Recently a Michael Hughes has been trying to recruit staff for an ESL training project in Malaysia. Applicants should be aware the following.

A. Medical insurance is not free as claimed in the advert, actually it is deducted from your pay and is expensive. Evenmore so if you bring family.

B. At least up to half of the offered yearly bonus is taken by the tax office, making the amount as an incentive pointless. Confusingly different staff have different amonunts taken away from them by the tax office, the tax system is not uniform.

C. The claimed amount for tax might in some instances be 12% for some. The Malaysian tax office takes more than double 12% for the first six months under the claim you are not resident in Malaysia -eventhough you have a residence and work visa. They choose to view you as not resident. The office claims to return the amount of extra tax taken from you for six months but the method of return is vague, difficult to track and the returned amount seems different for all staff.

D. .The project manager has a team of managers in place that were personal friends of his prior to the training project. Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy.

Cronyism exists when the appointer and the beneficiary are in social contact; often, the appointer is inadequate to hold his or her own job or position of authority, and for this reason the appointer appoints individuals who will not try to weaken him or her, or express views contrary to those of the appointer

E. The project manager is subject to much debate on this web site under the heading - You wouldnt believe it. https://www.eslteachersunited.org/unitedforum/ the same debate happened on daves ESL website but was closed down.

F. It is questionable and discussed among existing staff as to is the project manager appropriate or actually dooming the project through his inappropriate lack of management ability? Do your homework and decide for yourself.

G. Please be careful, adverts for jobs can promise anything but reality can be very different once you are in place. Allowances offered are uniform, if you are placed in for example Kuala Lumpur, Penang, you allowances are meaningless.

H. Malaysia is a nice enough country, but please do your homework before applying for the job. Check out the tax system. Check out the crime levels regarding robbery, rape and murder, you can do this by trawling through the English language newspaper The Star, online. Check the real cost of living it really is important that you do not arrive expecting a country that is cheap to live in. Check out the driving in Malaysia, it is incredibly dangerous, common sense or safe driving simply does not exist. Check out the laws appiled by internet companies towards foreigners for home broadband, TV, a home phone, usually around 1,000 ringet but free to locals.

Malaysia like any country has good and bad points, if the bad points outnumber the good then trust your instincts, or you might feel the good points are enough.

Do your homework very carefully and then you can decide.