Frustrations
Last night, Stick predicted that I wouldn’t get paid on time, because the new shift in the state holiday calendar has led to an increase in mei you frustration. The holidays were rearranged to break up the long Golden Week holiday and give out more 3-day weekends throughout the year, which is actually a nice thought. I don’t know how this works in other fields, but for teachers, that means you need to make up an extra day’s worth of classes in your free time, because you have Monday off because Sunday is a holiday.
Anyway, I’m supposed to be paid on the tenth of every month, so I went to the financial office today to pick up my pay. It wasn’t there. A bunch of different reasons were discussed, I think it had something to do with someone along the way not submitting their timesheets to the school’s general payroll in time, apparently the deadline changed due to the holiday.
I went back to my boss and mentioned that today is payday, and I’d like to get paid. I was first told that there was no problem, then told that nobody else’s pay is ready, either.
Now, I don’t know what everyone else’s contracts promise, or whether everyone else would like to be paid on payday. But telling me that everyone else is also screwed doesn’t pay me OR increase my confidence in my school’s ability to solve this matter.
Also, there’s something my mom used to tell me about what everybody else is doing. Something about everybody else and jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge…
I argued with different people in different offices for a while, which started to make me feel like a demanding, entitled foreigner, until I remembered that I was arguing to get paid my agreed-on salary on my contract-specified date.
Then it was pointed out to me that it’s actually the tenth of the month all day long, so I really haven’t been screwed until the close of business today. And maybe if I wait, they’ll have it all straightened out by this afternoon. Maybe.
Related: Dragon Boat Day two years ago in Yantai
June 11th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
so… we’re all waiting with bated (sp?) breath, did you get your pay or did you find yourself leaping like a lemur from brooklyn bridge?
June 11th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
[…] Dragon Boat Day two years later in Beijing Tags: Chinese customs, Chinese food, dragon boat day, […]
June 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Of all the problems I ever had in China, getting paid was not one of them. Thank God.
I had a friend who went to China before me though who told me a story about how he didn’t get paid for 2 or 3 months because the school was in financial ruin. He was pretty calm about it, and did eventually get paid - after he went on strike. I would have been a lot more mad than he was. That’s for sure.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I guess you didn’t know Chinese contracts are actually more like guidelines…
June 12th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
and by “guidelines” you actually mean bullshit
June 12th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
So? Did you have to go on strike? Did you get your pinkies?
June 12th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Remember, you get what you fight for, NOT what you’re promised!
June 13th, 2008 at 12:37 am
[…] everyone (both of you, ha!) waiting impatiently for the conclusion, I did manage to get paid on Tuesday. My school’s director really came through for me, and I […]
June 13th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Wow, this definitely sparked some commentary!
No strike, although Stick suggested that I come back to school after I’d been paid, and no lemming-ish leap to my death, either. Just a LONG freaking day of being told that no one can possibly help me and that I’m a really troublesome foreigner.
June 14th, 2008 at 3:10 am
I’m with Steven in Hangzhou. Contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on! I wonder why they even have them - really.
June 14th, 2008 at 9:18 am
A bit like the zebra crossings in the street… they’re a common sight but no one follows them!