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« on: December 03, 2010, 06:50:32 AM »
Unless you plan on running your own school, just say no to this absurd idea. I've been doing it for 9 months now and I've come to the conclusion that the world of ESL is nothing more than a shortcut to a date with a lunatic asylum.
A brief caveat before I get started-
I'm just to damn nice to be a truly efficient and ruthless manager. I'm of the opinion that the truly great managers I've had possessed a certain ruthless streak in them.
My favorite all time manager is a guy I worked with in A my unit director at 3 shits duckfarms, is the sort of guy who oozes confidence and people feel inspired around him. Further, he's not the sort of dude anyone liked to try to fuck over because he had no problem fucking you over.
So long as you stayed on Leroy's good side and hid the bodies well, he was on your side.
If not.. god help you.
Me, I'm just too nice of a dude.
But anyway, this isn't a rant on my lack of ability to tell someone to go fuck themselves. This is about why the average person should avoid management positions in ESL.
1) As a manager you are stuck in two roles. First you are stuck keeping the Foreigners happy. Second you are stuck keeping your boss happy.
Guess which one is happy at any one single time?
That's right.. NONE of them.
Someone is always going to be pissed off about something and you have to be the one to deal with it. Now if you are in a city with a large population of foreigners it means you can tell the pissed off person to stick in their ass and shut the hell up.
And god.. I've wanted to do this so many times.
However, I'm not in a city which affords me the luxury of being able to replace people who can't do their jobs or they are asshurt. Thus begins the great kubaki dance of managerial bullshit to keep everyone sort of happy and out of my damn office.
2) As a manager in ESL the power you have depends on your school. Your school may see you as a puppet and nothing more. This leaves you in an empty position. Other schools give their foreign managers a fair bit of latitude.
I'm caught in the middle of those two. Sometimes I have alot of say, typically when it benefits my boss, other times I don't.
3) The foreign teachers who work for you will never really be grateful for anything.
Most of them are self-centered dicks who should be chained to a urinal and left to fester and rot.
They'll seriously say thank you and two minutes later have something else to whine about. Or they'll be the shittiest teacher you have, who'll be complaining about crap you really can't do much to fix. Worst, you'll have to sit there and listen to the faggot because if he quits you have to cover his fucking classes.
Seriously, stay out of ESL management.. it is an absurd parody of preposterous bullshit.