Once again, another poster who is speaking garbage. Sometimes people really are sick, and sometimes there are valid reasons why people are late. When I worked at universities I was often five to ten minutes late, however sometimes I was ten minutes early and started the class early. Often all the students were not on time anyway. Nobody cared, because they knew every semester I would come back from Australia and show up. What people want is long-term reliability, not nitpicking because a teacher is late or sick sometimes.

You must also remember that older teachers, 40 plus, are in Asia to have an easier life We don't want pressure, tight deadlines, stress, worry, and all that crap from back home. You must also remember that teaching in China is peanut money ( you do remember don't you? ) Therefore, there is no way I'm going bust my gut to try and make some greedy training school owner rich, ditto for any private university. It makes no difference if the FT is wealthy or not wealthy. For 5000 rmb a month I'll do 16 classes a week, free apartment, I get paid on time each month, no EC's, meetings, "coffee time" or any of that Chinese school bullshit.

And despite what you say, bad schools need to be trashed online and in their home cities in a big way, regardless of who is working there.

Well said... Getting sick is not something that is wrong, providing that it is not self-inflicted. Those who are new to China, will often get sick quite easily as their immune systems need to adapt. When I first came to China, I actually got so sick at one point, with what I could only describe as the worst cold that I've ever had, that not only was off work for more than two weeks, I tried to return to work 3 times only to get sent home (Thankfully, the people there were actually quite sympathetic and nice about it!).

Not every foreign teacher is 'throwing a sickie', some of us feel that we would be letting people down, if we can't turn up to work. However, there is a point where you must rest at home, in order to aid recovery, take medicine (which may render you unable to actually do work in some cases) or avoid spreading a contagious disease such as rather nasty flu or something. Hell, when I had a part-time in a supermarket at 16, even though I worked on the clothing department rather than any department which actually stocked food, but because it was a store that sold food, the rules were quite simple... If you've got a dodgy stomach, you need to call in sick because you are a hygiene risk! Heavy handed, but there's a reason for that.

As for being late... Sorry, but I'm a bit fanatical about punctuality, it is a hangover from earlier times. I guess if you doing your job well Silverboy, I would have no right to criticize you there, I can only speak for myself. Also, I think one has to bear in mind that shit happens... Traffic jams, having to take kids to the school/doctors, etc.

However when it comes to sloppy lateness, there is no need to do something ridiculous like fine a teacher 400RMB or whatever (which can just demotivate someone), when a quiet word and a bit of advice from a superior would do a far better job of preventing it from happening again. Sometimes, all you need to do to prevent lateness amongst the younger employees is sit them down, invite them for a coffee and a cigarette and explain the importance of punctuality. Even amongst young Chinese lads, I find this approach to be far more successful, I don't even bother getting the disciplinary forms out, usually just a quick talk with them is enough. There's no need to even get angry about it.

Sure, fining people for being late is Chinese culture and what not, but... All the wumaos out there, answer this one: "Why do no foreign companies seek to copy Chinese management methods, yet many foreign companies seek to copy Japanese methods like Kaizen or J.I.T?”

The answer for all the wumaos out there, is that as much you may all hate Japan, Chinese business management methods are shit and useless in comparison. Therefore nobody has a reason to respect the shittier parts of Chinese culture, because apart from the slave-driving (which worked wonderful elsewhere, albeit hundreds of years ago), it does not actually get shit done.