Altogether I worked for the British Council for about seven years and had an exemplary record until the event described below. I had the Trinity Diploma TESOL (with a distinction in one category) and had even helped design some IELTS courses during my time. I had always cooperated with the management and uncomplainingly performed all my duties, which in Bahrain involved teaching to Kids, Teens and Adults all in the same day. While well short of being perfect, I nevertheless felt I was an asset to the organisation and a model professional. In fact, I was hoping to eventually move up to management positions myself and saw myself spending the rest of my working life with the BC.
Although a fair while ago now, I feel that it's important that my story is told, firstly just for the record, but more importantly so that current and future employees are aware of how the British Council can and do treat even their most loyal employees. It's unlikely that many teachers will be as unlucky as I was, as the scenario I found myself in was a kind of disciplinary "perfect storm". Nevertheless, it's precisely because these kinds of incident are so efficiently hushed up and repressed by the BC that it's important to give them daylight.
My downward spiral with them began in February 2012 in Bahrain, when I was suspended on the absurd charges of bringing the BC into disrepute through suspected political activity in the classroom. Poignantly, my mother had died exactly one week before, such that I was already in a fairly distraught emotional state when this second bullet came. Needless to say, I was completely cleared of all the charges, though not till after a whole month of full suspension, during which time I was placed in complete incommunicado with anyone in the BC. The incident actually revolved around a comment a student had made to other students in Arabic. I didn't even know it had happened. However, the BC, being the bureaucratic organisation it is, as a final solution put me on a Performance Improvement Programme (PIP), which is in effect the inevitable corollary of almost any "serious" complaint. My line manager at the time, Sam Stevenson, then proceeded to completely trash me as a teacher, claiming that no aspect of my classroom management was up to even the minimum standard. He was clearly a man on a mission. His final end of year report for me in April was totally damning, and resulted in the BC Malaysia, where I was contracted to begin working from May, revoking my contract.
There were two incredible things about this. The first was that Malaysia revoked my contract exactly nine days before I was due to travel. My wife was also pregnant at the time. We were in complete turmoil. We didn't even know what country to go to. Our whole world was suddenly turned upside down. The BC did give three months severance pay, but that was nowhere near satisfactory compensation in view of the complexity of our life situation. Three months go incredibly quickly when you're unemployed. We also relocated twice, which was very expensive.
The second shocking feature of the whole saga was the way my damning end of year report (EOYROP) had been compiled. My line manager, Sam Stevenson, had never given me my Annual Observations, which are supposed to be mandatory. In fact, he had taken zero interest in my teaching over the whole year, which, in my opinion, represents clear professional negligence on his part. Instead, the EOYROP was based on a series of casual preliminary observations designed to assess areas of weakness for the PIP. These observations didn't even remotely meet professional standards. I wasn't asked for a lesson plan, nor was I even told when I would be observed. I also noticed that several of the negative features of the report were based on single isolated incidents. Another important feature was that the PIP was designed to focus specifically on negatives. No account was taken of all the good work I had put in throughout the year. Yet this report was amazingly presented as a rounded view of me for the whole year.
I had always got on well with my previous line managers, but this particular one seemed to really take a dislike to me. In fact, even before the suspension incident, I had tried to complain to my superiors that I felt bullied by him. He was actually 25 years my junior, but was always going on about my lack of respect. All I can say is that he certainly didn't have any respect for me. In fact, he seemed obsessed with hardlining me, subordinating and reprimanding me wherever possible. And he certainly must have known that his report would give me serious problems.
What was also significant was that this report was fully condoned by Ian Shears, the Deputy Teaching Centre manager at the time, which I felt was clear dereliction of duty on his side, as surely it is the centre manager's responsibility to protect any teacher from unfair treatment, or at least to look into it properly. I must say, though, that I wasn't surprised by this response from Ian Shears as I felt he had been largely behind the hardline approach the Bahrain management had adopted towards me.
I also tried to appeal to Andrew Spells, the MENA regional manager, but at every stage he fobbed me off with banal generalities, and at no point even considered the possibility that I might have a genuine grievance. Basically, he treated me like I was a sub-standard teacher "playing up", who needed to be subordinated, tow the line and accept the authority of my superiors, even if it was career damning. I felt particularly let down by his treatment of me, because surely it is the duty of senior managers to uphold the ideals of the organisation they work for. Frankly, I thought Andrew Spell's attitude was a disgrace to the British Council. There wasn't even an element of objectivity in his position. It was simply managers closing ranks.
Anyway, the result was that I felt so aggrieved that I actually brought a legal case against the BC. I felt I had a strong case, simply because they had so blatantly failed to follow their own procedures and had failed to assess me by their own professional standards. My lawyers came up with the possible routes of unfair dismissal, as well as constructive dismissal. They also tried to bring ageism into. Ageism was actually their idea, not mine, as that wasn't the main point, and I knew it would be difficult to prove. Like bullying it's often vague and undefined. Nevertheless, I felt it was true as an additional aspect.
Unfortunately, my lawyer hadn't done his homework properly, and as the date of the hearing at the Employment Tribunal approached it was obvious that my case was going to be kicked out. But not because my case was weak, but because I'd chosen the wrong jurisdiction. The contract was subject to the laws of Bahrain, and therefore the UK Tribunal would have to dismiss it (see my blog for my views on this). So in the end I had to settle for a pretty crummy compromise agreement which didn't even cover my lawyer's fees. By the way, lawyers make money out of you whether you win or lose.
I tried to follow the case up with some communication with the British Council HR, notably Susan Mawson, but basically they stonewalled me and refused to discuss any aspect of my experience. For example, I was never explained how my EOYROP was "fair", given that I had never had my Annual Observations, etc. I'm sure they knew they were wrong, but just didn't want to admit it. All the senior management was unified in that stance.
But that brings me to one of the main points of this blog, which is to highlight the lack of moral leadership within the BC. No one had the moral courage to look at the situation and say,"yes, we've treated this guy wrong", and do the honourable thing, i.e. either re-instate me or give me a proper settlement. Or even just an apology. Instead, they decided to try to win the case on legal technicalities (the jurisdiction) and suppress any further communication.
So that is why in the end I decided to air my views in a public forum.
Please also read what's under the Aims and Disclaimer tabs
Although a fair while ago now, I feel that it's important that my story is told, firstly just for the record, but more importantly so that current and future employees are aware of how the British Council can and do treat even their most loyal employees. It's unlikely that many teachers will be as unlucky as I was, as the scenario I found myself in was a kind of disciplinary "perfect storm". Nevertheless, it's precisely because these kinds of incident are so efficiently hushed up and repressed by the BC that it's important to give them daylight.
My downward spiral with them began in February 2012 in Bahrain, when I was suspended on the absurd charges of bringing the BC into disrepute through suspected political activity in the classroom. Poignantly, my mother had died exactly one week before, such that I was already in a fairly distraught emotional state when this second bullet came. Needless to say, I was completely cleared of all the charges, though not till after a whole month of full suspension, during which time I was placed in complete incommunicado with anyone in the BC. The incident actually revolved around a comment a student had made to other students in Arabic. I didn't even know it had happened. However, the BC, being the bureaucratic organisation it is, as a final solution put me on a Performance Improvement Programme (PIP), which is in effect the inevitable corollary of almost any "serious" complaint. My line manager at the time, Sam Stevenson, then proceeded to completely trash me as a teacher, claiming that no aspect of my classroom management was up to even the minimum standard. He was clearly a man on a mission. His final end of year report for me in April was totally damning, and resulted in the BC Malaysia, where I was contracted to begin working from May, revoking my contract.
There were two incredible things about this. The first was that Malaysia revoked my contract exactly nine days before I was due to travel. My wife was also pregnant at the time. We were in complete turmoil. We didn't even know what country to go to. Our whole world was suddenly turned upside down. The BC did give three months severance pay, but that was nowhere near satisfactory compensation in view of the complexity of our life situation. Three months go incredibly quickly when you're unemployed. We also relocated twice, which was very expensive.
The second shocking feature of the whole saga was the way my damning end of year report (EOYROP) had been compiled. My line manager, Sam Stevenson, had never given me my Annual Observations, which are supposed to be mandatory. In fact, he had taken zero interest in my teaching over the whole year, which, in my opinion, represents clear professional negligence on his part. Instead, the EOYROP was based on a series of casual preliminary observations designed to assess areas of weakness for the PIP. These observations didn't even remotely meet professional standards. I wasn't asked for a lesson plan, nor was I even told when I would be observed. I also noticed that several of the negative features of the report were based on single isolated incidents. Another important feature was that the PIP was designed to focus specifically on negatives. No account was taken of all the good work I had put in throughout the year. Yet this report was amazingly presented as a rounded view of me for the whole year.
I had always got on well with my previous line managers, but this particular one seemed to really take a dislike to me. In fact, even before the suspension incident, I had tried to complain to my superiors that I felt bullied by him. He was actually 25 years my junior, but was always going on about my lack of respect. All I can say is that he certainly didn't have any respect for me. In fact, he seemed obsessed with hardlining me, subordinating and reprimanding me wherever possible. And he certainly must have known that his report would give me serious problems.
What was also significant was that this report was fully condoned by Ian Shears, the Deputy Teaching Centre manager at the time, which I felt was clear dereliction of duty on his side, as surely it is the centre manager's responsibility to protect any teacher from unfair treatment, or at least to look into it properly. I must say, though, that I wasn't surprised by this response from Ian Shears as I felt he had been largely behind the hardline approach the Bahrain management had adopted towards me.
I also tried to appeal to Andrew Spells, the MENA regional manager, but at every stage he fobbed me off with banal generalities, and at no point even considered the possibility that I might have a genuine grievance. Basically, he treated me like I was a sub-standard teacher "playing up", who needed to be subordinated, tow the line and accept the authority of my superiors, even if it was career damning. I felt particularly let down by his treatment of me, because surely it is the duty of senior managers to uphold the ideals of the organisation they work for. Frankly, I thought Andrew Spell's attitude was a disgrace to the British Council. There wasn't even an element of objectivity in his position. It was simply managers closing ranks.
Anyway, the result was that I felt so aggrieved that I actually brought a legal case against the BC. I felt I had a strong case, simply because they had so blatantly failed to follow their own procedures and had failed to assess me by their own professional standards. My lawyers came up with the possible routes of unfair dismissal, as well as constructive dismissal. They also tried to bring ageism into. Ageism was actually their idea, not mine, as that wasn't the main point, and I knew it would be difficult to prove. Like bullying it's often vague and undefined. Nevertheless, I felt it was true as an additional aspect.
Unfortunately, my lawyer hadn't done his homework properly, and as the date of the hearing at the Employment Tribunal approached it was obvious that my case was going to be kicked out. But not because my case was weak, but because I'd chosen the wrong jurisdiction. The contract was subject to the laws of Bahrain, and therefore the UK Tribunal would have to dismiss it (see my blog for my views on this). So in the end I had to settle for a pretty crummy compromise agreement which didn't even cover my lawyer's fees. By the way, lawyers make money out of you whether you win or lose.
I tried to follow the case up with some communication with the British Council HR, notably Susan Mawson, but basically they stonewalled me and refused to discuss any aspect of my experience. For example, I was never explained how my EOYROP was "fair", given that I had never had my Annual Observations, etc. I'm sure they knew they were wrong, but just didn't want to admit it. All the senior management was unified in that stance.
But that brings me to one of the main points of this blog, which is to highlight the lack of moral leadership within the BC. No one had the moral courage to look at the situation and say,"yes, we've treated this guy wrong", and do the honourable thing, i.e. either re-instate me or give me a proper settlement. Or even just an apology. Instead, they decided to try to win the case on legal technicalities (the jurisdiction) and suppress any further communication.
So that is why in the end I decided to air my views in a public forum.
Please also read what's under the Aims and Disclaimer tabs
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