-As mentioned earlier, we were given a temporary apartment for 3 months until we were told to find our own place. However, when i was advertised this, I was told that we would be provided an apartment, or we had the choice to look for our own. When I arrived, I was told we could only stay there for 3 months. This would be fine, but EF shouldn't lie to us about this.
-There is a discrimination of the teachers based on there colour and background. If you are white, and have 'foreign features', then you will be peraded around almost like a circus animal. A lot of life clubs and events were given only to white teachers, regardless of their experience.
-We have 13 days 'annual leave' in our contracts over the 15 months, for holdays and breaks. This isn't bad, we are essentialy told when we can and can't use this. I had applied for multiple annual leaves, only to be told I couldn't go.
-The pay is very poor compared to other ESL companies, it's about 1/2 or 1/3 of what most ESL companies will pay.
-There is a massive discrimination between Chinese and foreign staff. I mentioned that the pay is low, but the chinese staff are paid about 1/2 of what the foreign staff are paid. Also, in the first contract, which lasts 15 months, local teachers are allowed no annual leave. If they sign a new contract, then they are allowed 5 days of annual leave for 15 months.
-The lessons were primarily in the evening, and on the weekend. These times made it hard to socialize and go to different events.
-Although the teaching hours are relatively low, there is so much admin to complete that the actual working hours are really high. Lesson planning, preperation, test marking and other admin meant that most weeks I would work over 45, sometimes over 50 hours.
-The summer course and winter courses is a really difficult time. We would have our summer course lessons in the mornings, then our regular classes in the evenings. We were told we could relax during this time, however, the lesson planning is compulsory, so between these lessons, teachers would do lesson planning and preperation. This meant that during summer courses, we would work often 12+ hours-a-day.
-EF were very focused on the cleanliness and presentation of the schools, but never seemed to take much interest in the teaching conditions. When I moved to the center, I was told the AC had some problems and would be fixed soon. During the 15 months I worked there, the most they did was to buy very very cheap fans for the classrooms, which did nothing. Temperatures in the classrooms would often get 30C+, and sometimes I even had to run to the bathroom to vomit during classes because of heat exhaustion. I mentioned this often to management, but the most that was done about this was buying those extremely cheap fans, which did nothing.
-The teaching resources we had were poor. There were two primary websites we used, one for taking attendance, test results, etc., and one for storing teaching materials needed for the lessons. Both of these were almost always crashing, or not working. I was told when I arrived that these websites were new, and may have a few problems to start with. In all my time there, I felt nothing was done to fix these issues. We had very little to use in our lessons, pretty much some balls and a couple of stuffed toys.
-We made to sit through various compulsory trainings. These trainings were nearly always pointless and a waste of time.
-EF seemed to act more like a business than a school. They often seemed to prioritize the parents often ridiculous demands than the treatment of the employees. Often the management would do nothing to stick up for their employees. I heard that a parent made a complaint because a teacher stepped on a flashcard during a lesson, and the teacher was then given a warning because of this. I also heard one parent yelling at a PA, making her cry, but no action was taken against him.
-Like many people have said, EF makes it very difficult to find a new job if you leave their employment. For example, EF wont give you a reference if you leave before two years (the standard contract is 15 months). Also, EF will refuse to transfer your visa to another company if you want to work for a different company in China.
-Whilst the majority of students were amazing, there were some exceptions. For new students, most sign up after going to a 'demo lesson'. In these demos, I've seen some students push other kids, push over chairs, run a round the school, only to hear that they later sign up. These students are a risk to other children and shouldn't be allowed to sign up if they have these behavioural tendencies. Also, I've had lessons with students who had been violent, punching, kicking, pushing other students and continuously interrupting. In these cases, these students should not be allowed to carry on to the next level, but they let them. The teachers have very little they can do about their behaviour. We had a three tier, yellow, amber, red warning system, where if they were given the final red warning, they would fail the course. However, almost always the PA would be unwilling to give these warnings to parents, so the warnings wouldn't be processed.
