czech it out / ways wattsenglish has wronged me

Ways Wattsenglish Has Wronged Me #2

by Kristy Snyder · Published May 23, 2013 · Updated July 12, 2015

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. There are a lot of problems with Wattsenglish and I just want people to know about them.

Lie #2: My salary

Unfortunately, I don’t have any written proof of confirmation of this, but I was promised to receive around $1200 USD working for Wattsenglish. This sounded like a pretty good deal to me, and was pretty on par with what the original job posting hinted at. As you can see above, it says the salary is up to 25,000 CZK a month, so of course I wasn’t expecting to receive the full sum (as I wasn’t experienced when I applied). In the exchange rate, that is about $1250 USD. So I was pleased when I was quoted $1200 in the Skype interview.
Then I got this email from the woman that was going to be my director (if Wattsenglish hadn’t decided to cancel my job once I arrived in the country). She was nice and planned out a little budget for me, but I noticed a glaring error – the salary was almost 4,000 CZK less than it should have been! I alerted her to the conversation I had with the Wattsenglish recruiter, and she gave me this answer: So apparently she had no idea and thought I was full of it. At this point, I was a little frustrated, but willing to see what happened. After all, numbers can get confused in people’s heads- as an English major, I am living and walking proof of that. Finally, though, I did get a reply: Just… what? What kind of company doesn’t tell any of its branches that they are raising the minimum salary for their employees? Mind you, this all was happening two weeks before classes started. The individual branches are the ones that determine the price of their English classes and collect money from students and parents, so they are basically in control of their financial needs. How can you simply NOT TELL A COMPANY that they will be paying their employees more? That’s like if Obama just decided to raise the minimum wage tonight, and expect all the companies in the US to start paying it out to their employees tomorrow. They would all go bankrupt. Brilliant management skills right here. Anyway, this all became void after the branch I was going to go to decided they no longer needed me, probably because they found out that they had to pay me more than they were planning on and didn’t have the correct funds. But that’s another post. Luckily, they were able to find me another position, and I thought all was well. But then I received my first paycheck – much smaller than expected! The same thing had happened, AGAIN! Wattsenglish had still not told the branches that they were supposed to raise their salary.

I probably should have quit at this point. The disorganization and ridiculousness of this company are unfathomable. Finally, my director received the confirmation she needed from the managing office, and I received the money I was promised. But really… if I hadn’t complained, I never would have gotten the correct salary. It now makes me wonder, are the other teachers in the other cities getting the salary Wattsenglish promised them? Was I the only one to notice their glaring lie? Or maybe I was just unlucky enough to be in contact with the only two cities they didn’t inform. It’s kind of personal to ask what someone is getting paid, so I haven’t looked into it. And at this point, it is irrelevant. Soon enough, I will be done with Wattsenglish and their chaotic and uninformative ways.

Tags: czech it out czech republic czk salary usd wattsenglish

Kristy Snyder

I'm a creative and quirky woman just looking to make her mark on the world. Writer, thinker, crafter, doer. Loves playing ice hockey and curling up with a good book. Traveling is a foremost passion and the road is always calling. Above all, I try to be an enjoyer of life.