Keeping Track of your ESL Hours in China

Have something to add? Join the discussion! Click here to leave a comment. No registration required!

You are Here: Home>> Keeping it Real with the Boss >>Keeping Track of your ESL Hours in China

Click Here to Subsribe to the 'Keeping it Real with the Boss' Feed

Keeping Track of your ESL Hours in China

Written by Robert Vance on June 30, 2008 – 9:53 pm

As an ESL teacher in China, I have always been fortunate enough to have worked for schools that have not deliberately attempted to cheat me. However, mistakes have been made by these schools in payroll and the ‘burden of proof’ was always placed upon my shoulders. Fortunately, I had been advised before I came to China to maintain a separate record of the hours that I worked so I was usually able to show the school the hours that they had missed.

Keeping track of your own hours is especially important if you are working at an English school that is paying you by-the-hour. Many schools in China pay teachers a base salary for classes taught during the week and then extra money for every hour taught on the weekends. While you can be sure that your English school in China will keep close track of these hours, you can also be sure that mistakes will occassionally be made that are not in your favor.

I have always used a simple way to keep track of my hours. At the end of the day, I simply log into my email and write myself a message with the number of hours that I worked on that day. I always use the same subject line so that I can easily search for my ESL hours later on. Many email providers allow users to create a separate folder where incoming mail with certain subject lines can be redirected. Using this technique, I can have a folder dedicated to my ESL working hours in China. Some teachers may choose to use a notebook but for me, I want to make sure that I have my hours in a safe place.

With these tips in mind, it is equally important to count your money immediately after it is given to you by the school. If you take receipt of the money and then realize later that the amount was incorrect, it will be very difficult to prove to the school that they made a mistake. Hopefully, your school has a money counting machine which will make your life easier. These machines are usually very reliable but make sure that your salary gets run through the machine twice.

Keeping track of your ESL hours may take a little extra effort on your part but in the end it is worth it. I have often been very happy that I wrote my hours down especially when the school was insistent that they were right. Keep track of your ESL hours and you will definitely save yourself some time and money!

Bookmark It