Monday, March 24, 2008

The Long Haul

Well it's not official yet, but it looks like Heza and i will be sticking it out for (count 'em) THREE years in BJ and not our planned two. This is largely 'cause we got inadvertently wrangled into a new contract since our previous agreements weren't signed or on paper. Let that be a warning to you folk.

So were feeling kinda choked and lost when we found out that we weren't at all getting what we were expecting for our 2nd yr in BJ. And the forces at hand trying to lock us in for 3 yrs were making me feel a bit manipulated.

Me, i don't mind BJ at all, but i know it wears H down. So we acted aloof w/ the admin and owners, and sat on it. Officially i left the ball in H's court, stating that we could split or stay depending on what felt right for her.

i was kinda getting ready to pack out, when some news arose, which had a surprisingly (to me) big impact on H. She is now likely to start teaching high school next yr, which is a big draw for her. that's what she came to BJ expecting to do in the 1st place, before being told, "No sorry, we want you to teach Kindergarten now instead."

Also, the pay grid is now set up so that at the end of 3 years there's retroactive bonuses galore.

So now we've told the owners and admin that we're happy to stay. The school is stoked to have us on for more, as we've been such stellar teachers. And truthfully, after a totally unreasonable Sept and Oct, the job now is ... totally reasonable, i'd say.

Anyhow. H will be able to kiss her student loans g'bye! And me, i'll be making big fat charitable donations, shopping at the finest 2nd hand stores, and supporting hard-working musicians.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that all things panned out Wil. Make sure that those retroactive bonuses are written on paper. I am sure that you have gotten a taste of things that can happen in Asia...unexpected things such as "we said we would pay you this but we won't". Glad to hear that H is teaching high school next year. It is certainly difficult to teach the little ones when you are geared towards the big ones!