Finally had enough - heading out the door! - ESL Teacher UUabc Employee Review

1.0
8 Mar 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Five word minimum here, so I guess I’d say the best thing is I can work in pajama bottoms and fuzzy slippers.

Cons

UUabc Review: I have worked for UUabc for four months and have tendered my resignation. Here are my experiences: * Mid-October 2018 - interviewed. Interviewer was very unprofessional, knew nothing of my background, typed up offer and other details as we spoke, very noisy. Contract for 6 hours a week, all they would give. All peak hours on Thursdays and Sundays. Recruiter told me these were the two best days to get classes. $22 base. Not eligible for bonuses until after one month. * Mid-December 2018 - finally started. I did complete all the training ahead of time, including STEAM, then Planet Alphabet. * January 2019 - went to “streamed” meeting with CEO, head teacher coordinator (WC-D). Promises of large numbers of students coming, design own courses, etc. Note - you do NOT get paid for the time it takes to create these lessons. * January 2019 - standby pay cut, teachers told they could reduce hours to 4 a week. * My classes - since December, I have never had a single class during my 3 peak hours on Thursdays. None. * Since December - I have not had more than 2 students on Sundays. Leaving two hours open during peak hours for three months. * Reviews - I’ve only had positive reviews from students. All positive. I had one call from UUabc in December where they said they watched a class and it was “great, just what we are looking for”. * January - invited to be an “All Star” Teacher, priority bookings, keep some standby pay after it ends for regular teachers. And yet here I am, 2 months later, no increase in bookings. I have never seen a bonus. —- pretty sure other teachers don’t know about this standby pay deal * Class issues - for the classes I have had, there have been quite a few behavior issues, primarily with older, returning students. Tech Support literally told me “LOL” during the one this past Sunday. * Some teachers are on the new platform; I am still on the old one. The ones I have done have been incredibly boring and repetitive for the students. * Facebook group - posts are HIGHLY monitored. If it evens appears as if you’re raising a question, the post either won’t be allowed or will be deleted. * An American friend of mine also worked here. Went on leave in the late fall and told them once cancer treatment was done, he’d let them know when to resume students. They approved his leave and said to let them know when ready to take students again. Guess what? He ended up being kicked out of the UUabc system and deleted from the Facebook group after receiving two warning letters for a time that he was on approved leave. They refused to respond to his messages. Pretty heartless. Bottom line: Misleading about student numbers - they just don’t have them. This is my greatest issue. Yes, they now give 12 hours notice if you won’t have students booked, but that’s too late to sign up for courses with my other companies that pay more.

Explore other reviews about UUabc

4.0
21 Feb 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pretty good salary. Friendly management.

Cons

not too many hours a week

2
2.0
18 Sept 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Pay is great compared to most of the companies out there. -I have had few issues with problematic students while working here

Cons

-Communication with the company is horrible. They have been very vague and secretive about China´s new policy, and I believe it is for fear of teachers leaving the company while we have our number of classes reduced every month. -Since I have worked here, they tell you nothing when a student leaves your schedule: No feedback, no reason for leave, no warning of their last class. You have to actually ask where your student went. -Parents have the last say on what level their son should be in, so I have had students who were massive out leveled by the units, and despite repeatedly asking them to make parents understand the importance of this, they seem to be very bad at doing so. At the same time, you get students that have a great level of English and their units are too easy, so you end up finishing the part of the unit in 10 minutes sometimes. Requests for changing the units often take a month or two to be answered. - The units are maybe the worst thing I have seen in my 12 years of teaching. They are riddled with grammatically incorrect sentences, misspellings and other amateur mishaps. They are sometimes incredibly short, or too long, and sometimes things like readings or grammar sections seem to be of a different level. -Overall, it is a mixed bag of good pay with the frustration of incompetent and uncooperative management, and the knowledge that they are conning parents with their disgraceful courseware.

2
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