Pros
Pay was pretty good. The cost of living contributed a lot to that. The kids actually kept me at that job. I didn't go to that city or country because of the pay but rather, the experience. The kids were the best part of my experience.
Cons
Location, management, HR & Admin, work-life balance, favoritism, basically everything else. The location didn't have exposure to many foreigners so, everyone was very curious about you. IN MY EXPERIENCE, people were pretty rude / ignorant in terms of personal space, questions/ assumptions about you, and taking pictures. It was a constant battle of patience. Management was not great. The atmosphere was always intense to the point that at my school, there was a pretty high turnover rate. People were always frustrated with management due to lack of communication or unrealistic expectations/ pressure to break your back for the job. There were also higher ups who created a very unwelcoming environment for everyone. There was a lot of confusion for tasks but teachers were expected to just quietly complete them. Anyone who challenged/ questioned the higher ups was seen as problematic. IN MY EXPERIENCE. HR & Admin were pretty disorganized. Things that should have been stated (like bills and other payments) before signing the contract kept coming up throughout the duration of the job. It was already stressful at work. Having problems pop up at home and not having anyone who knew how to solve them was too much. If the teacher pointed out the lack of communication or incompetence, they were looked at as complainers. Specific things should have been handled before hand or, someone in HR/Admin should ask for clarification before sending the teachers on some fool's errand (not necessary for solving the problem) because they didn't have the answer and just...guessed. IN MY EXPERIENCE. Work-life balance. Or imbalance, I should say. You 're working even on your days off. IN MY EXPERIENCE. It seems in the city I was in, guys were more favored than the girls (mainly among foreign teachers). There were plenty of female teachers who did spectacular jobs and had great relationships with parents and students. However, the males (especially the problematic ones) were always raised onto pedestals. Even if they had negative affects on working environment. IN MY EXPERIENCE. Among the foreign teachers, there was always drama happening. Even when people wanted to solve the drama, it kept going. People who didn't want to be involved would be drawn in as well. It also didn't help that some of the local staff were involved in the drama (which also created favoritism/ positive outlooks towards the problematic individuals). IN MY EXPERIENCE The local teachers were paid a quarter of what the foreign teachers were. While there was a lot of hearsay about the salaries of local teachers, it was very noticeable that they were paid substantially less and had to do a lot more. This created hostility between locals and foreigners. Foreigners would voice their complaints about management or lack of work to do but locals just took them as complainers who got paid more while they did "all the work" and were paid less. In reality, they got paid less and had a lot of work and in my school, foreign teachers were not given as much work or told that, "the local teachers will do it,"/ "only for local teachers". Even if the foreign teachers wanted to help. IN MY EXPERIENCE. They are looking for "yes" people who didn't challenge whatever they say. Those are the people who get put on pedestals. They also get burned out because they are few so a lot of the tasks will go to the "yes" people, overworking them for the same pay. IN MY EXPERIENCE. Did I mention we got kicked out of the school for working illegally ("breaking the law" as my supervisor rephrased it) during covid-19? Honestly, a majority of MY EXPERIENCE was a mess and brought out horrible sides of me.
