To Russia, with Love

i would like to extend a personal message of welcome to all this blog's readers in Russia, as there seems to be a good number of them these days, according to my site stats - almost 500 this week alone!

I have no idea why HCT should be such an attraction in Putin's 'democratic dictatorship', but I guess that potential employees are checking out the nitty gritty on this splendid example of educational Alice in Wonderland. Is it worth the proverbial candle (in the wind) to make the jump from the sub-zero wastes of Murmansk to the humid heat of The Gulf?

Read on and find out, Tovarisch!

KHALIFA BIN ZAYED AIR COLLEGE and Valerie McGrath

Alas, another interesting chapter in this notorious, trouble-ridden institution has been revealed; and a year or so down the line, the picture has progressed from bizarre to downright diabolical.

HCT sends in their “best” supervisor to clean up the mess left by her disgraced predecessor. Or could it be, drops her at KBZ, the dumping place for no longer wanted HCT employees, having left the company in a somewhat “strange” manner? Mrs. Hyde is clearly in the business of protecting her own position, and also wishes to escape the fate of her predecessor. She swiftly moves to get on the good side of her faculty, by doing the following:

·         Relieving teachers from teaching to perform administrative duties: Being denied the resources of the main campus, she opts to utilize teachers to perform duties that would otherwise be performed by administrative staff at HCT. In return, these teachers are given LOW or NO work hours, vastly in contrast to the 20-hour work week the contract between HCT and the military entails.

·         Assigning incompetent, weak ones to team leader duties: These are often “system rejects” who luckily got picked up in the HCT system, and will no doubt rush to her defense.

·         The weekly schedule sports huge discrepancies in hours, regardless of HCT’s clearly stipulated 20-hour weekly workload.  Mini-bosses sprout like weeds, and every brainwave is entertained, to the chagrin of the teachers who are stuck with the high teaching loads. They are now randomly summoned to meetings, workshops, and even more meetings, by these power-hungry minions, at the cost of their lesson preparation time.  

·         Incompetent and lazy teachers: More than half of the teaching faculty has not been hired by her; therefore the quality of instruction is questionable. Some, being non-renewed teachers from other campuses (i.e., dead weight picked up in the system), have reputations for trouble making to match. Her strategy to appease them, and protect her own position, is to put these half-wits in charge of the competent teachers (who are actually teaching), and a failure-proof recipe for disaster and job dissatisfaction ensues.

·         Failing to get the lack of proper dress code under control: some of the female staff is an embarrassment to the profession.  Properly dressed faculty is frequently admonished along with the culprits in polite, but clearly ineffective, emails.

·         With the looming threat of Emiratization, the new supervisor is in the precarious position of being disposable, and very likely to be replaced, as has happened recently to other hot-shots within the HCT. Absolute power corrupts, and without the watchful eye of an immediate superior, she is in the business of protecting her position. She plays the popularity card, doesn’t address serious issues as she has to keep the favor of her teachers, especially those with “trouble-making” potential. She buckles under the pressure of teachers who feel their 20-hour weekly teaching load is negotiable, relieves them, and loads their hours onto the desperate others, who would not dare to complain as they are either on probation, or awaiting contract renewal. Dishing out positions to any faculty members who might pose a problem to her, she cuts a sad and pathetic figure of desperation.

·         Allowing teachers to earn “overtime” at HCT Proper, although they had worked less than 20 hours weekly at KBZAC. Faculty load tracking sheets should reflect this clearly, although they might be “adjusted”.

·         Flagrant favoritism: Supports those who never speak up about her shortcomings, or the numerous shortcomings in her management style. Those who do speak up have their jobs sabotaged and get blocked in the system. The Iron Lady does not hesitate to use her contacts within the system to block and sabotage current jobs, or those aspiring to work at HCT. Rumor has it that applications will go as far as an actual contract being issued, until she is contacted.

It all gets too bizarre to contemplate. As is with any situation of unadulterated unfairness and unethical behaviour, the rest of the teaching faculty is disgruntled but has no forum to address their concerns. They go through the motions, but are deeply unhappy and disillusioned with their new quick fix boss. Time alone will tell how this will play out.

UPDATE: Some alarming allegations have been made against the ‘meek and friendly’ Valerie McGrath. Her cronies are certainly not rushing to her defense, in spite of her so-called high popularity.  But then again, in the Middle East you shut up if you want to hold on to your job, and don’t underestimate the power of that ill-earned overtime dough, a.k.a. ‘hush money’. 

Several reliable sources have informed us that the supervisor’s reaction to the bogus overtime claims was as follows: “the schedule is not posted on the HCT portal, so HCT has no way to check the schedules and find out the true hours.” 

Therefore, by approving bogus overtime claims, she is draining the resources of a company rumored to be millions in the red. If she is also indeed blocking applications in the system, this means that the corruption is wider, as her contacts in HR are playing along. She has ruined the livelihood of many a good teacher, and managed to hold on to the non-threatening weaker ones. This implies that the fiber of teaching faculty in the company is taking a blow.

However, she is not the only supervisor who has been known to use personal vendettas to block applications in the system; the likes of Jon Orthmann, Adam Bogg, even Maria Mcguire, (since sent packing, Alhamdillilah), have all been trigger-happy before. Clearly this woman is unscrupulous, unethical, dishonest, and abuses her power as supervisor. She may be getting away with her ill practices for now, but karma is a bitch when you are, and as the old adage goes, what goes around, surely comes around.

A Winner by Miles!

Well, the latest candidate to be added to the HCT Hall of Shame is the fine 'gentleman' pictured alongside ... Mr Rob Miles, the Head of English at HCT Sharjah!

According to my most recent intelligence report, he is an eager and willing clone of the infamous Dr ‘Evil’ Fareed. Rumor has it that he is also a very close friend of another favorite of this blog, 'Tiny' Tim Smith.

Apparently, morale hit rock bottom last semester, due to his absurd micromanaging practices, and there have been few, if any, improvements in the new year. One of his unfortunate victims has referred to him as a ‘backstabbing idiot’ – which is probably about par for most HCT Chairs and Supervisors!

Examples of his total lack of proper management skills include sending emails in capital letters (what?!?), patrolling the faculty area like a zombie security guard (get away!), sucking up to senior management (I’m SO surprised!), and generally making faculty lives a misery.

Even worse, the implementation of the IPads and Ebooks, designed to enhance the students’ learning, failed miserably as Micromanager Miles made all the decisions and did not heed the advice of the faculty, who warned him of the IPads’ limitations. As a result there was a 75% failure rate last year. 

So, welcome to these pages, Rob Miles!