Hi all I just wanted to ask the teachers out there a question regarding some of the ethics that people may run into at their place of work. Very recently I had sat down with some people who have worked both in china and in western countries. The topic was when an employer can call you on your cell phone for work related issues. You see in my country the USA it is common courtesy to not call anyone over the weekend at all. For people who do this it is commonly considered a breach of privacy. Also even on weekdays it is usually courteous to not call after 6:00pm. The exceptions of course would be people who work during the nighttime, IT/technicians who are in charge of administering databases(and even then they have a right to refuse to pick up it it's NOT their shift), and also emergency workers (Emergency Medical Personnel for example). This is my limited scope of knowledge on this topic.

However in china i have heard that it is common for people who work in business to keep their cell phones on 24/7 since it is supposedly in the contract. People who refuse to comply would not be employed by their boss. Does this apply to foreign teachers as well? Has there been a set protocol between teachers and their said employers to respect the cultural boundaries? I personally remember a creepy incident from when I was working at a public univerisity from a FAO guy asking me to organize a "foreigners specific" gathering near the university lake to collect money for charity or "charity"(who knows what they were going to do with the cash) from all of the expats at the university, this gentleman called me well after 8:00 pm. This is just one personal example.

Are chinese employers knowledgeable of this preference to not contact foreigners? Maybe people can give some stories for all of us to share.