I was briefly a teacher at Eton House Times New Residence in Chengdu, China. Currently, I am having a difficult time with the Principal Carol. She is an aggressive alcoholic that has made life at school nearly impossible for me.

She originally refused to get me a work visa because she was said I was married to a Chinese man and could just work on a family visa, which is illegal.

Carol claims I am a local hire, which is not a term used for foreigners either in the contract or the employee handbook, this does not exist anywhere and it allows them to pick and choose which benefits are convenient for them.

There are currently teachers working illegally under non-working visas.

It is currently my probation period and according to the contract if I find the situation unsuitable, I may put in my resignation by giving two weeks’ notice or payment in lieu of. I have agreed to pay the money and/or work the two weeks. But they are refusing to give me a letter of release, under which I would not be able to get another job in China for 2 years. So even though I have agreed to resign properly I am still being punished.

I have emails and recordings of Carol pressuring me to sign for a local hire contract because she claims I was already in Chengdu when she offered me the contract, but I first had the interview when I was in the US and was offered the position still as a local foreign hire.

Seeing as she is holding my FEC hostage, there is nothing that I can do except to take the school to court for labor arbitration.

The HR, Sally, said even if I do everything to be released from the contract that they are not required to give me a release letter. How is this possible? Especially when I've been there only 3 weeks and the school's probation period is 2 months!

She's a racist, sexist that constantly berates staff and has had 5 teachers quit already this year alone- how is it possible for something like this to continue working? Especially if she is as everyone says 65, which means she can also not get a legal work permit herself- as the Chinese government wouldn't allow her to continue working. How is possible for the school itself to not see that she is a problem? They are losing money because she has to keep replacing people and the parents complain as well at the teacher turnover.

How is there no oversight to this? There's no one she reports to, where formal complaints can be made?

If you are indeed who you claim to be, you are exceedingly unlucky that your better half, a Chinese citizen, is working in Chengdu. There, it's very hard to land a public sector teaching job as an FT. Why? It's a very popular city among FTs. That said, it's not for me. Sichuan has two separate climates, Chengdu has the worst of them. Being a city situated on a low plain in a hot climate, the sun is often obscured for days on end by mist. Also, the air is polluted because of ongoing construction. Even if I were offered a public sector job as an FT there, I'd immediately turn it down. Maybe the attraction for many FTs is its vibrancy. Fair enough! But that's why the FT job market there is very competitive, and the salaries tend to be low, relatively speaking!