Blackballing a teacher

[timmyjames]

I was thinking the same thing the other day.
You could ask some of your Taiwanese friends to call the school and inquire about you pretending you mentioned them on your resume.

I had my wife do this in the past as I was between jobs at one point and was surprised by the lack of replies from applications...turns out I was just being paranoid, and most likely exaggerating the length of time I was waiting in my own head. She called a few places and all they would say is that I worked there. She asked about whether I was a good employee/teacher and the schools would just tell her to decide that for herself or to do a demo.



I also want to yet again toss out the idea that if a school thinks you are a terrible employee, they would most likely want you to work for the competition.

[superking]

I also want to yet again toss out the idea that if a school thinks you are a terrible employee, they would most likely want you to work for the competition.

I agree with you TJ, but this would presuppose that the teacher had a realistic understanding of how crap they themselves are. Most will assign their failure to a fault of the school and not look inward. Therefore when jumping ship they therefore will believe the school to be losing a prize asset rather than seeing is as flushing an ineffectual turd down the drain.

[bigduke6]

Let's not forget the fact that most schools would not know a good teacher from a bad one.

[superking]

Let's not forget the fact that most schools would not know a good teacher from a bad one.

Yes, this is an equally fair and well made point. The attributes of a, 'good teacher,' do seem to vary quite considerably from those who know their apples to those who can polish apples in a humorous way.

[ShenKeng]

Personally, I have seen everything tried. They will call a school's director, but they won't say he's a bad teacher. They will say, "Don't hire him." This way, they aren't defaming you and they know it's a friend (a fellow colleague because they have a relationship with the other director). It's legal and they can do it. This, however, was in the past and doesn't say anything about now.

In the past, I saw it for myself. I was sitting in the office when it happened.

Metaphorically speaking, there are many ways to get to the same place.

This is different from blacklisting and things that have been talked about before. There's no written record and no proof. Unless someone is there and listening, nothing is known.

[ehophi]

Avoid blackballing with sufficient blackmailing. Don't let them know that you have it until it becomes an issue, though.

I won't have to worry about it, since they respect what I do at my school, but I always have this up my sleeve: "Give me a good recommendation when I leave, and this video of me correcting your Chinglish accent won't be on the Internetz, nor will any other recordings in my possession that demonstrate your overall incompetence to teach this language."