in Madrid is on here somewhere.
You just have to look around for it. In many cases, I totally
depend on external sources like the author of this email and
whoever gave us the information in the article it refers to
to tell the truth (or even to tell me about it in the first
place). It’s obvious people are going to lie sometimes and I
can’t always say so even when I’m sure it is so. My choice in
such cases is to publish either nothing or a half-truth, and
as the articles like the one this teacher mentions have enough
truth in them to make them worthwhile, I go ahead and publish
them as is. It’s up to you the reader to read between the lines.
Consider the above both a disclaimer and an invitation to other
teachers to send me their comments on their academies, but with
the conditions above.
Here’s the email:
Just thought I’d say that the article for (the academy) was
a little off the mark. For starters there are many qualified
experienced teachers working for 10 euros per hour. There is
no computer available for internet, though if your class is
cancelled the same day you may have to do a typing 'tutorial'
in order to get paid for the class. Other tutorials include
tidying the shelves, preparing materials for (the academy) and
photocopying books. Another point that I disagree with is that
the administration looks out for the teachers. (people) seem
to give classes to teachers out of a hat regardless of the teachers
schedule. Many classes are out of Madrid, (Pozuelo, Getafe,
Las Rosas, etc...), which pay 1 euro more an hour (is this really
competitive?). Last of all, I myself received zero support and
help. When I started I had no formal experience of in-company
classes and often when I asked one of the Administrators/Head
Teachers, the material they suggested was usually inadequate
for the level or inappropriate. This is very embarrassing for
the teachers.
Finally, I've never been more hassled by an employer than at
the end of each and every month working for (academy). Attendance
sheet hand-in time was one filled with reminder phone calls
such as 'Your sheets are due in the day after tomorrow' as if
English teachers had no sense of time when we were all acutely
aware of when the end of the month was due. With our 'competitive
salaries' we could all tell you how many days it was until we
got paid. Many teachers who left for better jobs, or who were
merely moving on, were not paid all of their wages, myself included.
The contract is amazing in the fact that it seems to offer you
no protection whatsoever. Like being self-employed except for
much poorer. I have a few ex (academy) friends who will tell
you more or less the same. I think that's it! I hope this will
help you make your site more truthful.
Yours faithfully
…
(Me again) Besides the above, I’d like to say that it’s not
unusual to have problems with "the boss" or at work
in Spain. A survey published in local newspaper 20
Minutos Madrid states that 37% of the respondents (employees
in Madrid) are assigned tasks under their rank or position (or
not in their job description). 45% feel that their bosses don’t
value their work right. Around 25% feel they are assigned impossible
tasks, ignored, and otherwise “insulted” on the job.
Many of the Spaniards who I’ve know who have worked abroad
in England, for example, were really surprised by how much better
they were treated over there. However, my personal experience
teaching in many companies is that there are big differences
between them. On one extreme, you find companies from h@ll where
you can really feel the atmosphere of terror. (Employees slinking
by their super-powerful human resources people with heads bowed
low and eyes averted. In other words, you can cut the atmosphere
with a knife.) On the other extreme, you find companies where
there’s a pretty darn good working atmosphere. (I’ve got a low-level
receptionist in one company in an expensive one-to-one class
whereas most of the harder-edged companies wouldn’t even put
her in a group class. I should point out that the same company
almost always pays me on the same day I invoice them - unusual
in companies that seem to respect me or their other employees
less. Moreover, all of the employees get along pretty well and
you can usually hear the laughter in the hallways. It’s all
connected.)
I’ve also personally known (friends and family) of cases of
“bossing” (the local term for when the boss gives you a really
hard time) and “mobbing” (the local term for when your colleagues
give you a really hard time). In fact, everyone who is part
of the community here knows of people who have been bullied
in some way in order to force them to leave the job without
their severance pay (which can go up to 20,000 euros relatively
quickly say in a period of 5-6 years). This usually isn’t a
problem with freelancers, which is one reason why so many companies
nowadays prefer this type of contract.
It’s a darn shame to see someone who’s invested 20 years of
their lives have to go through a couple of years of h@ll in
order to get the (huge) severance pay they deserve. These companies
do everything they can to force these folks out like make them
sweep out the warehouse when they used to be a supervisor. (As
far as I’m concerned, this is tantamount to extortion or robbery.)
“Bullying” (whether “mobbing,” “bossing,” or whatever) on the
job is a frequent topic in the press here in Spain. Que
Madrid had it on the front page on February 20, 2006 when
they said that 2.5 million Spaniards suffer through this problem
daily. Some of the stories in the "Que" cover story
are a bit tragic: one guy’s boss would yank on his ears and
make him wash his car, another boss forced an employee to sit
with nothing to do in a two square metre room without heating,
but with blankets. (One of my ex-students in charge of labor-relations
told me that this “ignore them and make them do nothing” method
is a really common way of forcing people out of companies.)
Also, "Que" says that many people who are bullied
are also ignored by their colleagues, which is normal considering
that their bosses will likely bully them too if they don’t ignore
the victims. Sadder still though is when their colleagues join
in on the bossing to make it a collective “mobbing.”
Now, I hope I didn’t make it sound like every company in Spain
has this “bossing” problem. Many of the companies that I’ve
worked in are about as respectful as could reasonably and rationally
be expected to be around here given their market conditions.
A good clue as to whether they might disrespect you or not is
the rates they pay and when they actually pay you every month.
I don’t want to sound as if I’m disrespecting you if you’ve
got low wages, but I do think that your company is probably
disrespecting you if yours are low, and it’s also likely that
the longer you work under these conditions, the worse it’ll
get.
P.S. Ok. So maybe you need to eat and 10 euros will
pay for your lunch. Who am I to stand between you and your lunch?
But, the least you can do is after you take the job, go out,
find another better paying one and dump those guys asap.
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The Truthful Site? - Not totally!
