As this coming Wednesday is the Chinese Tomb-Sweeping holiday, the subsequent schedule fluctuations ended up meaning that – in a once-in-a-blue-moon turn of events – all the teachers in my company had this weekend off. So a group of us decided to go to Tianzifang for dinner, drinks, and general merriment. Since Nancy and Caelan are still in Wenzhou, I was all by my onesies, but that was okay and I still had a good evening out.
But between the second… or third… or possibly fourth round of beers at the Thai restaurant we’d decided on, the conversation shifted to an interesting note; specifically, the still-ongoing legal limbo the company is in thanks to the intransigence and general dickishness of the now-former owners. I’ve detailed extensively the eye-crossing stupidity of the He’s and their idiotic power play, but it’s been surprising just how much of a headache even this transparently illegal stupidity has managed to give the majority shareholder – Pearson – and as a result, pretty much everyone else as well.
To quickly recap, the He’s decided that they’d try to go ahead and get the school’s operating license renewed… without the Pearson name attached to it anymore. This presented a bit of a problem, as they’d sold 70% of the company to Pearson a few years back. When negotiations went south – culminating in the He’s temporarily imprisoning the president of Pearson Asia-Pacific in their office – the company responded by trying to fire them, and stopping book sales and any other material support to the 20+ schools in Shanghai. The two parties went to, and are still in court.
Well, apparently they’ve reached some sort of arrangement: to the tune of Pearson buying out the remaining 30% from the He’s (though for significantly less than their initial gouge-tastic demand of 元50 million) and subsequently kicking them to the curb. Dust off your jackets, and all’s well, right? Well, not so much…
You see, the school license is to the He’s, and not to Pearson… so while the idea of buying out the former owner/manager might seem, to your silly Western brain, to automatically include such pivotal things as the license to operate… the glorious and harmonious Chinese way doesn’t see things in such a light. To that end, apparently in order for Pearson to continue operation in Shanghai, they’re going to have to move their schools. All of em. They are not allowed to use the facilities they are currently in, because those are still license to “Learning” and the He’s. Ain’t that a kick in the balls.
So what does that mean for lil’ old me? It was mentioned that in all likelihood this would be happening in May or June. It also means that a half dozen or so of the smaller, lower growth schools… like, say, mine… will simply be rolled into the larger, more centralized facilities. So in my case, probably that shithole known as Minhang Campus. I potentially could use this as a way to get to the nearby Xujiahui campus or something, but we’ll see.
In the wake of this, there are a fair number of longstanding teachers – including my direct coworker – who essentially thrown their hands up and said, “well screw that” and begun actively looking for new positions. Psychologically, I’m right there with them. One of the big reasons I’ve stayed in this position as long as I have is that Chunshen Campus is small, low growth, and out of the way. I’m quite happy being a big fish in a little pond. It excites me not at all to be transferred to some mega-center surrounded by people I’m not familiar with. Nu-uh. However, I’m still under contract until the end of August, so I’m not sending out my CV just yet.
I don’t want this post to drag on, so I’ll save my thoughts for the future for my next entry, which should be coming forthwith. Stay tuned.
(CS) TAW Out.
Through white, and green, and grey
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