Progressing Your Career

It is normal for any employee anywhere to look to advance their career, and British Council employees are certainly no different.  Most companies or organisations have reasonably clear career paths, and most employees can expect to make progress if they are committed and play their cards right. 

So how is the British Council different?  Well, the most important factor is that almost all managerial positions are based on what is called the competency based interview, which is basically a series of questions designed to test your development in specific skills areas.  That's fine as far as it goes.  However, importantly, no consideration is taken of you holistically.  For example, your years of service, your achievements, your contributions, etc, none of these will count.  It's simply how you handle the set of questions you get on the day that matters.  It's also possible to coach oneself up for these questions, as they tend be highly formulaic, as is so typical within the BC.  So what happens is that the most suitable candidates don't necessarily get the position.  It's more likely to be someone who is clever at handling that type of interview.

Incredibly, within the British Council, there is no management training.  Basically, managers pick up the job as they go along. It also means that teachers trying to move up the scale are often caught in a Catch 22 situation.  For example, a candidate might be asked, "Describe a time when you ...." relative to a management role.  However, if you've never been in such a role, how are you going to answer that question?  Most people either make something up or try to bluff their way through.  It also opens the door for teachers applying from outside the BC who have managed at other schools, because they can easily leapfrog you.  The reason this is of concern is because, as per usual, the British Council shows no loyalty to its own.  When I was with the BC, I saw so many managers come in from other schools, often bringing in a completely different corporate culture and associated values.

So what's the solution? Well, one obvious one would be simply to start giving proper management training courses, specifically tailored to the needs and values of the British Council.  That way, any teacher interested in progressing could do a course, such that when he or she then applies for a management role, he or she will be in a strong position and fully clued up.  It would also make it much easier for existing BC personnel to progress ahead of external candidates.  The other obvious improvement would be to expand the interview, so that any candidate is assessed holistically.

One would think that someone somewhere in the British Council's Human Resources department in London would be coming up with ideas like this and more. Sadly, however, this is not so.  The big shots in HR seem only to be concerned with recruiting big names for the upper echelons of the BC.  They seem completely unconcerned about the situation at ground level in teaching centres. And in many ways, this is the whole problem with the BC, in that the rot starts from the top.  It's that complete lack of interest and indifference toward the lot of the average teacher that personifies the British Council.

Let's hope the HR leaders in London can start doing something to justify their high salaries.

Contracts and Legal Issues

Most teachers when they sign a contract probably don't even notice many of the legal features of their contracts.  Understandably, they're usually more concerned about their salaries and benefits, etc., and assume that there won't be any glitches in their employment.  And usually they're right.  Nevertheless, it's always unwise as a point of principle not to read any contract fully and properly before signing it. 

One of the most interesting features of British Council contracts for teachers is that they almost all are subject to the law of the country the teaching centre is in rather than UK law.  What this means is that if you do have a dispute with the British Council for any reason, it will have to be done in the local courts of the country you are or were employed in.  In my opinion, this is a clever device the BC use to avoid taking responsibility.  I'll explain below.

Firstly, there's simply the awkwardness and complexity of contesting in a foreign court or tribunal system.  Initially, there's the obvious problem of language, not to mention possibly completely different cultural values, as in Muslim states for example.  But, even more importantly, what if you have already left the country, as was my case?   Yet another point is what if your case spans two different centres, again exactly as it was in my case (Bahrain and Malaysia)?  Which court do you go to?  The sheer impracticality of bringing a sustained case against the BC leaves most potential complainants completely frustrated.

I feel this is particularly hypocritical of the BC, because anyone who works for them knows that there is almost complete uniformity across all centres with regard to values, standards, procedures and practices.  To all intents and purposes one teaching centre is pretty much like another, with exactly the same forms, procedures, structures and positions.  Even the contracts are worded the same.  Often even the same people.  The BC is clearly one organisation spanning several countries with the basic blueprint ultimately coming from London.  You can argue legal technicalities till you're blue in the face, but it won't change that basic truth at ground level. 

In my opinion, this truth should be reflected in any contract's jurisdiction, which should include London as well as the local courts.  This would enable anyone who felt they had a genuine grievance to choose and continue at their leisure, knowing they have the support of the home legal system to fall back on.  Ironically, it would also make it easier for the BC in the unlikely event that they themselves wanted to bring a case.

While on the subject of the BC as a global organisation, the BC now only recruits through their regional HQ.  For example, if you wanted to work in Thailand you would have to apply through Singapore.  They've been doing this for several years now.  To me this is more confirmation that the BC is one organisation and is becoming increasingly centralised, which again should be reflected in the contract's jurisdiction.  It's an incredibly grey area, and to me a contradictory one, in that the BC say they want local centres to be more autonomous, yet are shackling them with further centralisation.

Anyway, I certainly hope none of you readers will ever have occasion to be involved in a dispute, but if you are, do be warned how complex it will be.

Bullying in the British Council

Hi Bloggers,

I used to be involved with BC for some of their examinations.  As part of it, I remember once doing an online Child Protection Awareness course, which was very commendable.  As it happened, it wasn't particularly relevant to me personally, as I no longer taught children, nor were there any Kids classes where I was working. 

However, what interested me about the course was that there were several threads that almost exactly corresponded with bullying in the workplace, which was something I myself experienced during my time with the British Council.  It's a pity the British Council don't do a similar course for that.  I suppose it's not as high profile and is also purely internal.  Nevertheless, they do need to have some kind of program in place.

At present, they try to deal with it informally first, and then you have the option to make a grievance if all this fails.  What they don't have is an independent person or body to look at the situation.  What this means is that one has to complain first to one's immediate supervisors.  But what if they are they very ones you feel you are being bullied by?

Generally, managers within the BC close ranks if one of their own is criticized.  They're extremely hypocritical in this respect.  Trying to get anyone to take you seriously is almost impossible. Basically, they will fob you off with banal generalisations, like it's good to listen to feedback and criticism, or I don't know enough about the background or simply pass the buck to someone else.  In fact, this is exactly what the regional head, Andrew Spells, did to me.  No one will take up your cause.  They will do everything they can to block you.  Your only hope may be the Teachers' Rep, but, in reality, he has almost no power, as he is basically just another teacher.

Another thing is that bullying is often vague and ill-defined, and usually difficult to prove.  Often it's just a sustained attitude of treating someone as being of no value.  It can often be an accumulation of small incidents. It's also difficult to report because you may feel fazed by the bully and fear further reprisal.   I remember I tried to bring it up with the deputy centre manager where I was working (Ian Shears) because I felt I was getting unfair treatment from my line manager, but incredibly he just ignored me, not even calling me in for a chat.  Instead, in the end he wrote me this amazing email, in which he had come to the conclusion that no bullying was taking place, since he had observed my interaction with the alleged bully, my line manager.  But obviously a bully is going to behave correctly when he knows he's being observed.  What happens behind closed doors may be completely different.  Another thing the manager did was to copy the bully in on my original email, which he did out of "courtesy" to the latter, with absolutely no regard for my right to confidentiality.  There was certainly no courtesy towards me.  Needless to say, my relationship with the bully worsened significantly, the final result being a career damning end of year report.

So my suggestion is that they have an unbiased independent officer or body, similar to that prescribed for Child Protection, to look at any grievance of this nature.  This is important because it will remove the possibility of managers closing ranks and put them under some pressure to live up to British Council standards.  They need to be accountable just like anyone else.

Management Culture

My theme of the day is the management culture within the British Council.  There are two main features I've noticed - firstly, avoidance and denial, and, secondly, that procedures are more important than people.  Regarding the first, if there is any kind of problem, most BC managers will initially try and see if they can simply ignore it and hope it goes away.  Just stodge it out, so to speak. Failing that, they will either try and pass it on to someone else or simply deny it.  I experienced this first hand when I was unfairly treated last year, through both their failing to follow their own procedures and also some pretty blatant bullying by my line manager.  No matter which manager I approached, they either said it was somebody else's problem or just blanked me out with generalities.  No manager would actually consider the possibility that I had a case worth considering or look at the specifics.  Basically, they closed ranks on me and shut me out completely.  This was my own particular experience, but I know there are countless other examples from speaking with my former colleagues. 

Clearly, they need a system and a managerial mindset that allows complaints to be made without the risk of the complainant becoming a pariah.  The teacher's rep system is not enough.  They need to appoint an unbiased officer who deals specifically with any kind of complaint or grievance. At present, it often the very people who dish out the punishment who also are expected to deal with it justly and objectively.  That's obviously not going to work, particularly within their cosy culture.

As for procedures being more important than people, a great example is when I myself was suspended on a clearly absurd charge of pushing politics in the classroom.  There was a complaint because some strong political remarks had been made in Arabic.  The manager obviously simply looked up his procedures manual and immediately suspended me for bringing the BC into disrepute.  He did not think of the obvious course of action of first having a private chat with me. If he had it would immediately become clear that this was a problem of Arabic in the classroom, rather than a teacher deliberately trying to stir  up trouble.  A problem that incidentally affected many other teachers too.  In addition my mother had died three days before.  Surely, anyone with people skills would have spoken to me and bent over backwards to avoid suspending at such a sensitive time?  But no, in the British Council procedures are more important than people.  The fact that I had worked at the BC for seven years and contributed in a variety of areas counted for nothing.  I was no longer a name, but was instantly transformed into an object or number to be treated as impersonally as possible according to the procedures manual.  No manager I complained to would hear anything of it.  As usual they all completely closed ranks.

So what's the solution to that kind of thing?  Well, firstly, one thing I noticed was that most managers know very little about their teachers.  If you asked any manager what a particular teacher's strengths were and what he had contributed, he or she would almost certainly come up with a blank.  Recently, it has almost a mantra to say "see your line manager", but from a teacher's point of view that's paramount to saying "don't bother me".  Not exactly a line that's going to make you feel valued.  Employees need to feel connected with senior management.  That's what makes you feel you belong, are valued and have a future within the organisation.  Without that, morale is bound to be low, particularly if the line manager is relatively junior.  So what I suggest is that there is a policy of "know your teachers" amongst managers.  Every manager should have a full dossier on what is good about every teacher and what their contributions have been.  This should also involve a bi-annual one to one meeting, where there's a real opportunity for two way communication.  This way teachers will feel valued.  Candour and engagement is what is needed, both ways.