Who else didnt get their "bonus"

Typo fail ;-)

 

By the way, schools in Germany are no better although the system is more demanding than in i.e. the USA. At least people can be punished in one way or another if they are lazy and unsupportive, but I still know some lazy jerks that somehow managed to graduate.
Then again, many of the lazy twat fraction, how Yakumo would rightfully call it, are not eligible to attend universities as a direct consequence of their stupidity & incompetence. I could never say it like that in a German forum due to the amazingly intrusive political correctness that we have to maintain, but that's what it's like.

But when it comes to underpaid teachers, incompetent employees and stupid politicians trying to "improve" (= worsen) the system only to show off, then Germany isn't a better place at all. I've learned over the years, however, that it isn't as bad as we make it out to be. For instance, we don't have multiple choice tests after grade 7 or so. Because it's just a retarded way of testing knowledge. They do this in high school until graduation as far as I'm informed... or don't they?

 

I'm not sure about other places buy I blame the unions for all the lazy and worthless teachers in the US. They make it damn near impossible to fire them. Google what it takes to fire a teacher in some of the major cities like New York or D.C. to get an idea. Thankfully it seems to be finally changing but still not enough in my eyes.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what the situation is in Mexico but from what XerdoPwerko says they either need a union or a far better one. Just don't let it get as bloated as what we have here.

 

When I was in school there were some group assignments but for the most part it was a "Work on your own" affair. Half the people in the program didn't take things seriously, and the other half did. Each year more people got cut (ie. You just never saw them again). Eventually your just left with people who actually wanted to do well in school.

Most of the time the people who did want to work would find the others who felt the same way, and you did stuff together. Compare notes, find each others mistakes, etc. And you knew who to group with because you knew they would actually carry their weight.

 

Haha, I take nerd as a compliment!

But everything you said is dead on. Teaching is seen as an easy way to pick up a paycheck. The teachers have even said it before. They pick up a paycheck whether we benefit or not.

 

Unions are not the evil corrupt mess the media make them look at.

Eliminate unions, and no workers have rights, and that leaves us back at industrial-revolution level exploitation. CEOs would sure love it, but you and I would be fucked.

That being said, many, MANY corrupt people take advantage of unions, and that hurts us all - honest workers who get shafted, honest union-members who get thrown in with the rest of the corrupt people, and eventually every worker, when unions get abolished and they lose all their right.

Unions, in theory, are the best thing ever. In practice, unfortunately, a lot of corrupt, greedy, incompetent, lazy pieces of shit ruin it for everyone else.

Without unions, those greedy, incompetent, lazy cocksuckers would still be your bosses, though, and then you'd get nothing for all your work.

We had a "white" union (which means, when the union is paid off by the employer to not represent the workers) that sold us out, and we all had our hours limited and a lot of rights lost after helping unionize the university.

Once our former boss got "busted" (he just got "transferred", along with some of his corrupt buddies) - the union had to shape up or be gone. Workers are QUITE ingenious in Mexico. Now, little by little, we're getting up to standard.

Sorry for this long post, but it continues.

Anyhow, in Mexico, teachers/lecturers/professors, tenured or not, need at least a second job to survive.

I happen to have a union job (government university) and a non-union job (private high-school, university).

Union job:

1) I have paid vacation. I supposedly had it 3 years ago, but it just kicked in December 2010. August 2006 to August 2010, my vacation checks and christmas bonuses were paid, cash, directly to my employer, who pocketed them.

2) Union has negotiated several of us having access to tenure, or at least being bound to get it. I was supposed to get it in 2009, when I reached 3 years on the job, but many of the permanent or indefinite contracts were given to family members of government officials. (Conservative)


3) I have to check with fingerprint scanner or I get a whole hour or workday deducted (I'll tell you the story of the fingerprint scanners later on, though. It involved, you guessed it, my former employer stealing everyone's cash)

4) I get paid more per hour, but I have a limit on the hours I can work each week (so that everybody gets enough hours)

5) Option to grow in job, get better pay or more hours in the future, or even become a coordinator once the position is open.

6) Horrendous installations where I have to cross a very dangerous neighbourhood, then an open field, a stream that may or may not be full, and a "bridge" made out of dirt that used to be wide enough for a car to go through, until a bus got stuck and destroyed it. It will never be fixed. It would cost the government money.
If I get stuck here after 8pm, I will be robbed and/or killed, and buses stop at 8:30.

Non-Union private university job

1) I am continuously pressured with the implicit threat of not getting hours next semester. It's never said explicitly but it's always hinted at ("Missing this meeting might impact further decisions about your classes in the future").

2) I a required to complete unpaid projects, which are then ignored. If an employee complains about something wrong, like policies, or installations, we are then passive-aggressively pressured into proposing a solution. Then said solution is never applied.

3) I have taken YET ANOTHER unnecessary surprise English test today (up to five this year) to prove I speak the language. The people who grade these, generally, do not.

4) I don't get paid vacations, or notice if one of my promised groups is bound to close, or any job security. I am forced to sign a "resignation" every quatrimester as to not generate seniority. No pay raises, no upward mobility.

5) No limit on the hours I can work. If I play it nice with the higher ups (supposedly based on performance - but it's more of a networking thing), I can get as many hours as I can work. I earn less per hour, but I can make a fortune if I work myself half to death.

6) Decent installations, 10 minutes from my house.

7) Nobody "upstairs" gives a fuck about the teachers. Teachers don't give a fuck about the other teachers. Many teachers don't give a fuck about the students, either. I have made many good friends among teachers, administrative/management coworkers, and students, though.

...

Hope that wasn't too long or too off topic. If it was, I'll stop posting about it.

 

It is times like this that the workers need to rise up and put the government, bankers, PR people, most Lawyers, people in charge of the media, fashion gurus, most union leadres, the greedy and the lazy up against the wall. Teachers are the ones that should be given more respect and money and not bankers and the like. Power to the people! (Yes I did live a long time in Tooting).

Well maybe you could repost it in off topic so more people read it?

 

AHHGGG, bloody iPhone.

 

Thanks for the cool title, mate. I don't know about the money, but I do get respect from the students, which is pretty much what matters.

I just wish the general people would respect teachers again. The media and the overall opinion is that we are coddled, lazy sods who don't ever want to do work and rely on corruption to never get fired - and all that shit is false, man.

One day, I'll post the whole chronicles of the last few years - of all the crazy shit that constitutes teaching these days.