Topic: Office Politics - The Do's and Don'ts

[MrQ]

When I started out at my current school we had a foreign manager who because he was English and had the title Manager, I believed he was a good person to listen to and in theory he was my boss.

Over the space of 4 months I slowly got dragged into his world of fighting everything that he thought was wrong with the school; my life became hell. He was a terrible Manager who involved his staff in all his petty arguments and spent most of his time slagging off anything to do with Thailand or the School Director (who incidentely was his friend).

It turned out after a while that this guy had no managerial experience at all and even though he kept whitering on about how the Director was just in her position because of people she knew he was in exactly the same position.

I resigned. It lasted three days then I explained to the Director that I would stay as long as I was kept out of any of his arguments. She agreed. Slowly the Managers powers were whittled away completely and before long he had another tantrum and quit as the Manager (unfortunately he stayed on as a teacher).

So the my expert opinion on this is to way up the consequences of being involved in office politics. If it is going to benefit you such as getting rid of a teacher who is incompetant then maybe it is worth your while. If it has no real benefit to you, do your best to keep out of it or your days will just get longer and longer.

It is hard to avoid especially in the ESL world.

Good luck.

[Gonzo]

I am currently employed in middle management at a Thai school. I usually enjoy my job but the exception days have brought me to real tears at times. It is no picnic.
Most middle management positions are paper tigers. No real authority to take the action you would like to. I am caught between an inscrutable or intractable upper management and a constantly changing group of mostly western foreigners. The newbies are always in various stages of culture shock. The old hands can be cynical and just as intractable as the management. Cultural diplomacy is probably the largest skill that is required and in many cases it is sorely lacking, like your example MrQ.
Some days I hate my staff for their ignorance or sheer western bloody mindedness. I call it the colonial mindset. The west knows best.
Other days I would cheerfully line up my management and gleefully watch them commit suicide at gunpoint for the sheer inanity of their pronouncements.

Why do I do it?
Better money. - A family to support.
Improved job security. - Ditto.
A chance to influence or change things for the better. - My own satisfaction.
Through the above influence I am having an impact on the lives and education of 2500 students, soon to be 4000. - My desire to teach.

I don't regret taking on the job. "Regrets aren't worth a bugger son." as my Dad once told me. The experience I am gaining will stand me in good stead for later employment but then, change happens in a day. One bad day in the future and I may change my opinion about regrets.

[hero]

I am also employed in "middle management" here in Thailand.  "Middle management" in terms of rank, but as far as actually managing goes I'm pretty low end  

I find myself feeling like a bird with no wings.  I don't consider myself to have the educational background or experience to be managing a school particularly and I was pretty clear on this when I took the job, I do have training and experience in man-management and I was happy to take on an administration/motivational role.  I wasn't surprised to find that the expectations placed on me are pretty low, I am not often asked to do anything above managing absence and general administration duties which is fine.  I am however a proactive kind of person and have come up with a few ideas on improving performance and morale particularly, which is a big problem here, partly due to teacher's perceptions of the top management (often unjustified, but brought about by cultural differences mainly!) and partly because some of the teachers in all honesty aren't cut out for the job they are doing!  My ideas, generally, are welcomed with open arms, debated, implemented in a weakened form and then forgotten about

I have at this stage, 9 months into the job, just about given up!  Not particularly because I am angry with the management for their inability to do anything, or particularly because I am fed-up at the irresponsible atitude of a minority of the teachers that make problems for all (this seems to happen at almost all schools here from what I have seen and heard and is a by-product of poor management IMO).  The reason I will quit at the end of the semester is because I just don't want to be doing a job where I am unable to do anything!

The Thai management don't help me but expect me to improve everything overnight and the farang staff want me to help solve their problems but are unwilling to compromise on anything

So it's been an experience, but not one I will be eager to repeat.  I have a teaching position lined up for next semester and frankly I can't wait.

[MrQ]

I'l take your paper tiger job from you if you want could do with the feeling of doing nothing for a year so I appreciate the teaching more next time.

[NukeThemSlowly]

The Thai schools I've seen seem to regard the foreign middle manager as the "suppressor" rather than a negotiator.  His job (in their view) is mainly to prevent the upper (Thai) management from being bothered by their peons.  If he tries to represent the teachers to management, he will simply be the messenger who gets shot.  It's best to avoid these kinds of positions unless you enjoy being isolated and ostracised by all sides.