Profi-Lingua anyone?

Does anyone have any experience of working with Profi Lingua? It doesn't seem particularly well run and I have recently had the experience of the management turning nasty because I won't sign one of their ridiculous contracts. Let me know how you deal/dealt with them!

Walking away would work well. It isn't like there's a shortage of other schools to work for.

I worked with them for 8 months and they are dodgy/shady. I've heard stories from so many other people and they are of ill repute. They are lazy and want you to do almost everything by way of administration. They lied to me that they had very few hours going and at a lower rate. They now have 3 natives so they are scum. Also, the observer was a bit*h. I told her where she could shove it as I wasn't interested in her comments.

Any other questions? The teachers themselves were really good.

Seanus, Can I ask which city you worked in? And did you have any experience of their dodgy contracts? I had a preliminary contract which expired but when the standard contract came through and I refused to sign it (other commitments, plus the conditions were AWFUL), they cut up pretty nasty, called me all sorts of names ... and I am waiting to hear if they will carry out their threats. The contract in the meantime is in the hands of a lawyer!

What's so dodgy about their contracts?

No option for resigning from the school before June 2010 - not even if you became pregnant, moved city or God forbid died - and if you do attempt to, then you have to pay THEM for each class you would miss either two or three times what they would have paid you. You have to arrange for your own substitute teachers if you are ill (so I'm still at a loss as to what the chattering women behind the receptions desks actually do all day if not admin). If you are unable to fulfill a contract you also have to pay them a fine of 1500 PLN ... If this is legal in Poland (and I have my doubts), then I think it needs to be challenged at EU level.

That's another stupid thing, you can't resign which may actually be illegal. I'll check up on that but you should have the right to resign. What if they suddenly u-turned (did one) or didn't honour their contract in some way, I wouldn't fancy going to a Polish court as who are they gonna favour? Do they still have the 10PLN cover rule? You have to find your own cover and pay for the calls you make to get sb. Yeah, they ask you to pay if you can't do a class. There was no room to be sick and that's probably the thing I remember the most. If some dic*head passed on the cold to me, what could I do? I was lucky in that I never took a sick day. There was another native speaker but he had his own groups and wasn't a replacement.

I've just re-read my contract and I remember that there was a fine of 30,000 for failing to meet the key obligations. That's quite a fine. 2000PLN was another fine thrown in there. They really are sharks and are nasty with almost all of their teachers.

but they wouldn't be able to run their business without the teachers!
it's funny, because currently I'm looking for a job and I found their advertisement on one of the websites and they are currently looking for teachers in many cities in Poland.This implies that something's wrong with that school.

And that's why we assembled a united front and told them straight, start treating us better. Another irritating thing they did was not giving me enough information about how to do the student reports the first time. In Scotland, it is the case that we write such a report so that another person can read it (third party). For example, my school teacher wrote 'Sean is a diligent pupil' etc etc. It's the same with these reports, I wrote them with the thought in mind that a prospective employer could read them. Therefore I wrote 'Paweł is very focussed' etc. They wanted me to personalise them and that struck me as a little odd. I told them that we don't do it that way at home and they asked me to do them again. I refused as it took quite some time to wade through all those groups.

Also, their advertising gets on my wick. Those leaflet distributors get next to nothing for standing out in the cold all that time. The 2 schools which cheated me before were NOVA, or NO VAcation as we called them. Profit-Lingua too.

How times have changed!

When I worked for Profi some 10 years ago things were much nicer. The management looked after the teachers. We were always paid on time. I don't remember any stupid contracts that had to be signed. However we did have to find a replacement teacher in the case of sickness, but it wasn't as if it had to be another native speaker so it wasn't really a big problem.

The school has grown a lot over the years with branches all over the country and I take my hat off to the management in that respect but I hear nothing but complaints from students and teachers that have any dealings with them nowadays. I should add that some of the complaints I hear from students are about the teachers and not only the school!

Regarding their leaflet distributors, who according to Seanus "get next to nothing for standing out in the cold all that time". They don't do so bad! And they don't have to do that job. Also in Gliwice and I guess many places in the country they are not the only school giving out leaflets, however it also gets on my wick as well.

Many teachers get raped by the schools. And if people accept bad conditions, this will not stop.

They don't do so bad? They don't do well at all. Profi's accounting was terrible. They made a mess of my accounting so I sought the services of a professional.

Hmmm I find it had to imagine that Seanus was employed as someone who gave out leaflets in the street, which was what my "they don't do so bad" comment was about!

Aha, well, if John Lennon did it with peace leaflets then I can too ;) ;)

I'd just laugh Profi off these days. Their boss actually had the cheek to invite me to be a friend on one of those friends' networks. I swiftly declined. Those baboons are no friends of mine.