Safe if you want only 1 year, horrible for longer

I worked at the school for three years. The first year was great. The second year I really tried to make a positive change in the school by being active and starting programs. During this time, there were numerous times when I felt like the administrators were not being truthful. The third year, the true attitudes of the administrators became more apparent.

Like the other reviewer who had a negative experience, I am not here to place blame or be bitter about anything. I learned a lot from this school about how school for profit really works, and for that I am thankful.

The staff here are generally good, but most of the administrators, although some are foreigners, think too locally to be considered international school administrators. By that, I mean that the logic is a bit screwy and backwards. For example, the school isn't technically an international school, like many of the schools in Taiwan. As far as I know, only Taiwan American and Taiwan European schools are truly international, where all of their students hold foreign passports. They use the term "international" because it is more marketable and seems to lend credence to their really high tuition fees that keep increasing each year.

Next, the administrators don't care about the teachers, nor the students and parents -- in my opinion. They want to make as much money from the parents as possible. They want to give as little money as possible to teachers (by creating diminishing returns on raises/bonuses and by practically forcing teachers who stay longer, thus receive higher pay, to leave). Another situation that was frustrating was regarding teachers who pay to park in their garage by "requesting" them to stay 25 minutes, without pay, past their contractual obligations until they are allowed to leave campus (due to the crazy idea of driving on a street while students try to also go to a bus).

The time you spend being a teacher is supposed to naturally spill over into your off time, but this school takes up so much of your time at work, you practically do all prep at home, and a lot of your grading as well. This leaves you having little time to actually explore Taiwan in your down time. Additionally, they require a few times a year where you work on either a Saturday or Sunday, and if it is a professional development workshop -- which is mandatory.

In my opinion, the administration does not respect teachers. This goes along with not caring about them, but the constant threat of losing bonuses is held over your head. There are monthly assemblies, and if you don't attend, you lose part of your monthly AND quarterly bonus. There are poorly designed professional development workshops that occur on Thursdays. If you miss those, you are penalized. If you are sick, you have to show the school a doctor's note to receive a half-day pay. If you don't have a doctor's note, you receive no pay for the day you are sick. They will try to force you to use face recognition AND fingerprint identification clock-in systems, even though they give you an electronic badge that holds this function, too. Without respect, there's no trust, and then the school pretends to be shocked when you cannot return a high level of trust to them.

There is the problem with private schools who are in education for the business only. The parent company is a book publishing company, and guess whose books you have to buy to attend the school? Many of the admin and teachers here drive expensive cars. Now, good for them if they managed to secure some decent investments or have a spouse who earns a lot of money, but it is rather an uncomfortable feeling to see all these expensive cars coming into a private school.

If you are a teacher at heart and care about students, have principles that don't allow you to work for greedy corporations or untrustworthy people, I would say that working here for a year would be ok, but that's it.