Monkey Tree English Learning Center Reviews

-extremely dishonest company - easily, half of the people I knew while working there were in some manner of dispute with the head office regarding things ranging in severity - very long work days - most teachers do not get consecutive days off - often do not stick to agreements made with employees regarding pay, time off, contracts, etc.. - may need to "recalculate your salary" for some arbitrary reason that works out in their favor - most centers are very small and there aren't designated rooms for teachers to spend their free periods or do work (your belongings are often shifted around from table to table and you're left fighting for a decent seat on your off hours) - during the summer you may not even have an empty classroom during your break and you could be forced to just sit in the waiting room for your break (might be asked to leave the center all together and just go wait in a coffee shop!) - classes are usually filled with makeup students and trials who are unable to follow the scheduled lessons - class size limit is rarely adhered to - some centers are in disrepair (one in particular on Hong Kong island is full of black mold and still allows classes to continue despite health risks) - the new contract does not allow you to take annual holiday when you'd like (some annual leave days are given to you in long weekend chunks and cannot be taken in extended breaks) - contract completion bonus has been decreased and head office often looks for ways to not give it to teachers who've completed their contract - limited to 2 sick days and often do not want to honor the sick day policies enforced by the labor department (24 days per year with pay) - $10,000 contract breaking penalty (even if you give 2 months of notice) - course materials are often not prepared by the head office in time for the classes and are usually of poor quality (many spelling & grammar mistakes - prepared by substitute teachers with limited teaching experience or linguistic & language knowledge) - mandatory late nights even if you don't have a scheduled class ( must simply sit at school for an extra hour and twiddle your thumbs) - if you work on Saturdays you must stay until 5:30 even if you don't have class (I had a month stretch of no class after 3:00 on Saturdays and still had to sit there for 2.5 hours with nothing to do) - may have to teach 4-5 hours back to back to back without even a 5 minute break to get water or go to the bathroom - may schedule teachers to work more than they are contracted to - assessments of new incoming students may occur during break time and is not factored into your total teaching hours - very bad reputation amongst teaching community in Hong Kong - high turnover with mostly inexperienced teachers and management - head office requires you to pay $2,300 - $2,700 out of your pocket for a certification that, 1. they don't actually need, and 2. most other schools that DO require it for teaching permits , will pay for - have had multiple issues brought to the Professional Teachers' Union and Labor Department - often allows teachers (on tourist visas) to work before they have obtained their working visas, thus putting teachers at risk with immigration - students are often put into classes that are not appropriate for their level of English - management rarely listens to the suggestions of the teachers with regard to the placement of students - I would suggest reading from other people's experiences. There are a few blogs on wordpress which detail many issues.