Lemons

It’s been a while since I’ve been on Tumblr. With One Direction on their hiatus (I still believe they will reunite), I don’t have the need to go on Tumblr as much. Now I’ve returned to vent out something.  Since April 2017, I have been working as an English teacher in Dongying, China. Dongying is located in the northeast, basically next to Korea (oh lawdie). As you may have guessed, the air quality there is not great. It has some good days, but so far I’ve experienced around 3-4 separate days of hazardous air quality level (like level 300). As a person with sensitive lungs, this is not a good place for me. In fact, I’ve been sick a lot ever since I arrived in Dongying (the amount of phlegm I got omg).  I chose Dongying because it is the most developed out of the three cities I was given. Regardless, back to the main purpose of this post.  Around November 2017, I was in New York to be with a person who loves me unconditionally for Thanksgiving. He and I have known each other for a year, and he and I have essentially build trust and support since we’ve met. I have told him about my health situation, and he said he can help me move to Shenzhen, where the air quality is much better (the highest I’ve seen is 100, but most days it is either good or moderate). He is from Shenzhen, and his parents still lives in Shenzhen, and his mom works in the education sector. All of this means once I move to Shenzhen, I already got a place to live and someone who can help me find a job. At this point, I’ve secured a job. I’ve visited Shenzhen and it is beautiful there.  Of course, as per my contract, I can leave a 3 month notice, even though I did sign an 18-month contract. I sent my notice on December 7th asking to leave on March 4th, and my manager is not handling it very well. Because I am a Senior Teacher, he thought I will stay for a long time, perhaps 2 years or more. I thought I will stay for a while when he asked me in August, but life has decided to put me in a different course. For the most part, he said that I should stay until April, so that he could have more time to find a teacher to cover my classes. As agreed between me and my second family, I shall leave on March 4th. My love, who has been working in the business sector for 5 years, suggested that I should ask for an incentive to stay until April. I asked my manager, and he said he could give an extra 2,000 RMB to my salary and 4,500 in flight allowance (the latter was part of my contract anyways. It is given on the 6th and 12th month of my employment. However, my first flight allowance was actually given a month later because there are 4 other teachers who also need their flight allowance, and they only have so much to give per month in flight allowance). I said his deal sounds reasonable, but I will think about it. My manager took it as a confirmation, and already went ahead and told the Shanghai headquarters and our Vice Manager to inform our progress advisers that I will leave in April. As you may have guessed, I was outraged. With the help of my love, I sent him an email of the situation. From there, it was just him and me saying whom did wrong and the conversation is not going anywhere. To finalize the email thread, I asked him to respect and honor the contract, which is the 3 month notice. He just sent me a reply saying that he will respect and honor the contract, which is my 18-month contract. I also mentioned that I have been sick several times since my stay in Dongying, and he should be compassionate about my well-being. He said that he will be compassionate for my students because they cannot be left without a teacher.  In my standpoint, I could tell he does not respect my decision. In my opinion, he cares so much about maintaining the growing business of the school (just a side note I work for a franchised training center), that he doesn’t care if a teacher wants to be closer to her family and to be more healthier (believe me, I have consumed plenty of vitamin Cs). He did gave me a generous offer, but after my fever on New Year’s Eve, I’ve realized that it is not worth it anymore. I would much rather live on just 200 RMB than to have the extra 6,500 RMB because the latter amount would be given from a person who does not respect me as a person.  If you have read this far, you can have whatever opinions you want from reading this post, but I think it is rather obvious that I do not deserve to work under that type of a manager.  P.S.  I may be a Senior Teacher, but I never signed the contract for the position. He and I still have the Foreign Teacher’s contract. Regardless, this entire situation is not my cup of tea. But it is something worth learning from.