A sustainable, low pressure gig
Pros
I moved to this job from being a classroom teacher as my last employer didn't pay my wages for four months. English Online constituted more stable employment, a better rate of pay and the end of unpaid work (marking exams, lesson planning, data entry). It took 6-8 months to feel really comfortable with it, but since then I've felt very comfortable in the online classroom. The pattern of teaching for 40-45 minutes and having the rest of the hour to complete an evaluation form is sustainable. Other online platforms offer much shorter breaks, and the accumulated stress takes its toll eventually, even if they pay a bit better. I am able to develop good relationships with one-on-one students, sometimes up to 100 classes over more than a year. It is difficult to get that kind of student loyalty working as an independent teacher. Teachers are paid via Payoneer, which works well. I am able to send money to my bank account in my home country or the country where I live. Payoneer seems to charge for currency exchange but not for a simple transaction in USD. It may be a good idea to set up your own Payoneer account before you add English Live as a payee, in order to have the full range of payment options. A few times, I have tried to move to other platforms and it didn't work out. English Live has allowed me to return to my old job on each occasion.
Cons
Online teaching is not quite as much fun as working in a real classroom. Punishments, such as a reduction in scheduling priority, for breaking the rules e.g. deleting schedules so you can do better paid work for another company, are administered silently. You are not notified of specifically what you did wrong, how much you are being punished or for how long. Responses via Contact Us are often disinterested and occasionally quite rude. The variable pay day from the 16th to the 25th of month is pretty unbearable. Some online platforms are able to pay on the 15th every month. Others pay weekly. The evaluation system means that anything less than a five-star evaluation or no evaluation is bad news. A bad tempered student can smash your evaluation average with one hit, without having to explain themselves.
