Open Education reviews about "communication"

Very low pay compared to industry standards, with no bonus or end-of-year commission. No clear direction from upper management, expect constant changes and inconsistent expectations. The work environment feels disrespectful, and employees often feel undervalued. Working conditions have become more strict over time, creating a stressful and discouraging atmosphere. No teacher freedom to make instructional decisions; creativity is discouraged. Constant fear of job loss due to regular staff cuts and unstable staffing decisions. Recent restructuring resulted in a significant pay cut paired with an increase in working hours. Communication is poor, and decisions seem to be made without considering the impact on staff.

Open English / Open Education has started using third party recruiters to pay their employees less and less. They have employed people for years without giving anyone a raise and have recently fired those who got paid a bit more (still less than minimum wage - about 13 USD at most) to hire those from less developed countries for 7 USD or less an hour. Communication with management is abysmal and the pay is quite bad, The lessons are boring and repetitive and the methodology of teaching is not effective.

Sometimes the software is a little tricky to work with. You work with different students each time.

The English owners are a couple who seem absolutely lovely. Then the cracks start to show. Everything with this couple is drama and they constantly manipulate and pit people against each other. They are neurotic, reactive and can turn on you unexpectedly at any point. This English couple have clearly got way too big for their boots and don't seem to realise that the Chinese businessman behind the operation literally only employed them for their white faces. They have turned into the worst kind of people. Anything that is constructive criticism from a staff member they see as "negativity" and it's held against this person for the duration of their contract. This happened to several people and said person would be alienated and belittled. The people that just kept their heads down and did the bare minimum, did a crappy job of teaching and had the least children to teach (therefore bringing in the least money) were ironically treated the best. Generally everything is completely disorganised, there are zero communication skills but the teachers still have to deal with it. Nothing ever goes in your favour and you get pushed and pushed until you have enough. The legality of the whole business is questionable. Life in China DOES NOT have to be like this. When leaving, they find incredibly creative ways to not pay you your bonus and honour the contract. Every person also gets treated differently for no disernable reason. I think it generally depends on how often you go out drinking with them. The more often the better, they love to be the king and queen bee of the group to keep their egos intact. This place made me and many others feel completely, depressed and isolated when we were there. It's a place that brings out the worst in you. The positive thing I can say about it is that it makes me so grateful for what I have now! This couple are simply awful and almost everyone leaves on bad terms. Maybe I'll have more respect for the English CEO wife and her opinions on other people's teaching when she's not so lazy to even finish a TEFL.

The students are considered clients to them and they make no effort to improve class quality for both parties, teachers and students! They allow students to enter without any prerequisites of how to interact on the zoom platform. I felt like tech support in to many classes! They prefer to lose a teacher that has been there for 2 years. They figure a new one who will put up with the fixable nuisances they're too lazy to fix will patch it.

Class availability became very inconsistent over time, especially for long-term teachers. After several years with the company, bookings declined significantly to the point where it was difficult to maintain meaningful hours. Communication can feel very automated and impersonal, even after years of service with the company. Long-term teachers may sometimes feel undervalued despite their loyalty and experience.

Very set schedules, but can trade sometimes.

Giving feedback to leaders isn’t allowed. Hermetic communication

Pay- they don't pay quite as much as other companies, but for me, it's worth it because I can pick up hours whenever I need to. You are not locked into a schedule. Say you will be home on a Sunday evening and you want to work a few hours, you can pick them up and work them. The flexibility makes it worth it. Schedule- As with language teaching, they do go through high and low demand seasons, so you don't want to rely on it as your only source of income as they can't guarantee a fixed schedule. I work for a second language teaching company in another country and when my Open English hours go down, I increase my availability with them, it works out just fine. This is very normal with online language teaching and they don't have any control over it. (the other company also has high and low demand months). Hours- Just remember that during those low demand months, you have to be flexible enough to work late evening hours if you don't have another backup job (EST time zone). Not a "con" per say, just something to keep in mind.