The place to ask China-related questions!
Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzhen Chengdu Xi'an Hangzhou Qingdao Dalian Suzhou Nanjing More Cities>>

Categories

Close
Welcome to eChinacities Answers! Please or register if you wish to join conversations or ask questions relating to life in China. For help, click here.
X

Verify email

Your verification code has been sent to:

Didn`t receive your code? Resend code

By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .

Sign up with Google Sign up with Facebook
Sign up with Email Already have an account? .
Posts: 2

Governor

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Q: Is it normal for a school to require their teachers to report ALL of their movements off campus?

I work at a school near to Zhengzhou and my school has required us to report ALL of our movements outside the school gates to the foreign affairs office. Whether it be going out the gate for some street food or going into the nearby city.

I'm not sure if this is legally required, but if it is could anyone explain why this has been deemed necessary?

7 years 29 weeks ago in  Visa & Legalities - Zhengzhou

 
Highest Voted
Posts: 2774

Emperor

2
2
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

It is a bit abnormal to say the least.

 

There must be quite a history of douchbaggery and much going on now for this random requirement to appear.

 

I would be skeptical to hear it is legal but what are you gonna do? One would expect there to be some cryptically worded clause in your contract (in chinese) that you glossed over that says something about this in a vague way.

 

I suggest that you play the game for a while until it is invariably forgotten....the least course of resistance is usually the best plan in the early stages until it gets put in the too hard basket.

 

Of course they may just be looking for an easy out to fire someone for behavioural reasons or for just being unharmonious.

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Answers (12)
Comments (7)
Posts: 2774

Emperor

2
2
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

It is a bit abnormal to say the least.

 

There must be quite a history of douchbaggery and much going on now for this random requirement to appear.

 

I would be skeptical to hear it is legal but what are you gonna do? One would expect there to be some cryptically worded clause in your contract (in chinese) that you glossed over that says something about this in a vague way.

 

I suggest that you play the game for a while until it is invariably forgotten....the least course of resistance is usually the best plan in the early stages until it gets put in the too hard basket.

 

Of course they may just be looking for an easy out to fire someone for behavioural reasons or for just being unharmonious.

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 19790

Emperor

1
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
1

I have similar matter written in the Contract : 'if I'll inform owner about moving out and return to the working city, she will assist me at any problems I'll experienced .....',

 

however, I moved myself/negotiatedangel apartment out of the Campus.

 

But yeah (agree w/ Wolf), just do it few (2) times and they'll forget about it.

iWolf:

Welcome back to Harmony Guo mate. How was your holiday?

7 years 29 weeks ago
Report Abuse

icnif77:

Vacation was blast. They really made me walk some 3km (up-hill, of course) on the rocky, mountain road, like real mountaineer. I was with noble carry-on luggage piece, but the bus suddenly stopped and 'walk' command was given.

 

Some roads in Nepal aren't really 'roads'. It's like some 10 m wide river can turn into the road for crossing. By bus. Wild!

7 years 29 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 256

Governor

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

It's not legally required and you can refuse to tell them.
If they have a problem, simply ask why?

Most likely they've had teachers either leave or report their illegal activities to the bureau a few times.
Now their solution is to monitor the teachers instead of stop doing illegal things.
This is most likely the reason judging on my past experiences.

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2878

Shifu

0
2
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
2

Yeah that doesn't make sense...remember that every expat here isn't a "foreign teacher"...do you think Westerners working for Citigroup or P&G are asked to report their movements to their boss? 

 

No, of course not. That's just provincial trash enjoying the idea of exercising power over someone. They think they can treat you like dirt and if you let them...they are right. Don't let them. Teaching jobs are a dime a dozen you can find one where they don't expect you to report your movements. 

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 272

Governor

1
2
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
1

This is way over the top when it come to control.  Usually these are just contract clauses that no one enforces.  Most of the time schools require that you tell them when you leave the city.

If I were you I would tell the school of EVERY movement outside the school. In other words try to walk outside the gate often to get a little exercise or buy some water or something. After a while whoever is on the other will get tired of it and tell you to forget it.

xinyuren:

Yeah, haha, I'd have fun with this: Today I went to the park, so many babies taking a dump in the street. Then I walked past the railway station where some Ayis tried to pull me in their shop to have sex with their "xiao jie". This afternoon, I went with some students to..... every little detail. My report would be pages long.

7 years 29 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Englteachted:

"If I were you I would tell the school of EVERY movement outside the school. In other words try to walk outside the gate often to get a little exercise or buy some water or something. After a while whoever is on the other will get tired of it and tell you to forget it."

 

I second this, but I'd go one step further. Everything I do I'd tell them even in my apartment. And do it with phone calls especially at around 2:00am

 

7 years 29 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Englteachted:

Xinyu: wasn't you who said we are simply here to fill a need? 

7 years 29 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Shining_brow:

Why not have a constant conversation going as you're doing it...

 

"hello? I'm just ringing to tell you I'm now at the gate, walking outside to get some street food... I'm now about 10meters from the gate, and still walking... now I'm about 20 meters... Ok, I think I'm about 35 meters outside the gate, and there's a street food vendor who wants to sell me something...."

 

Running commentaries :D

7 years 29 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 4421

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Sorry to ask, but where are you from? I only witnessed a case like this at a school that hired Filipino teachers and they kept their passports and if they wanted their passports back they had to give a one month salary deposit and they did all the things they did to you.

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 548

Shifu

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Legally, you are only required to report to the police and/or school when you RETURN from being outside of China. With that said, I worked at a school that told me that I had to report whenever I left the city. I simply told the Communist party rep from the school "No". They tried to say it was a new law. I again simply said "No". If they did not like me saying "No" or were upset by my refusal, they could release me from my contract. There are many jobs for teachers in China. Sometimes I bend. Other times I hold my ground. Here, I held my ground.

It is not a matter of control, as many will have you believe. It is so they are knowledgable about your whereabouts if you get into trouble. This became very clear to me when a car hit me on my ebike recently. Within a couple of hours, the police notified the local exat authorities. Those authorities called my school to see if they were aware of my accident. From that point on, the school took the lead and assisted me with everything that needed to be done for my well-being. If I had chose to remain silent, the situation could have gotten messy with the language barrier.

In the case of this question, reporting every step outside of the school gate seems far excessive. But, when you travel, it is not such a bad idea to give them an idea of where you will be. You should not have to give comlplete, minute-to-minute details. Just give them an idea of the city or cities you will be going to.

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 5321

Emperor

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
2

Like Nashboroguy said above, the school does need to know where you are sometimes.

 

The way I understand it is.. when they sponsor your visa they become at least partly responsible for you, and for your actions. If you get into trouble or get yourself hurt or killed it will probably come back on the school somehow.

 

I can see how a school, wanting to keep their heads down and not attract unwelcome drama or attention from the PSB might be a bit over the top in the way they try to manage their foreign teachers.

 

That being said, I've also heard of schools - usually the type where they have their teachers working illegally on travel visas, confiscate passports, don't pay on time and then deduct huge amounts in 'taxes' and 'fines' doing the same thing. I'm sure this is mostly to keep the teacher helpless and under their control. Slaves don't get to have too much freedom or they might run....

 

There is also the chance some power tripping local cop or official demanded this from the school. It doesn't have to have anything to do with the actual law, it might just be that police chief Zhou wank decided he wanted to give the school a hard time because their last hongbao wasn't fat enough or something.

Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2878

Shifu

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
2

Nashboroguy and Stiggs and everyone else that thinks that...no they don't need to know your comings and goings unless being a teacher has some entirely different legal status than every other (legal) job. I went back home last month and the only thing I had t do was apply for my vacation leave in the company attendance system. My boss is in and out between here, singapore and scotland on a regular basis. He is obsessed with keeping everything on the level and he doesn't inform the police nor does anyone in the office do it on his behalf.

 

Your school might be telling you that but they just don't trust you (which i'm sure entirely reflects on them and not on you...definitely not making a dig at either of you guys) and don't want to get in trouble so they treat you like children. Even outside of big cities like Shanghai do you think that foreign personnel at MNCs are treated like that? Some expat engineer or QC manager for P&G or Nike gets told they need to let the police know what they are doing? Definitely not. Don't let them fool you with that BS

Stiggs:

That's the thing, legal status. It doesn't mean much sometimes. They might not NEED to according to law but then what does the law mean to a low level official.

 

I'm sure you'd agree that rules and the law in China is often interpreted differently depending on your situation and who you know. The more power and guanxi you have, the less chance you have of being bullied and pushed around.

 

A  MNC is a lot higher on the food chain than the Happy Giraffe Engrish School who was able to hire a few foreign teachers because the owner's brother knows a guy who owes him a favor and they give him a huge fruit basket every Chinese holiday and take him out to KTV twice a year.

A school like that is going to be having to deal with crap from every petty little official wanting to be the emperor, so what they demand goes regardless of what the rules say.

The MNC presumably is at the level where they don't get the petty nonsense from lowly officials, such as harassing the foreign staff.

 

I do agree with your point though, people shouldn't have to deal with that crap and in theory don't need to. I'd never work somewhere where I had to.

7 years 28 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
7 years 29 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2531

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

No. 

 

They don't even watch their own children with such intensity. 

 

It is ridiculous... Just don't do it... if they ask why you why you don't do it... use Chinese excuses. 

 

First ask them... do you do it? 

Then... I forgot. 

Then... must have been some sort of misunderstanding. 

Then back to... I forgot. 

Then just copy and paste an excerpt from Shakespeare and if they actually read it... which they won't... then "ooops MISUNDERSTANDING". 

 

Then repeat until they are too fed up to pull this crap on future teachers. 

Report Abuse
7 years 28 weeks ago
 
Know the answer ?
Please or register to post answer.

Report Abuse

Security Code: * Enter the text diplayed in the box below
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <br> <p> <u>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Textual smileys will be replaced with graphical ones.

More information about formatting options

Forward Question

Answer of the DayMORE >>
A:  "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "S
A: "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "Shenzhen agent can connect you with an employer, who's authorized to hire waigouren ... and can sponsor Z visa." It's not like every 10th person you meet in Shenzhen's hood can sponsor work visa ...  The only way to change from student to labourer visa is just a regular way by: 1. Finding an employer, who'll apply for an Invitation letter; 2. Exit China and apply for Z visa in your home country's Chinese embassy; 3. Enter China in 30-days after Z visa was stamped into your travelling instrument ...As I am aware, you won't be able to switch to Working permit by remaining in China....,so make ready for a return to your home .... -- icnif77