news from the plantation

or, more reasons to never work at wei dao...

last friday the 13th, a very pregnant co-worker of mine, a taiwanese citizen, went on maternity leave as her baby was due on monday. by law she is entitled to something like 56 days paid leave on either side of the birth... as of right now the baby still hasn't been born and yesterday, the dean of personnel here at psycho high, ostensibly a "catholic" school, was furious that she hadn't yet delivered the baby and ordered her back to work today. i shit you not. back to work slave! good god! and get this, she actually came. blows my mind! she's teaching right now while her husband, who was scheduled to have covered her classes, sits in the office. she can barely move. for the record, our supervisor did nothing to back her up and just tries to cover this dickensian move with more of her lies, "no this is normal, all taiwanese women do this..." bullshit they do...and our director, captain useless just sits aroud his office all day playing solitaire waiting for feeding times....

while i i'm on the subject, i missed a couple days of work when my son was born and did some research online to find out about paternity leave. by law, new fathers are to be given 2 days paid leave... by law... i printed it out and showed my supervisor and the director as they smiled and pretended to be concerned about my situation... after all, i have a young family and missed a lot of classes on those days...

the answer i got back?

"ryan, because we are a private school, we don't have to follow the law."

"so i won't get paid? eventhough by law the school is required to pay me?"

"that's right. sorry."

big smiles.

my situation barely merited blogging but the one with co-worker certainly does. i hope she gives birth this afternoon in the 3rd floor lobby of the language center! i'll cut the fuckin umbilical!

this wins hands down as the cruelest, most black hearted authoritarian decree ever at school i've worked at...

dumber than when the government deported my 18 month old son last summer...

fuckers.