dante.Alighieri@divinacommedia.com
- 2016-11-20
I have a longstanding colleague in Verona who confirmed to me the veracity of what the original poster writes. Indeed the owner is reputed to be a banshee. Additionally, believe nothing of Mr. Chile's post. He is the owner's DOS and paid stooge although people in Verona view him as overstretched. Verona is a charming small Italian provincial city at
Paul Childs
- 2016-11-20
While we recognise that this teacher had some issues we feel certain circumstances should be pointed out.
This teacher was reprimanded once in writing for refusing work as they had other work commitments - they were then given a face to face meeting with the owner & DOS (to help with translation) in which any misunderstandings were cleared up. There were a few occasions in which punctuality was an problem however nothing was said. Towards the end of their contract they were reprimanded again on the phone for refusing work. Apart from these occasions they had no contact with the owner. The day to day running of courses was dealt with by the DOS (Bi-lingual native speaker). Thus, any personal comments about the professionality of owner need to be seen in this light.
In addition, it is not true that the owner fell out with every member of the permanent staff. There is small group of permanent teachers who work well together with the owners & have been here many years.This school depends on these professional & reliable teachers who enjoy teaching. Unfortunately, in this case we feel that there may have been a large dose of cultural misunderstanding & a missmatch of personal & istitutional goals. At no time was this teacher insulted & there were always native English speakers available to help with any problems. However, help needs to be sought & this particular teacher kept their contact with DOS & other members of the management to a minimum. As to the atmosphere in the school the description is obviously subject to personal intrepretation & clearly this teacher was not happy & therefore found it difficult to fit in.
As to the comments about many teachers in Verona having left this school - the Cambridge school is perhaps the longest & most successful private language school (over 50 years) in Verona & as such it obvious that there are many teachers who have left for varying personal & professional reasons & not only due to dissatisfaction with the owner or school.
Payment was always made on time by the school. Unfortunately, banks all over the world are a law unto themselves (in this case we are talking about one of the largest European banks - not a local one) & we have no control over when exactly the transfer is made.While we understand our employees need to know when they will receive their salary we can only honour our obligations. In this case the employee was simply made aware of this problem but no help was requested - again a case of poor communications. We have always helped our employees when necessary.
Members of staff were always paided correctly & if there was a variation the reasons were given. All staff are on legal contracts & as such we have to follow the letter of the law. We cannot & do not manipulate the salaries.
In conclusion it is clear that this employee was not happy for various reasons however as outlined above the observation are not a fair representation of this school.
I had the misfortune of working for this school for 9 months and I have a warning for all EFL teachers: DO NOT WORK HERE.
There is one clear and obvious reason for this: the owner. She is an absolute nightmare to work with - unfriendly, cold and disfunctional. During my 9 months there, she managed to fall out with every permanent member of staff, including myself, usually more than once. On each occasion, the member of staff in question not only felt they were being accused of something that was unjustified but also that they had been treated in a bullying, rude and unprofessional manner. In my own case, a simple misunderstanding led to insults being handed out over the phone, which I apparently was expected to sit there and take. I also met many other teachers in Verona who had resigned or left the Cambridge School. All of them pointed to one single overriding factor behind their decision - the owner. Naturally, being the owner, she feels that she is all-powerful and able to act with impunity, and in this she is sadly correct. As a teacher there, you have little or no recourse to protection of any kind from either the rest of the downtrodden management or from the impenetrable wall of beuracracy that is the Italian state system. In all, the working environment at the school is frosty, unwelcoming, rancorous and depressing.
Teachers who may be thinking of signing a contract should also know that I did not get paid on time one single month. The salary is fairly derisory in any case, but of course essential for rent, bills and food. At one point near the beginning of my contract, having absolutely nothing in my account, I raised the fact that my salary was two or three days overdue. I was told that it was because of the Italian bank I had been recommended to go with by the DOS, and that I would just have to get used to it. A colleague was also consistently underpaid with no satisfactory explanation given. Added to this, my final pay cheque (when I was no longer in Italy) was €300 less than it should have been, and again this was met with evasion and a complete lack of concern when I brought it up. Make no mistake about it, this school is unscrupulous, shifty and untruthful in its dealings with staff.
In the interest of fairness, I should point out that almost all of the rest of the staff are lovely and a pleasure to work with. The staff room was reasonably well-stocked, and Verona is a lovely city.
To sum up, if you want to be employed by a badly-run, poorly-managed school where you are worked extremely hard to be treated with disdain, rudeness, suspicion and a lack of respect and gratitude by the management, then this is the place for you.