Read all about it right here! The crazy goings-on at Abu Dhabi Wankers' Camp ... er, sorry - Abu Dhabi Women's College!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

When HR turns PR

The latest advertisement for suckers to join the HCT farm reads more like a sly piece of marketing-speak that is trying ever so hard to pull in the punters. Just have a look at this...

Our departments are filled with faculty who are adventurers and modern thinkers, who seek both stability and new horizons, who want to make a difference, and are able to reward themselves in the process. It is an environment that both desires and produces excellence.

The truth, of course, is the exact opposite, especially at ADWC, also known as Stalag 41012. If any new arrivals come with the idea of being an 'adventurer' or a 'modern thinker', he/she'll be brought down to Earth very swiftly and sharply by the dull hand of the current oppressive management regime. Such an environment produces no excellence at all, but excessive conformity and a tired fear of losing your job for the merest wrong step.

One of the main bastards behind current moves to stifle all individuality at ADWC is a loathsome old dragon commonly known as 'The Claw'. This aberration of a woman, who is instigating her own reign of pettiness and spite, actually glories in the antiquated and hilarious double-barrelled monicker of Christine Luscombe-Whyte, and she is proving to be as popular as the proverbial rat-sandwich.

For example, one of her ideas was this - teachers' attendance is being monitored regularly to ensure nobody is arriving a few minutes late, or slipping away at one minute before the official approved departure time. In pursuance of these noble educational aims, a large uniformed Gestapo-like presence stalks the corridors every morning, noting down every teacher who is not in his/her designated classroom at the starting time of each class. Why this should be necessary now, when it has not been for the past 20 years, has not been disclosed. But 'The Claw' knows, I'm sure!

To date, several teachers have been sent warning e-mails for not being in the right place at the right time, despite having valid reasons, such as attending to a student outside the class and such. But 'The Claw' accepts no excuses. So, despite teachers having some 15 years of experience at ADWC, these competent faculty members are now being treated like sheep who need herding. Great idea!!

Even worse, if you want to leave the college campus during working hours, your supervisor's permission is needed. The teachers can't be trusted, you see - 'The Claw' knows all their tricks, and will work devotedly and ruthlessly to impose her system of workplace tyranny!

The students have also become victims of the spiteful Claw too, now having to swipe in when they enter the college. And of course, if they swipe in late and their teacher doesn't mark them as arriving late, guess who cops it?! Teachers have also been threatened with the sack if their students are caught eating in the classrooms - an excellent way for the management to intervene in the teacher-student relationship, and one that will clearly return great educational benefits!

In short, the whole thing it's absolutely surreal - treating professional teachers like factory workers. So, is it any real wonder that a block has been put on teachers requesting transfers to other colleges? Soon there'll be nobody there at all, except the management wankers themselves, unless they can persuade a whole busload of gullible newbies to come and submit themselves to this sort of oppressive treatment.

So, if you have been offered a place at ADWC, do the sensible thing and turn it down.

Coming next: 'The Claw', in pictures and in all her glory!

16 comments:

2Hander said...

Hi, is The Claw in charge of the whole college or EFL only? Does the management affect teachers of other disciplines, such as science and engineering etc.

I don't mean to put across an "I'm (gonna be?) alright, Jack!" sentiment, I'm just not an EFLer...

Anonymous said...

I knew the Claw at DWC and she was poison then - so sweet to your face and then stab you in the back when it was convenient

Anonymous said...

I suffered under the CLaW too and its only going to get worse. Im convinced she's a sociopath.

Anonymous said...

But is she any worse than some of the other fruitcakes that have been in senior and middle management at ADWC over the years?

I was screwed up by Miss Piggy, Nic Gara and Trish Cole several years back. It's a long story, but essentially I was falsely accused by a student. It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the accusation was nonsense and all but these three and a handful of their flying monkeys believed me that it was nonsense and supported me.

However Nic Gara and Trish "The Shrew" Cole and Miss Piggy crucified and humiliated me. There was nothing to gain by supporting me, so they didn't. It was more expedient to destroy me and tell the vice chancellor that the matter had been taken care of.

To say it was a nightmare is an understatement. It utterly devastated me and my family. Now I can see the same thing happening to others .... so just hang on and work your notice before seeking pastures greener.

Anonymous said...

Apparently the aged and overweight dumpling known as 'The Claw' is a PhD holder and is/was Director of HCT in RAK!

Anyone care to comment on these revelations? According to my version of her CV, she didn't even get a degree until 2000!

So who's telling porkies, eh?!

Anonymous said...

Oops - forgot the link:

http://www.arabdecision.org/show_cv_3_12_22_1_3_577741394.htm

Interesting, eh?!

Anonymous said...

She was the ACTING director when the Director Ian Hall stepped down and left extremely suddenly to return to Australia in the middle of the spring semester.

She was second fiddle to Ian for 2.5 years, and then became acting director for 3 months. She was then slapped back down to running the Womens college, but they hired an emirati to become the director, so she had to train him to take over for her...

then she left RAK rather suddenly to go to AD. There was many happy sighs of relief when she left.

According to the grapevine, she went to ADWC because the staff there ASKED for her.

Be careful what you wish for.

Anonymous said...

2hander.

If she is the AD (associate director) then she is 2nd in charge of the ADWC. That includes ALL of the departments.

It sounds like she was brought into ADWC to hold things "together" and to "train" the new director.

I pity those in ADWC. Friends in RAK tell me that things have gotten MUCH better now that the claw is gone...

Poodle Pelham said...

Ha! So "she went to ADWC because the staff there ASKED for her."

I've had a quick canvass of folks' opinions here, and NOBODY will admit to having asked for Then Claw to sit on her perch and pass judgement over them.

If anybody DID ask, it was probably The Vulture/Ruler, desperate for a companion in spite and evil.

No, I really can't believe any sane person would invite The Claw into their territory - nobody I know here is that stupid or masochistic!

Anonymous said...

PP.

Word from my friends in RAK say that management in ADWC wanted her because of her attitude.

They also say she was a lame duck, knew it and was extremely pissed at being redundant.

I know my friends in RAK say things have gotten MUCH better w/her gone.

Glad I have never met her or had to deal with her... sounds horrendous.

2Hander said...

...so teachers from other departments teaching other subjects are also not safe from the wrath these people...?!

Crystal Ball said...

Nobody's safe, 2H - faculty and middle-managers. Some of the supervisors/chairs have already been informed that their services will not be required beyond the end of June, as The Claw and The Vulture get their yellowing teeth into those management juniors who are seen as 'not one of us'.

Don't be surprised if Dimbo and Ms Piggy have to take a hike - perhaps all the way to Ruwais?!?

Anonymous said...

Shes no phd unless she bought one. She also was not director of RKM/W.
Probably put that up herself - she is a pathological liar.

Anonymous said...

She was the interim director when the director left in the middle of the spring semester last year. She was ACTING (key word) director for 4 months.

Anonymous said...

So let me get this right. I move myself and my family a few thousand miles on the promise of colleagues who are 'adventurers and modern thinkers and 'an environment that both desires and produces excellence', and what I get is a handful of seriously fruitcake managers, a working system that treats me like a McDonalds employee, and the chance of getting fired and sent home on the next plane if I put even one foot slightly wrong. Right?

Surely anybody who's sucker enough to swallow that is seriously retarded, no?!

Anonymous said...

You're right, anon (above), but the Gulf seems to attract a whole lot of people who are retarded in some way or other, be it seriously or not.

A lot of those end up in management, while the rest make it back home after a few years of realising that the Gulf ain't what it's cracked up to be.

Right now I wouldn't recommend anybody consider joining HCT in Abu Dhabi, either the Women's or the Men's college. Both places have an unappetising atmosphere of disdain and mistrust towards the teachers, and nobody can see it getting very much better soon.

Wherever you are, stay put, and stay OUT of this place!