Ethics: Nuns with None

Well I can't say as I'm knocked over or blown away, like some of my co-workers, but I'd have to say that I am disappointed. We all found out today that we were being let go. With only three weeks to go before the end of the school year it will be grounds for a law suit though.

In our contract, it stipulated that each side must give the other three months notice about either renewing or not renewing the contract. Well three weeks hardly can be construed as the contractually stipulated time. The problem being that in Taiwan contracts really aren't worth the paper they're written on.

The problem arose when the teachers requested that they be paid over twelve months rather than ten, and they be granted a 10 % pay increase. This was was to bring us in line with what the other schools within the 'division' were already receiving. This includes schools in Taipei and Guam.

I should mention that the current pay is approximately CDN $ 2 000 a month(after taxes), or US $ 1780, which would knock off about 1/3 of my monthly pay. Not a huge salary by any stretch of the imagination, unless you're a Philipino teacher, then this is enough to live like a king in Manila. Hell by Philipino standards, Taiwan is a developed nation.

Well, as I've stated previously, they decided to fire everyone and not run a summer program. When the parents find out about this, they are going to go ballistic and chances are they will pull their kids out for the next school year too.

I have witnessed the personification of gross stupidity and incompetence over the past year in the person of the current principal, who is being rotated out to another position. I really feel like checking out my birth certificate and seeing if it reads Dilbert rather than David.

For people who have taken a vow of celibacy, they sure know how to screw you over.

In the end, I'm not really worried about finding work elsewhere, as a couple of universities have expressed some interest in hiring me, and NSYSU and KMUH have both wanted me to take on more classes. However, some teachers are really up the proverbial creek, as their visas expire in a matter of weeks and they have no sponsors. This means a trip to Hong Kong and getting a visitors visa until they find a new job, an unexpected and unappreciated expense.

I honestly have to say that I have never before witnessed the degree of corruption, prevarication, theft, incompetence, intolerance and bullying that I have since working with this group of nuns. I'd tell them to go to hell, but I think they already know the way.