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School isn't letting me take contract home

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  1. #1

    School isn't letting me take contract home

    I am a new teacher who has just finished up my PGCE in the UK and have returned to Hong Kong to look for a full-time teaching position. I got a job offer from a local school but when I asked if I could take the contract away to look it over and make sure everything was okay for me, the HR manager gave a very adamant 'No'.

    I have a friend who works at a local school who said this is normal and another friend who works in an international school who is it is not normal at all. I personally find it a bit suspicious but I have no experience in this matter.

    Looking for some opinions on what I should do and whether this is normal.


  2. #2

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    No school experience, but in a general employment sense I would run a mile. NOT normal at all.

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  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirblondie:
    I am a new teacher who has just finished up my PGCE in the UK and have returned to Hong Kong to look for a full-time teaching position. I got a job offer from a local school but when I asked if I could take the contract away to look it over and make sure everything was okay for me, the HR manager gave a very adamant 'No'.

    I have a friend who works at a local school who said this is normal and another friend who works in an international school who is it is not normal at all. I personally find it a bit suspicious but I have no experience in this matter.

    Looking for some opinions on what I should do and whether this is normal.
    You shouldn't sign it unless you have a chance to give it a thorough read.
    Natfixit, spode and MatthieuTofu like this.

  4. #4

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    Ask for a photocopy?


  5. #5

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    It's been forever since I have had to look at employment contracts, but from what I recall, it was pretty standard to not allow people to take them away unsigned. This used to be part of our process when I was making hiring decisions, and walking recruits through the contract.

    I can recall a couple reasons for this- one was that the contract had already been signed by the company, we didn't want open ended legal documents floating around out there. The other was that we didn't want to facilitate a situation where a potential recruit could go back and wave the physical contract at their current employer to use as a negotiation tool.

    What we did do was have someone (well, usually me) point out the salient bits of the contract, then give the person was much time as they wanted to go through the document alone but on premises, then give them the chance to ask followup questions to clarify anything.

    It helped that the contracts were quite simply written. I have no idea what common practice is with schools though.

    shri, hike, drumbrake and 6 others like this.

  6. #6

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    A blank copy of the contract marked as 'Draft' or something line that not possible?


  7. #7

    I asked but she again just said 'no'. I am going to call tomorrow and ask for the reason why in as polite a way as possible and hopefully suss out if it's for a good reason.


  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    I can recall a couple reasons for this- one was that the contract had already been signed by the company, we didn't want open ended legal documents floating around out there. The other was that we didn't want to facilitate a situation where a potential recruit could go back and wave the physical contract at their current employer to use as a negotiation tool.
    Yes, I can understand this. Thank you!

  9. #9

    Yes, I will ask if I can have quite a bit of time to go through it thoroughly to make sure I don't miss anything and see what they say.


  10. #10

    Too true which totally sucks.


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