Prior to my resignation in June this year I had been teaching for 6 months at WSE in Ankara. I have more than 6 years of international experience and for me WSE in Turkey is the only negative experience so far: a dishonest, uncaring and exploitive company (as it is more of a business enterprise than a language institution, I will refer at it as such). I do not know if the responsibility lies with the Head Quarter in Istanbul or the management in WSE Kizilay, Ankara, but I guess if the company is interested, they will find the responsible one(s).

Problems: according to the contract I signed I was supposed to get work permit and health insurance, as the Turkish law requires it. After quite a lot of asking and pushing I finally received my work permit after 4 months, which is around 2 months more than the avarage time it usually takes. Other colleaugues are still waiting, or have been waiting for almost a year - we suspect, WSE has not even started the process yet.. I emailed the Head Office in Istanbul several times asking why the process took so long and asking about the exact times of the applications (I have also written a mail in Turkish and posted it with recorded delivery, so as to make it official), but I have not received any significant replies yet.

So, after 4 months I got the work permit but my Health Insurance (SGK - very very important in Turkey!) has not been paid. WSE gave me several excuses just like they usually did with other colleagues: paid but not activated / it can not be paid yet as they need to wait for some papers / they will pay later etc. Finally I called the SGK myself, then called again with a Turkish lawyer who is my friend, just to make sure I understood correctly: the thing is WSE did indeed not pay any contribution at all, even though they had the obligation of paying the insurance in maximum 1 month + 1 week after I started (I also warned them to do it otherwise I will report them). As they did not do so, I actually reported them at SGK, and hopefully very soon they will pay a large fine, and will learn it for the future not to lie and to do things according to law with all their employees.

Salary: the salary was 2200tl plus 300 housing allowance but every single month I got less than what was in the contract. I had to check my salary each time, then complain, and only then I got the full amount a few days later, with no apology or explanation given. (The way they were paying me is also dodgy, there is no company name anywhere only the names of sometimes different individuals making the transactions, and sometimes in 2 installments - possibly for avoiding paying some taxes, just like they did with SGK).

Now what got me writing this post is just the last drop: they are refusing paying my last salary, with the pretext of me having to sign a `resignation paper` first! As they know I left Turkey this is just a bullshit reason in order to avoid paying me. I always did everything 100% according to our agreements, even my resignation, so not paying my salary just makes them nothing else but thieves. I gave my notice more than 1 month ago, it was acknowledged, accepted, I worked till the last day so there is nothing else they can expect from my side.

Apart from the above, what pisses me off is the way they treat their Turkish staff too, not only the native teachers (but it is not my place to complain in other`s name, they must do it).

The way I treat people (employees and colleagues are no different) is respect, trust and fairness, unless they deliberetly do something to lose them. And I am expecting exactly the same attitude. WSE in Turkey has completely lost both my respect and my trust, so from now on I do not care what happens with them, hopefully they will get a huge fine and possibly their licence suspended or revoked (I will report them to the WSE International Office in Barcelona or in Baltimore).

** If anyone has complaints, this is one of the places to write to:
Wall Street English International
Attn: Manager, Marketing Communications
One South Street, Suite 1100
Baltimore, MD 21202
contact@wallstreetenglish.com

ps. So if you still decide to work with them, just be very very careful, get a copy of the contract and push them with everything they are supposed to do. If they don`t do it, report them so they don`t have the chance to use other people.