Here is a copy of a letter we sent to our ex-bosses after we left (ENLI school ---Shawn and Lily)

He is a Canadian who uses his status as a foreigner to attract other foreigners to his school.

Hello,

After much discussion and soul-searching, we decided to write to you to let you know our reasons for leaving the way we did (fly-by-night). After hearing many rumors and stories (some we KNOW to be true), we decided to only mention the points that are directly related to our experiences.

1. Promises that were made but not kept. When we had our interview before we came to Teda, we were told:

Hours:that you had plenty of hours and needed many teachers; we were guaranteed approximately 25 hours a week ( average to be calculated over a year, not counting the summer and winter breaks)...neither one of us worked anywhere near close to that

Salary: that we could expect to make between 9500 and 10500 RMB a month net. Both of us made that ONCE.

Choice of types of teaching: that you had hours in kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and businesses. We were told that we could make a choice: in actuality, you don't have enough contracts with any of these schools and/or businesses to allow us to choose.

Days off: that we would have between 2 and 3 days off a week and would be able to travel around. Both of us worked 6 days a week during the first term without doing an acceptable amount of hours while leaving us no time to go anywhere.

So, in effect, you never respected your own contract. And then, would talk to us about our contractual obligations, which we always respected and followed.

2. The good cop/bad cop management style.

Shawn makes many promises which are never delivered. When we remind him of these, they become a "Lily question" which means that they will not be kept.

ALL of these points amount to an unacceptable level of CONTROL exercised by you upon your teachers.

In the few months that we were part of your organization, we saw many of your employees (both foreign and Chinese) leave, pretty much for the same reasons: roughly, bad management and low income. We later came to the conclusion
that this is your regular strategy.

Very honestly, we still haven't figured out what this strategy is all about. We built up some 'guanxi' in order to check out whether or not our names had been used by you for the purpose of importing cars, as you kept our Foreign Expert booklets in your office (according to our lawyers, this booklet should be in our hands at all times because it is the document we should show Chinese authorities when asked). *****

Constantly bringing new teachers in to then push them out; is that good management? Of course, you don't pay any of the related costs (travel, visa...) and you either fine the teachers who leave you 'according to the contract' or you keep the salary that the 'flying-by-night' teachers leave behind (approximately 6000 RMB in our case).

Are the peanuts you make this way worth the reputation of 'human traffikers' you are building for yourselves?

Shawn like to say that he is a 'team-player', so are we. This is why we started networking the very first minute we moved into TEDA. We don't want to mention any names, as we are writing in ours, but we met other teachers who have been treated much worse than we have. Gossiping (networking) is an age-old way for the employees to protect themselves against bad employers. The fact that Shawn gossips about one teacher to another is bad practice.

In trying to use the old strategy of 'divide to conquer', Shawn is shooting ENLI in the foot. The reason is that, in ENLI's case, the solidarity created among the employees is much stronger than Shawn's gossip because of the situation shared by most of the employees, which is miserable.

Best regards,

Eugenette and Bert

****** For the employees who have already received 365 days on different visas; you may be allowed to import a car without paying taxes. For this purpose you need your documents (Foreing Expert Booklet), this is why we suspected ENLI of wrong-doing as they keep it in their possession, when it should be in yours. Be aware!

P.S. If anyone wants to react to this, please feel free to send us an email...and/or pass it on to others you know of who may not have received it.