Pros
-The school itself is very well outfitted with good technology, supplies, and plenty of activities. -The staff is very helpful for new arriving teachers, getting them settled in and easing them into the teaching. -The lesson plans are very detailed and helpful (but management has told us we can't use them as-is, more below) -The brand new program is designed by Cartoon Network and is very colorful and engaging. -The students are ages 3-adult, so there's always a wide range of age and ability levels to teach.
Cons
-Pay is very sketchy. Teachers are paid cash with no pay stub record, with 350-450 yuan deducted from each person's 7000 yuan monthly pay to cover monthly utilities. I have since learned that this is about double what an entire apartment's utilities should cost, so somebody's making money on the side by taking it from the teachers. -The bonus plan is always changing, and even when they say they're upfront about it, there are hidden subjective reasons why you won't be receiving the bonus you thought you would. It is also paid in cash with little to no record. -Within the past few years, the school was fined a huge amount by the government for misrepresenting costs to parents and charging more than the documentation said. -Teachers have to give 2 months notice before leaving, instead of the standard 30 days. -Recent local management changes have led to a series of new micro-managing policies that are in direct conflict with the procedures handed down from corporate, demanding us to re-write every single lesson plan to conform to an extremely rigid and frequently unrealistic schedule. During meetings and training sessions teachers were yelled at and talked down to publicly, and everyone was told that they're horrible teachers. -Teachers receive very little time off- the absolute minimum as decided by the government. Also, during the spring festival and summer breaks when students normally do not have school, this school has extra courses. During the 10 day Winter Course, teachers were forced to work 7 days straight before they had a single week vacation, and worked more than 40 hours the 5 days after. During Summer Course, for 7 weeks straight teachers are forced to teach a few extra classes on top of the normal 40 hour schedule, with no increase in pay for the extra work.