Soon I shall be free...

[Zombi]

I'm actually quite excited - tomorrow I shall be handing in my resignation letter, and in two weeks I shall be free from this shitful company. I've only worked there 9 months, but it feels like forever. The final straw came when I tried to get some time off to take a CELTA course (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) - it's a four week course, I have two weeks of holiday left to take, so I wanted to take the other two weeks as unpaid leave. I was trying to find somebody who knew what the hell they were talking about two weeks ago, but both my manager and the HR lady are on holiday (the two people I really needed to see, of course), and I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone else. I talked to the deputy store manager today, and she was just bloody rude - "Well, going on courses is fine, but you've got a full-time job! It's one or the other!" Well, OK, I'll take the other, then. I'm only losing out on two weeks pay, but honestly, with this new qualification, I can make that back in 3 days.
Admittedly, it is very short notice - I only found out that I definitely had a place on the course yesterday, and it starts on the 22nd of this month. I'm not happy that they won't let me have the time off, of course, but what really tipped it for me was that nobody could tell me what I needed to know, nobody could give me any advice or even a straight answer. So as far as I'm concerned, said company can take a long walk off a short pier.

Since I'm now the only full-timer on the two departments I'm expected to cover, let's see how they cover my hours. They didn't replace either of the other full-timers who've left (including our supervisor), and the lady who got hit on the head by a mirror has just been signed off by her doctor for another four weeks.

I resisted the urge to end my letter with "...and the horse you rode in on."

[powerboy]

Why oh why, do retail managers think that, we will pick working there over getting a education

[Bagga]

Wow, cool, you are going for the CELTA!

OK, here is some advice then. Check ebay to try to get hold of some of these books. They will be useful in the course, and VERY useful if you decide to make TEFL your career.

Here is the list:

The Practice of English Language Teaching, by Jeffrey Harmer (I got a recent copy of the 3rd edition for a friend for 11.50 GBP, list price is 23.40. My own copy cost me 2.50 in SCOPE, a charity shop.)

English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy. (A must-have for any TEFL teacher, no need to get the CD version. I found mine for 1.85 in Oxfam!)

Rediscover Grammar by David Crystal.

Grammar Practice Activities by Penny Ur (From ebay, cost 9 pounds, a real bargain. The red and grey version will do, no need to get latest edition of any of P Ur's books.)

Almost anything by Penny Ur, in fact, except her "How to teach EFL" book, that is redundant if you have the Harmer. I particularly like her "Teaching Listening Comprehension" too.

Also get a damned good dictionary. Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner, or the Longman Advanced Learner are both very good.

If you can find a copy of Intermediate Communication Games by Jill Hadfield, we will probably be bidding against each other...

There are many other useful books, pm me if you want to find my opinion of them

The reason I don't already have these, when I seem to know about them? My EFL school (yes, really mine) failed due to competition from 2 chains of schools far mightier than little old me, and I left all my stuff in Spain when I returned to the UK with my tail between my legs. After a hiatus of 5 years I am finally managing to return to EFL at a local college, teaching some of the massive influx of immigrants to the UK.

[Broomjockey]

Why oh why, do retail managers think that, we will pick working there over getting a education

Forget over an education, over a better paying, more stable job? These managers seem to think that it is everyone's goal to stay with the company for 20 or 30 years, maybe even retire from working there. I got news for them. Those were the days when companies made it worth it for people to stay that long by giving steady hours, good compensation, and possbility of promotions. Now many managers are likely to have merely graduated from a management course, instead of actually rising from a lower position, so they don't even realize just what it's like being lower on the pole than them.

My most favoritest example ever is my ex-friend being told to pick the $7/hr part time theatre job over the $16/hr. full time warehouse job that had benefits. He originally wanted to work around his warehouse schedule, but the manager issued an ultimatium. Ex-friend handed over his name-tag right there.

[Becks]

Why oh why, do retail managers think that, we will pick working there over getting a education

Because if we already have a job for life, we don't need anything else.

[Zombi]

Handed in the letter today. I did discuss it with the selling support manager, but she basically said that she couldn't authorise it since too many people will be on holiday in the first week that I need off. What's really stupid is that there's a guy who's now out on the shop floor that I used to work with, and I'm sure he'd be more than happy to come and cover my job for four weeks. There are plenty of kids looking for seasonal jobs who can put stock out on the shop floor, but you need to know how our system works to cover both my job and wedding services, and nobody else is trained to do it. Seriously - in the whole store, there are eight people who can work wedding services, and four who can do my job. Of those people, I am the only one who can work full-time hours (the others are either at uni or otherwise committed). But, no - "We can't take people off the shop floor, we're too busy". Please yourself, then, love.

Wow, cool, you are going for the CELTA!

OK, here is some advice then. Check ebay to try to get hold of some of these books. They will be useful in the course, and VERY useful if you decide to make TEFL your career.

My mum is an EFL teacher, so most of them are already on the shelf. Thanks for making that list, though - I need all the help I can get. TEFL isn't really going to be a career as such, I want to use the CELTA qualification to get a job in Japan, where I can get my Japanese up to a decent level. The end goal is a Masters in translation and interpreting, and possibly another in applied linguistics.