Ways Wattsenglish Has Wronged Me #3
Throughout the past few months, I have been collecting evidence against my employer, Wattsenglish, to show ways in which they have misled and downright lied to me about terms of employment, living arrangements, job details, etc. In this new segment, I will reveal a new lie every so often, so that future employees of Wattsenglish can understand the crap they are getting themselves into. Working for Wattsenglish is not a walk in the park. Everything here is clearly supported by fact and evidence; I’ll save the non-evidentiary claims for when I am no longer employed with them. Here are my Wattsenglish complaints.
During the “wonderful” three day training we received from Wattsenglish upon arriving in Prague, the company arranged for us to stay at a hostel. At our own expense, mind you. Supposedly we were supposed to get reimbursed in our first paycheck (I only got reimbursed for about 75 percent of the cost). First of all, this was an extremely overpriced hostel, especially for what we got. The total was close to $75 for three nights (not even the weekend – a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). If you know anything about hostels and how they work, that is pretty pricey.
Even looking at the hostel’s website now, their price for the exact same time of year is only 14,80 Euros a night. How did we get ripped off so bad? Was it a mistake by the hostel? Did Wattsenglish have them charge us more (as paranoid as this sounds… I could see it happening)? Or did they just book us the most expensive room in the place?
As you can see above, we were promised two rooms – one for females, and one for males. This is not what we got. We were all put together in a large dorm room that probably held 12 people (I can’t quite remember sadly. A 12-person coed dorm room for $25 a night in a back alley location of Prague? RIPOFF. If we were in the center, I could understand, but we were in Žižkov, which is a cute little suburb away from all the tourist attractions. What’s more, the room wasn’t even reserved for only Wattsenglish teachers. There were some other random people in there who we didn’t even know – really awkward when you are trying to meet and socialize with your new colleagues.
Basically, Wattsenglish screwed up again. Really, they just blatantly lied. If you aren’t going to reserve two separate rooms, don’t say you are. I didn’t really care that males and females were mixed, but it’s just the principle of the matter. Obviously there is a certain level of discomfort when rooming with a guy because you can’t change in the room or walk around in your underwear, at least without feeling uncomfortable.
If you aren’t going to reimburse us for the hostel, don’t say you are. It was a nice gesture to cover some of the bill. But I’m still waiting for the rest of my crowns. And I’ll be waiting forever.
And lastly, don’t pick such an expensive hostel when I know for a fact that there is a hostel of similar standards for $10 a night that is much closer to your “training facility”.
