Points
to Consider When Reviewing an Offer of Employment
This checklist includes some of the issues you might want to consider if you receive
an offer of employment as a TESOL instructor in Saudi Arabia.
Security
Since 11 September 2001 teachers and recruits have always been mindful of their
personal security in Saudi Arabia. On this point we advise you as follows:
The European Centre is
registered with the British Embassy in Riyadh, so we receive advice and briefings
on a need-to-know basis from the embassy. This information is always posted on
the notice board in the teachers' room.
Many thousands of British expatriates work in Saudi Arabia, and even more from
other European countries and of course from the USA, Canada and other nations
in the Middle East and Far East. The Saudi economy is very much dependent on the
expertise of expatriate workers. Efforts are being made to Saudiize certain job
sectors, but this is proving to be a slow process.
As a result, the services built up to cope with the millions of expatriate workers
employed in the country for decades still operate: financial and remittance services,
labour courts and legal services, shops, restaurants, etc.
The security of expatriate workers in Saudi Arabia is seen as paramount to the
security of the Saudi economy. So expatriate workers are protected and their interests
are looked after by various government departments.
A
Personal Note About Security from a Teacher
Following the bombings in Riyadh, many people said to me: "Of course you wouldn't
go back to Saudi."
They
were surprised when I replied: "Why not?"
I
wasn't in Riyadh at the time of the bombings, but I was there teaching during
the run-up to the Gulf war, and I never experienced any animosity from Saudis
I was mixing with, either at work or socially.
Also,
I feel that teachers living in ordinary apartment blocks, surrounded by Arabs,
Indians and Filipinos, are far less likely to be targeted than expats congregated
together in enclosed compounds.
I
was living in New York at the time of the World Trade Center attack, and went
out in downtown Manhattan the following weekend.
I lived in England
during the IRA bombings and am now in Spain, where there have been ETA bombings
for years and more recently the attacks on the trains in Madrid.
No
city of any size anywhere in the world is safe from terrorist attacks.
Despite
the Riyadh bombings, there are tens of thousands of US and British citizens still
working in Saudi Arabia, and millions of other foreign workers from Asia.
However,
if you would feel unsafe there, my advice is simple. Don't go.
David
Frost
Culture
shock
Working in Saudi Arabia is a real eye opener, since almost every aspect of life
is completely different from back home, wherever that may be.
Large firms such as Aramco and BAE have traditionally housed their staff in enclosed
"compounds". Since such staff are contracted on a long-term basis, for at least
a couple of years, they sometimes bring their dependents out with them.
In such compounds there is a tendency for some of these expats to try to create
an artificial " bubble" in which to live and work, cut off from the real Saudi
Arabia. The danger is that this can create a bipolar world, with expats working
in Saudi Arabia at one moment and then retreating into their bubble - their idea
of home - the next.
Expat teachers who operate in this way, living on a compound, can sometimes fall
foul of a self-perpetuating siege mentality.
Despite this possible pitfall, a good many expats who live on compounds working
for very large organizations do become integrated into their local environment.
They manage to work with the culture, not against it.
And the vast majority of firms hiring expats house their staff in the community,
in regular housing outside compounds. Most companies, ours included, employ people
from a wide variety of age groups and backgrounds. We're looking for teachers
who are happy to live in the broad Saudi community, and who can develop their
own interests and use their free time positively.
This is not to say we only recruit independent-minded teachers. We accept that
those who are coming to Saudi Arabia for the first time, and who may be quite
new to teaching, are going to need some help settling in. But we are keen to avoid
taking on anyone who may feels edgy or anxious about living in Saudi society.
Since all our teachers live outside compounds, they need to do their shopping
in the community, use city restaurants, and use the same public amenities that
the Saudis and other nationalities do: planes, buses, taxis, post offices, etc.
In other words, we do not segregate our staff into Western-only compounds, offering
facilities and amenities that are open only to expats.
This is not to say that teachers ought to feel outnumbered on the street. Half
of the people that you see are expatriate. Every other person is likely to be
a non-Saudi: Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, or an Arab from another Gulf state.
Also, Saudi society is a very gregarious one - unlike those of some other Gulf
states, so it is very easy to mix with native Saudis on a day-to-day basis.
This point is often remarked on by teachers who move on from Saudi Arabia to teach
in the United Arab Emirates or Qatar, where they find the native population almost
invisible and, bordering on the antisocial by comparison with the Saudis. In Saudi
Arabia teachers really do get to mix with the native population if they choose
to play an active role in daily life.
By playing an active role I mean being willing to move around in one's free time,
going out and about, visiting other cities, keeping busy, and using one's social
skills, rather than boxing them up.
Moving on to the "shock" part of culture in Saudi Arabia, of course people react
to things in different ways. Some become comfortable fairly quickly, since they
get used to cultural differences quite fast. Other new arrivals can sometimes
find the transition hard to make.
A Few Things New Arrivals Can Find Off-Putting:
Prayer time is five times a day, and shops, restaurants, etc, must close during
these times. This creates a stop-start pace to daily life.
Saudis do not have the sense of future time or commitment as in the West. Since
Saudis perceive future events and outcomes to be decreed according to the will
of God, they do not plan in any deterministic, singular or individually committed
sense.
Life
does not run like a French timetable or a Swiss watch in Saudi Arabia. Things
can sometimes happen haphazardly. If you have a problem with the plumbing at home,
and the plumber does not arrive at the appointed time, this is absolutely standard.
But it can drive teachers up the wall, especially those who already feel a bit
lost in Saudi Arabia, and may yearn for a sense of control and order.
Things often happen more slowly in Saudi Arabia than they do in the West. We have
centuries of industrialization behind us, but the Saudis are only just making
the transition to becoming a fully industrialized society. In general, therefore,
allowances need to be made.
Patience is an attribute that Saudis value and something they respect when extended
to them.
Paradoxes and Contrasts in Saudi Arabia
Pictures
of women have to be covered in school course books with black marker pens, yet
you can buy the locally-published Arab News with a risqué advert for Saks 5th
Avenue women's clothing on the back page.
Also you will see "modern" women presenting quiz games on Arabic TV channels.
Culturally, things are moving very fast, with Internet cafés and satellite TV
readily available.
The
Saudi media are becoming increasingly sceptical and self-critical about some aspects
of life - much of this criticism being positive and constructive. But there is
a big lag at the other end of the spectrum, for example in the field of school
curriculums. For most teachers this is a fascinating gap. For some, it is something
to get hot under the collar about.
The vast majority of native Saudis are quite poor, especially those from the outer
suburbs of the cities, and smaller towns and rural areas. Salaries are very low
for many workers. With an increasing unemployment problem, some people have no
work at all. This is quite a shock for some teachers who arrive with an assumption
that everything will be gleaming and modern.
There are no cinemas or theatres in Saudi Arabia. While there are plenty of cafés
and restaurants in big cities like Riyadh, life in smaller cities such as Jubail
or Yanbu can be dull for those who like a daily buzz and the sense that things
are happening.
However, Jubail recently won an award for its natural beauty as an irrigated,
garden-style city, since its suburbs are very green. It also occupies a stunning
position on the Gulf coast. It's a very secure, cosy place to live, and offers
all the essentials, but it takes an hour to drive to the nearby big cities of
Khobar and Dammam. And for those who like the sea, Jubail and Yanbu are excellent
locations, particularly for watersports.
Teachers are free to leave Saudi Arabia for a weekend break whenever they choose.
All that is needed is to request an exit/reentry visa a week before the trip.
This is a small bureaucratic irritation, a requirement laid down by the passport
office for all expats, but it sometimes annoys those who want to be able to just
get up and go on the spur of the moment. The bottom line, though, is that if you
really want to make a trip, and if you put in a visa request in time, there is
no reason why you can't go.
Cynicism
and negativity do exist among expats in Saudi Arabia in almost all quarters (engineering,
construction, teaching, medicine, etc). Ironically, those who have stayed the
longest, from their own choice, are the ones who can get the grumpiest. On the
other hand, there are many expats who enjoy their time in Saudi Arabia and who
speak favourably of the culture on almost every level.
New recruits should always try to think positively and use their own judgment,
rather than allowing themselves to be swayed or wound up by the seasoned Gulf
hacks around them.
The
European Centre is lucky to have one of the highest rates of renewals among its
teachers of any training institute in Saudi Arabia over the past three years,
but we are realistic and we know that negativity exists, nonetheless. It's all
part of the climate in Saudi Arabia.
The cynicism of Westerners stands out, since Saudis do not complain by nature.
From a Western perspective, Saudis come across as stoical about problems or grief,
and this is largely to do with the fact that they resign themselves to the belief
that what happens is the will of God. There is no sense of a struggle or of things
going against them as such. It's quite hard to find a cynical Saudi or a Saudi
who feels he is a victim of raw circumstance - victim of an incident, yes, but
of situation or circumstances, no.
It is not possible to buy alcohol legally in Saudi Arabia, and there are no licensed
establishments serving alcohol. Those who need alcohol, rather than merely wanting
it, find life a struggle in Saudi Arabia.
On
arrival, Saudi customs screen all baggage, looking for bottles, videos or disks.
If you bring in disks or CDs, you may be asked to wait for 30 minutes while they
randomly view them to make sure they do not contain indecent material. If you
bring in newspapers or magazines they may also flick through them to make sure
they are not sensitive (ie inappropriate) in content
Deciding "Yes" or "No"
The decision about whether or not to work in Saudi Arabia can be a very difficult
decision for some candidates.
A while ago, we had one person who deferred his decision several times. After
a period of a year, having asked many questions by email and by telephone, he
finally accepted a job.
But on arrival he realized that Saudi Arabia was not for him. He did not like
Saudis, and he said that he felt threatened because he was often mistaken for
an American. He stayed in his apartment when he was not working, reluctant to
get out and explore.
With hindsight, I can see now that this candidate was depending on me to reassure
him that things would be OK before he made his decision. He built up a picture
about life in minute detail, from the dimensions of his bedroom and the type of
bedding, to the crockery in the kitchen, asking about such mundane matters, and
receiving answers.
As soon as he arrived and found Saudi Arabia was not for him, he seized on one
or two details that were not as he believed they would be, to persuade himself
that he had been tricked into coming. One such detail was the fact that cable
TV offered only 20 channels, whereas he had expected more.
This would hardly be a big issue for most, but it was clear that this candidate
had not really had the courage to make his own decision before coming out to Saudi.
He was relying on his potential employer to make the decision for him.
What
we have learned from his case is that it's never worth our while taking on a teacher
who is edgy about working in Saudi, even for a short period. Since no matter how
many positive aspects there are, these are not likely to be enough for anyone
who arrives and finds he is unhappy. He will need just one minor negative point
to justify a decision to leave the country.
So we always encourage someone who is doubtful of his ability to adjust to life
in Saudi Arabia to say "no" before coming to Saudi.
He
can always apply to us again in future. Much better that he does more research
and more reading first about life in Saudi Arabia.
If a candidate is unsure, it's much better to say so. This does not mean closing
the door for ever on the opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia.
It's always best to come to Saudi Arabia with a clear and unambiguous commitment
to work for x number of months. If 12 months is too long a period, then a candidate
should ask for the option of working a shorter length contract if he suspects
that he may later decide (upon arrival or after arrival) that this is what he
will want.
The
decision of whether or not to come to Saudi Arabia should always be the candidate's
own decision. If a candidate feels that we at the European Centre are selling
a job to him, then the candidate should be wary and ask some hard questions. We
do not want to bring a candidate to Saudi Arabia unless he is completely sure
in his own mind that the job is what he really wants and that it will help him
to get to where he wants to go in his career.
