Sunday 26 September 2010

"You're lucky to have jobs!"

You can always trust 'The National' to get its facts right. The newspaper's recent reporting of the much-promised HCT cock-up regarding the transfer of teachers from UAEU's disbanded foundation courses in Al Ain to the manifold points of the HCT empire in the UAE pointed the finger firmly at the usual suspects - the college's incompetent and arrogant senior managers.

In fact, so far just three teachers have resigned, but there are many others still complaining about their worsening working conditions, and the college can only look forward to losing more teachers over the coming weeks. As the paper reports, those teachers who refused to transfer to Fujairah risked being dismissed, whereas those who did go have found themselves facing increased workloads - 50% more contact hours - and no extra pay. In other words, it's the same old HCT, dumping on its professional staff and losing a lot of goodwill in the process. Well done, TK!

According to one brave teacher speaking to The National, “we were told we are lucky to have jobs, lucky to be up here, but we don’t feel lucky”. Even worse, Dr Mark Drummond, the provost at HCT, said that such complaints were to be expected in the wake of such a big change. In other words, they knew they could rely on HCT's teachers to bear the brunt of the management's incompetence and their inability to do the job properly.

Arrogance? Incompetence? It's all part of the HCT experience for us teachers!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reports continue to flow in of the discontent at the "Dump off Defa'a Street" and reports of extremely vauable staff voting with their feet. If those idiots don't start getting a clue and stop shooting themselves in the foot, they're going to bleed to death!!!

Much like McDonald's, "i'm lovin' it" :)

Suede Oasis said...

And this has just popped up on Dave's ESL Diner...

The recent article in The National doesn't even scratch the surface of discontent within the system. It has little to do with systemic change - and lots to do with...

Incompetent senior management that couldn't get a job elsewhere if their lives depended on it. They're dinosaurs who are just there to collect a paycheck and don't want to rock the boat to actually bring about the social change that education should promote.

[...]

Being treated like a time-clock punching moron instead of a credentialed professional - 40 hour work weeks consisting of contact hours and ridiculous "busy work" created by administrators to justify their own positions.


I could NOT have put it better! But maybe one of you readers could...? All contributions are welcome - even from the Goon Squad!!

Anonymous said...

Suede, a decent slap but the wrong target. Maybe the National article isn’t very clear but the disgruntled faculty in the story are all actually UAEU faculty and are still on UAEU contracts, not HCT. Was UAEU’s decision to relocate them, change their working conditions, etc.

Anonymous said...

...the disgruntled faculty in the story are all actually UAEU faculty and are still on UAEU contracts, not HCT.

Yeah, the spontaneous "Kumbaya" refrains from the HCT staff trudging down MY hallways are often deafening! Sheesh!

There hasn't been a Kumbaya moment at the HCT since 2005...

Anonymous said...

Ah yeah, promoting social change - that's what it's all about.

But not before 10 or after 3.

Siji said...

You'd think from reading S.O.'s post that the unhappy people quoted in the newspaper story work for HCT. They don't. S.O. get your facts straight before sounding off, otherwise you just come across like an ignroant blowhard. Man, there's plenty enough to kick the HCT system about, but frankly this and your last effort at a 'scoop' have been pretty weak stuff.

[BTW, please, please assure us you were being facetious (rather than distressingly naive) when you opened your piece with, "You can always trust 'The National' to get its facts right..." Ho ho]

Suede Oasis said...

I take ypour comments seriously, Siji, so please let me respond.

Firstly, if as you say there is 'plenty to kick the HCT system about', please feel free to supply me with your personal experiences, or those of your colleagues. This blog could be so much better of more people were to contact us and relate their particular HCT nightmares.

Secondly, my limited intelligence (ahem!) informed me that the teachers involved at Fujaira were indeed HCT staff, and The National's article appears to corroborate this...

"The teachers at Fujairah’s HCT claim the bigger workloads and longer hours have them working nine hours a day – previously they were working six – with no extra pay to compensate.

“We were told we are lucky to have jobs, lucky to be up here, but we don’t feel lucky,” one teacher said."

As for us being 'distressingly naive' - well, we did fall for the HCT marketing claptrap of ... "Our departments are filled with faculty who are adventurers and modern thinkers, who seek both stability and new horizons"

Such suckers! - HCT suckers!!

Best dressed man in town said...

I see that Dr Simon Jones, leader of the 'Taffyban', makes an appearance here:

http://www.punchinthefacebook.com/punch/ebbw-dhabi/dr-simon-jones

Pay him a visit - and a smack in the face!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I see that Osimon bin Jones is one hell of a popular guy - more than 200 'hits' already!

LOL!!

Anonymous said...

Make that 300 - in less than one day!!

Way to go, Taffy boy!

Best dressed leek in town said...

Well, he's just made another appearance here...

http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Osimon-Bin-Jones/100001642582689

He's a canny little bugger, ain't he?!

Still no tie, though. What can it all be about? Maybe he's a rebel at heart?!

Suede Oasis said...

It's nice to feel your presence, my sartorially enhanced vegetable, but where's that 'scoop' you promised me on Osimon bin Jones's promised land of 'Taffghanistan'?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it's in tomorrow's ever reliable 'National' SO ;-)

Suede Oasis said...

Well, I've been looking, but it would seem that the story of 'The Ebbw Dhabi Ogre' has not been hijacked by The National. Not yet, anyway.

So maybe tomorrow, eh, my dearest Leek . . ?

Raja Karma said...

Just found these on Dave's. LOL!!!
. . .

I think I've found them! The ten most commonly-used HCT interview questions, which fell into my hands many moons ago...

• What kinds of social inadequates and retards do you like working with?
• HCT likes to criticize hard and praise infrequently. How do you feel about that?
• Have you ever felt extreme anger at work? How will you cope with that at HCT?
• Do you enjoy working with cruel and compassionless people?
• This organization is probably very different to your current employer - how do you think you are going to fit in with our repressive management system?
• How do you feel about management snooping on you and reading your e-mails?
• Give an example of when you have worked with inadequate b*st*rds like us.
• What have you failed to achieve to date, and what degree of desperation drives you to us now?
• How would you feel if you got sacked because the new boss just doesn’t like you?
• We encourage staff to grass on each other. Do you think you have the makings of a good stooge for the management?

At least, they do LOOK like HCT questions.

Perhaps other HCT veterans would like to add some of their own!