Are your sprach trainers cranky?

Are your teachers cranky?  Moody?  Were they that way when you hired them?

Probably, they weren’t born that way.  You should consider the possibility that their working conditions contribute to their mood.

 

You can start by performing the following self-diagnostic test:

1. Do your sprach trainers have paid vacations?
2. If a trainer is sick, is he or she paid?
3. Do trainers have to pay for their own medical insurance?
4. Do trainers receive two salaries in December and June?

 

If you answered “no” to any or all of the above question then your trainers have a good reason to complain—You are asking them to work in conditions below the Austrian norm.

 

Other factors which can influence a trainer’s mood:

 

1.  Do you ask your trainers to work 8 in the morning,

and then again 8 at night on the same day? --And, in that case, would you expect a trainer to teach until 10pm, and then teach again at 8am the next morning/

 

2. Do you ever tell trainers what they should teach?

 

3.  Do you expect your trainers to travel one hour each way to lessons?

Are they paid for travel time?

 

Notice that if trainers are paid hourly, every unpaid hour of travel represents

lost money.  It also puts a cap on how much a trainer can earn in a given week.

And time spent in travel can also be very tiring.

 

4.  Are your trainers paid for preparation time?

 

5.  How democratic is your workplace?  Are trainers allowed to contribute to the decision making process?  Or, do you expect them to keep quiet and follow rules?

 

6.  Do you expect trainers to agree to teach at any time and any place and any sort of person?  Or do you accept “no” for an answer when a trainer is offered work.

 

7.  Are trainers always paid in a timely fashion?  Or do they have to wait to be paid for their work?  (One school I know of pays their trainers for the previous month on the third week of the next month.)

 

These are some of the factors that contribute to a trainer’s mood. They are factors which the management and owners of a given school or “institute” can change…

Note: this was in response to an ad which appeared in Vienna Online

http://www.virtualvienna.net/career/ads/june_16_1_2009.html

The ad ended with the words:

"If you are grumpy, bored and tired of training English, then please walk across the street and get on the next bus heading nowhere. "

so much for the idea that workers have more rights in Europe!!!