[Hypiereon]

I agree wholeheartedly with you that if you sign a contract and the school fulfills the contract, then you have no complaint about the contract. However, the complaint against the school was more than just about the contract.

If you come to work for me and I fulfill the contract but then I also come off with a bad attitude, don't lift a finger to help you do your job correctly, ask you to teach some of your hours away from the school (never mentioned it in the contract but you owe me the hours so what are you complaining about?) and then refuse to compensate you for them (also not in contract but again, you owe me teaching hours here right?! So what's the big deal about an hour out of your life there and again on the way back? So what if I didn't mention it to you before!)

Then, I threaten to withhold your salary if you refuse to travel, and generally make your life as miserable as possible in other ways if you even begin to THINK of giving me any lip about what was or wasn't in the contract. "By the way, your schedule this week has changed - sorry I didn't mention it to you before - you're already late for classes today and we'll be docking your pay accordingly; but hey, if you still want full salary and since you missed those classes you can now make them up by working hours on Saturdays. Had plans for Saturday eh? Oh well, sorry about that, too, but you work for me for this many hours a week you see - it's in the contract!"

"Oops, sorry, schedule changed again! Hahahaha. So sorry. You're now going to be teaching several more classes today, but don't worry about it not being in the contract - the hours are in the contract though so you'll just have to teach them. Now smile like a good little girl and off you go! That's right. I'm fulfilling the contract, so you don't have any complaints now - just you remember that. Good girl."

And on and on and ON it goes. Think this doesn't happen - you're kidding yourself. The point of houzi's post was more than just a contract. So dont get all bold letters about "a contract" and try reading the guy's post as a bigger picture. Look, I understand that an unfavorably written contract - all other "on the job" conditions being fine - is not a bad thing. It's the nature of doing business on their terms so to speak - as you said "95% of the contracts favor the party writing the contract." An unfavorable contract being the nasty tip of a huge problem iceburg though, and you're suddenly running against a problem school everyone else would do well to avoid doing any business with.

I hope you understand what's really being said here. I'm not faulting any school for a poorly written contract a foreigner unwittingly signs either because they really want the job or are uneducated about contracts. You don't see me shaming schools for writing bad contracts. On the contrary, I've done my utmost to come at it from the other side and tried to educate people about how to bargain and rewrite contracts. I've criticized contracts in general (not schools) as being poor, but contracts will only stay poor as long as foreigners are willing to sign them. Once a foreigner does go ahead and sign, I'm hands-off the whole deal. They signed it - they can't expect any more than the contract says with few exceptions - SUCH AS - no teacher should have to put up with being bullied by a tyrannical boss, being pushed around on schedules, and all because the school has a piece of paper on their side.

A teaching job is more than just contracts. It is the people you work for, the people you work with, and the conditions under which you are expected to do your job. While it is true that the dissatisfied person can always just quit, it does not lessen the negative remarks made about a school, and may still serve as a warning to other teachers.

To summarize everything that's been said about this school so far: "Hey, this school fulfills it's contracts. They'll treat you like shit when you get here, but hey, the contract is upheld." And that's what I'm saying as well. It is a warning to those who don't want to be mistreated, even if the school does happen to fulfill a contract.