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Job hunting really bites. As you may know I work several jobs teaching online students from all over the world. Some of my gigs are private ESL positions and some are teaching online classes in regular public schools. Depending on who I work for or where I work the pay varies wildly.
We’ve done ok for the last year or so since I started freelancing as a teacher. I’ve had lots of time for my kids and wife, and lots of time to write and try to figure some stuff out. Overall it’s been a very rewarding year, not in money, but in life style.
I’ve even managed to quiet the puppet voices demanding I get a real job. That is quiet them until three weeks ago.
One of the companies I work for announced that there’d be a change in how they pay teachers. As an online ESL instructor I teach in an industry which generates trillions of dollars annually, worldwide. The company I teach for is one of the industry leaders, and while they pay little, they seem to look out for their employees. So I figured that we were getting a pay raise, a raise that would pay closer to the top end for teachers instead of the bottom. Somehow I was willing to give a corporation a minute of optimism.
They made their announcement at a huge ceremony, with a reception and all. Our pay raise didn’t happen, instead they fired all of their salaried teachers. Of course they didn’t call it firing us, they called it a change in the pay system.
Let’s be real and call it what it is, a mass firing.
We no longer have guaranteed salaries, but we can still work as many hours as we want, up to 4o a week( they don’t want to pay any overtime), even keep our current clients, but we can’t have any benefits.
No vacation days, no sick leave, no holidays off, nothing. We can keep our health insurance, if we can afford it, but honestly few teachers could afford it in the first place.
Of course it’s up to us to stay or not, and that’s why I’m job hunting. It’s also their right to set the wage however they want, it’s just shitty they did it right before the holidays. Even shittier that those of us who need to are having to look for teaching gigs in the middle of the school year.
It’s even shittier that they, the company, are making millions a year, and getting tons of tax incentives to hire teachers, and now are paying us even less than when we started.
But you know, I don’t fault the company for doing it. Legally they can and the workers can’t do anything about it, other than job hunt. Until people start holding companies accountable for their actions, we’ll see things like this more often.
Welcome to the adjunct nation, and happy holidays.
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I feel your pain.
This happened to me at the Uni I taught at – they would only hire folks with doctorates – the rest of us were adjunct – and they wouldn’t give us a semester “head’s up” if our class would or would not be offered. Student’s not signing up is one thing…
“Until people start holding companies accountable for their actions, we’ll see things like this more often.”
…and this is why trickle down economics does not work in our culture – accountability, personal or professional is not a value most teach their children let alone feel towards others.
I left adjuncting college for the stability of secondary ed. My mistake.