New Announcement: Season's Greetings from TutorABC
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Hey @everyone! Some of you may have noticed a new announcement from Teaching Operations on the front page of our teacher portal. In case you may have missed it, I'll copy and paste it here as well.
Dear Teachers,
Season's Greetings from TutorABC!
As the year comes to a close we would like to reflect on certain highlights of the year and provide a couple of important updates for the festive season.
Schedule Changes:
Classes will continue as normal over December and January. If you are planning to take a break from teaching, please be sure to adjust your schedule well ahead of time.
New Courses:
In 2023 we have successfully launched new premium courses such as OUP Speak NOW, Barron’s IELTS, and Global Demos as well as non-premium courses such as Barron’s TOEIC.
We also have our GEPT exam prep and our Cambridge Business English courses releasing this year. Further additional products such as Barron’s TOEFL are planned for next year.
We have also made great strides in our global expansion, with new projects starting in Hong Kong, the USA, and Turkey to name a few. Well done to the teachers who have helped spearhead these initiatives.
Thank you to all the teachers who have participated in the success of these courses. As they continue to grow we look forward to inviting more teachers to take part in delivering these courses.Teaching Quality:
Mentor team: This year we have doubled the size of our qualified and experienced mentor team and introduced regular observations and follow-up. This has helped us to ensure top quality teaching as well as to support and communicate with our teachers as we know that online teaching can be isolating at times.
CETF: We have also introduced regular training to refresh our teachers with the best practices relevant to our platform – our mentor team has followed up these trainings with informative TLTs to engage teachers in stimulating conversations on how to get the best out of our students.
Materials: We have started with a leveling overhaul and are working on refreshing our materials to ensure that we are more accurately aligned with the CEFR for English and to ensure smoother leveling in the future. We appreciate all teachers’ flexibility and patience in dealing with the hurdles that come with making these changes.
TPRs: We have added a new member to our hard-working TPR team to support teachers outside of the classroom and help relay important information to teachers.January Payment:
With banks being closed over Lunar New Year and this overlapping with the 10th of February, the payment date for all classes conducted in January will be February 15th 2024, please be sure to make the necessary adjustments for this ahead of time. We appreciate your understanding in this regard and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please refer to the following table for 2024 payment dates:
Month Payday
Jan > 15th Feb
Feb > 11th Mar
Mar > 10th Apr
Apr > 10th May
May > 11th Jun
Jun > 10th Jul
Jul > 12th Aug
Aug > 10th Sep
Sep > 11th Oct
Oct > 11th Nov
Nov > 10th Dec
Dec > 10th Jan 2025Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to your students over the course of 2023. Please take care of yourself during this festive season and we wish everyone a pleasant festive season and a prosperous 2024!
Kind regards,
Michael Hsieh
Head of Global Teaching Operations
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Thankyou to Michael Hsieh, Phil, Steven, Yourself, Marco, Heather, and Matt. You really are the most phenomenal team. I hope you will have some peace and quiet during this special time. Thank you for all that you do and I hope and pray that 2024 will allow you to reap many fruits from all your hard work!
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Would it be possible to speak to management about this late payment in February? Some of us depend on being paid on time, and in fairness, it would make much more sense to pay us all 2 days early, rather than 5 days late. I understand this was a very recent change to the contract, but I really think this needs to be revisited for longer time periods such as new year. One or two days, people can cope, but almost a week late?
Maybe we could compromise, over the weekends / short holidays (1-3 days) we should be paid late, if it is over 3 days for longer holidays, we are paid early?
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@Stewart-5 在 New Announcement: Season's Greetings from TutorABC 中說：
Would it be possible to speak to management about this late payment in February? Some of us depend on being paid on time, and in fairness, it would make much more sense to pay us all 2 days early, rather than 5 days late. I understand this was a very recent change to the contract, but I really think this needs to be revisited for longer time periods such as new year. One or two days, people can cope, but almost a week late?
Maybe we could compromise, over the weekends / short holidays (1-3 days) we should be paid late, if it is over 3 days for longer holidays, we are paid early?
Believe me when I say that we did (more than once) since we anticipated how it would affect teachers (ourselves included). We have been trying with the payroll team to look for a solution. However, due to the bank and TABC workflow timelines, it just isn't physically possible. If it were just a case of making a special exception and paying 2 days early, I believe they would do it as that would just about be possible.
As you can see from the rest of the year, it won't be more than 2 days and the majority are on the 10th or 11th. The New Year holiday falls on Feb 10th (2024) which messes everything up. It wouldn't have been an issue last time (Jan 22nd 2023).
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@Matthew-A No worries, thanks for looking into it Matthew.
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@Matthew-A 在 New Announcement: Season's Greetings from TutorABC 中說：
If it were just a case of making a special exception and paying 2 days early, I believe they would do it as that would just about be possible.
I think this should be looked at carefully, as a one-off.
For some people, this would be the difference between getting paid on the 12th/13th of February [if they send the funds on the 8th-9th] and the 19th/20th/21st [if the funds aren't sent until the 15th].
Many here don't receive their pay for 3-4 days after the actual payday, we hear this in the forum every month.
I normally get mine the next working day after payday. That means I'll get it on Friday the 16th [which I can accept], but for some people - whose banks need 3-4 days to clear the funds - it will be a very long wait in February [at least 9-10 days late because of the extra weekend 17th-18th].
That's excessive, and even with advance notice and forward planning, it's a problem for those people.
In a special case like this, it would be a goodwill gesture for the company to put in a bit of extra effort [small amount of overtime?] before the 10th, and get the pay done early.
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This means I will definitely not be paid until the 19th / 20th of February. I think we can all agree that's not good enough. I can't live off my January pay alone until this time with a family for a week further than usually expected.
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@Karl-20 I am lucky as I have other income sources but many don't. As you said, this is not fair for people who rely on being paid on a certain day. Is the company open to paying the late fees from missed payments to banks and so forth. I say not. Australian law, we have to pay early. We cannot pay on a Friday just in case there is a problem, it gives a day to rectify the problem. I think this is poor management, and it is utter nonsense that they cannot pay earlier, than later. I have never heard such 'baloney' (edited to a softer word).
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FYI: We will take any comments/feedback back to them next week once more.
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@Matthew-A Much appreciated. If you are taking comments back it would potentially mean I would have to cut my Christmas and New Year spending to accommodate the extra I will need to budget for this week long delay in February. Which I do not think my young family would deserve.
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My landlord is gracious enough to let me pay rent on the tenth each month instead of the first. That’s already a big ask on my part.
Since there is no way I will be able to accrue February’s rent into December’s pay, I will have to be almost a week late with my February rent. 1-2 days late is already a stretch for those working pay check to pay check, and 5+ days is a lot. I understand it must be difficult to plan for all of this around the holidays, but I am hoping there is a solution to this.
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And I totally understand that need for a break and to completely enjoy the holiday. I want nothing but a relaxing time off for the payroll staff, as they do an awesome job and are always very helpful when I reach out. And reading the comments again, Matthew mentioned there were more logistics involved.
But unfortunately , many of us rely on precise pay days, and 5+ days is going to put a lot of pressure on some of us. I imagine more than a few of us have even planned to work less this month due to the holidays, so the news that we will need to be making more this month, in order to save a week’s income for February, is probably a lot for some teachers.
One solution would be to provide a one-time holiday bonus and add it to our December pay, lol. “Win-Win.”
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@Gemma-56 Oh, how I have missed you!
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Adding my comments to the post...
I'm also not in favour of having my pay delayed. Paying a mortgage is not really flexible, even if we get a couple of months' notice in advance.
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@Katarina-1 that is my concern for people, missing mortgage payments, car loans and so on. Finance companies are not so gracious. In Australia, if you rent, you can be fined a daily rate until you pay, especially when people deal through real estate agencies. Some people will struggle to put food on the table. I feel for them, it is not fair. I am old, have savings, have multiple income sources. And after Christmas (It might affect peoples' Christmas, buying of presents, the lunch and dinner), people might have moths in their pockets already.
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@Sarah-556 indeed
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@JASON-212 Yep. It’s really only a 3 week’s notice for teachers, and during a busy holiday month. For those concerned about not having savings for February, they are going to have to work more this month to prepare for it.
Hoping there is enough time for a solution that works for everyone.
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@Royce-0 I feel this is unfair. We also have all our payments scheduled around payment on the 10th! Payment a week later is not an option!! I don't understand why it's impossible to pay us earlier...
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@JASON-212 absolutely agree.
also think there should have been two separate announcements - one positive for 'Season's Greetings', and the other one for the delayed payment.
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@Royce-0 在 New Announcement: Season's Greetings from TutorABC 中說：
they are going to have to work more this month to prepare for it.
as if it's that easy and all up to us to decide how much work we get... I wish it were...
