Fellow teachers, this is a message I sent to the British Council in Hong Kong.

Let me first say that this is in no way a critique of Chancery English itself, or the courses it provides. It could very well be an excellent school, with excellent working conditions. My point is about how I was treated after my interview. Judge for yourself.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you today in order to bring to your attention the poor conduct of the owner/manager of Chancery English, a private language school in Hong Kong.

Around the end of May, I had an interview with Mr. Billy Koo for the position of English teacher with his school. I believed the interview went well, and was told by Mr. Koo that if I had any further queries or questions in the days following the interview I could send him an e-mail.

Having thought of a couple of things a couple of days later, I duly sent him an e-mail. I got no response, but waited for about a week. I then sent another e-mail, to enquire as to whether he had received the original one. Still no response. I then proceeded to send some short messages via Skype – this after about two weeks having heard nothing. I noticed him come on-line (on Skype) and tried to get in touch that way (which had been the medium used for the interview). I was ignored several times.

Not wishing to jump to conclusions, I decided to ring (telephone) Chancery English from where I am in the U.K. I managed to speak to Mr. Koo, who informed me that he had ‘someone else on the other line’, and told me to call back later, which I did, after about 30 minutes. I spoke to a woman, who fobbed me off with some excuse that Mr. Koo could not speak at that time.

I have applied for several positions over the past year and have become accustomed to the fact that very few employers are polite enough to take the time to even give a simple rejection. This is wrong and poor, but what Mr. Koo did was an egregious lack of courtesy and respect to me. To hold an interview with me and fail to reply on several occasions, not to mention the fact that – to this day –, Mr. Koo has never officially informed me of the result of the interview i.e. that I had been rejected for the job. I find this utterly abhorrent, and appalling manners by an employer, and I feel that this sort of thing needs to be stamped out before it spreads any further. He – and others – must not be allowed to treat potential employees with such disdain.

I thank you in advance for any and all action that you may deem fit to take.

Yours faithfully,
(signed).