Dear Jason:

Thanks for sharing your recollections of your employment with us from December 5, 2012 until March 2, 2013.

I didn’t respond to your first post out of principle.

You were just 26, and not everyone’s cut out to live and work overseas.

I, too, had it tough my first year in China in ’89.

Like you, my second teaching job was a better fit for me than my first one.

I honestly can’t remember if the second school was a better company or if I just needed
that first year to get my sea-legs.

———————

Your second post was written when you were already 30 and had already returned back to the U.K.

I remember you as a bright, happy, tall and handsome gentleman who played guitar in our band,
used his forensics computing skills to fix some computers, and hit the ground running after having been trained a bit.

Until about three weeks into your stay with us (late-December 2012), when homesickness kicked in, you told us that
someone back home got murdered during a drug deal, and you relapsed.

Your branch manager gave you paid time off to pull yourself together after you received this traumatic news.

We suggested return to the United Kingdom for a while, but you insisted on staying on with us because you said
you liked it here with us.

An eclectic, mutually-supportive teaching community, we have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding our staff’s off-the-job behavior
- as long as it neither affects the team’s on-the-job performance nor jeopardizes our legal standing here in the P.R.C.

Our greatest fear is a team-member’s bogging us all down in an alcohol and/or narcotics-related deportation or incarceration situation.

As happened to several foreign instructors at a neighboring school after you left, authorities here not only incarcerate and deport
the offender(s), but also impose draconian fines on - and place on a probationary blacklist – the hiring institution.

———————

In addition to feared potential legal liabilities, your mounting absenteeism, tardiness, mood swings and negativity affected your
colleagues’ ability to do their jobs because we had to cover for you on an almost daily basis.

We, your friends, naively tried to recover the “old you” by providing ample downtime, space and support.

Locating a full-time replacement on short notice past the hiring season is difficult in a third-tier city, so we had to bring in
part-timers and increase everyone’s workload.

———————

To clarify, we fulfilled our side of the bargain by providing you with everything we had promised you prior to your arrival.

You received an apartment in the same building as your branch, loaner clothes and jackets from your colleagues
(which were reportedly used as toilet paper they discovered when fumigating your apartment), and our local staff helped
replace your phone and belongings whenever you misplaced them.

Your salary was punctual, and you received bonuses and cash advances when your funds ran short.

Among other things, I also bought you your own personal guitar because you missed yours back home in Newport.

———————

You suggest that you were coerced to come to China.

Like hundreds of others, you responded to our online ad, and my colleagues and I showed you as many aspects of
your future life teaching with us as we could via Skype, email, photos and videos throughout the Spring of 2012.

We e-mailed our employment contract, which you read (while still in Wales), we discussed at length online,
and then you, me and our CEO - after going over it yet again - signed an identical version of, on November 29, 2012,
right after you arrived.

———————

Your Hong Kong visa run was the last straw.

In mid-January of 2013, when you were showing some signs of progress, we flew you to Hong Kong to renew your visa.

Prior to your departure, your branch manager held a foreign-teacher staff meeting to delineate each step of the
visa procurement process.

According to you, you went on a three-day alcohol and multi-substance tear in Kowloon upon arrival.

You said you lost your backpack, wallet, money, phone and air ticket.

You said you pawned your wristwatch to call us to request more money and another ticket.

We forwarded more funds and sent you a new ticket.

You said you relapsed again, spent that money and missed the second flight, too.

After you finally returned from Hong Kong, your colleagues and I agreed to assume your workload until it
was decided that you were ready to teach again.

That point never came.

Your colleagues voted you off the island.

On March 2th, 2013, you made your final tactical retreat.

We never heard from you again.

———————

You may have hit a rough patch working with us, Jason, but we’ve never stopped believing in you.

You say you're doing well right now, and we're happy for you.

However, some of us find it curious that you're still so traumatized a three-month gig years ago and,
for whatever reasons, have yet to move on.

In fact, we interpret your repetitive postings as signs you want to get back in touch with us.

If so, we’d like nothing more than meeting up one day to iron out our differences.

If I’m wrong, that’s ok, too.

Thanks for your service.

We wish you the best.

RJ