Pros
Honestly, there are no pros other than the location is a 5 minutes walk from the MRT, and great colleagues (but sadly everyone left due to toxic management).
Cons
The interview was sketchy as the interviewer (the Boss), did not answer my questions directly and would beat around the bush. One example is, Me: What is the salary you are offering after the probation period? Him: There is no guarantee but definitely will increase based on your performance. Me: Is there a range estimate? Him: [defensively disagreeing] There is no specific range, it can go up to thousands. Eventually, I found out they did not increase other previous colleagues' pay as initially discussed. And from his dodgy explanation, I should have known it was trouble. Another example is, Me: I noticed the work timings are not stated in the contract, only the centre’s operating hours. What time is our official working hours because based on the 44 hours work week, it will exceed? Him: We stated operation hours only because we are fluid in work timings. Me: But the classes start at 9am and end at 7pm. Do we need to start earlier or stay later? Him: Let’s not be calculative with the 30 minutes extra. Some days, we have ever allowed our coaches to leave early especially during the holidays. Later I have found out from the previous colleagues that it only happened once in the pre-covid period and ever since they are forced to OT (without pay) to finish work. Although the Boss does casually state not to OT too late, he did not understand the amount of work required by him to complete. Additionally, he would drag people into his office and talk to us for hours without a conclusion, taking away our time to do materials. Hence, the never-ending OT we have to do. Another example is, Me: Will training be provided? Him: Definitely. Me: Has there been any scenarios where children might have meltdowns and how do you approach it? Can you give me an example? Him: You will know when you are with us, don’t worry so much. Everything will be covered, we are professionals. I should have thought of that as red flags and rejected the offer but as a fresh graduate, I overlooked them - rookie mistake. On my first day, he insisted on going through the slides as part of the training plan. There were about 14 slides and he took 5 hours to finish them, only covering the orientation, i.e. mission, values, and vision. This training, a.k.a lectures, was given throughout 3 weeks of my service then. In his slides, there were quite a few misinformations and I had to raise them up with him. As a fresh graduate, most of what I have studied is still retained in my memory. When questioned, he would disagree immediately and tell me I was wrong without any evidence to support his explanation. And that is his idea of training. There was no guidance from any proper professionals catering to special needs children just him and his slides. Another red flag is his qualification. He mentioned he is qualified as he took an Early Childhood course and his company has been with him for 10 years. Little did I know that he barely knew any of the students there and had little to no interactions with them. He has Certification of participation and appreciation up on his wall which he claims is proof for a “qualified” trainer. He claimed he does not have to know the students as he can read everything up. However, whenever he tried to describe the child, he was way off than what I interacted with face-to-face. He tried to change the entire class schedule and wanted a “discussion” with the coaches. However, whenever we raised a potential issue, he would think we were against him and would not listen to any feedback. Even after showing him, his plans were not feasible, he insisted it was possible when he did not see the situation first. With no first-hand experience with children with special needs and with no knowledge of the fundamentals, he does whatever he wants without any considerations. All in all, the Boss works his employees in circles and blames them for not being efficient if it was not done right in his opinion. He tends to take all the credits when all the effort lays on his employees. The turnover rate is high and employee welfare is minimally low.
