NUMBER 16 SCHOOL reviews

Where to start? The single worst working experience of my career. A chaotic infrastructure with promises of schedule flexibility, assistance with Spanish documentation and a good work/life balance. All lies. The company has an arrogant, condescending approach to what they deem to be 'teaching' people English, which is in fact a strict, obtuse and extremely uncomfortable method of constantly interrupting and belittling students and telling them outright lies about how to speak the English language and cultural aspects of Spain and England. The step books are written as if by someone who truly understands neither Spanish or English culture and speakers as well as an abundance of stereotypes and insensitive tropes. Such as describing people with glasses or weight issues in a childrens book as 'ugly'. The book is filled with insulting, grammatically incorrect and incomplete sentences and questions which makes the whole product and business look inept and sloppy. The management are terrible. They treat staff like cogs in a machine and constantly use the line, "Our hands are tied..." when even the most simple requests are made by staff, such as holiday requests or even simple concerns. They also show their utter contempt and disregard for their employees by giving them the great honour of being able to use a microwave and toilet in the same room! As well as charging students an absolute fortune for a poorly-prepared and stick-thin product, they then refuse to spend money on proper teaching utensils and everything in the building is of poor quality and falling apart, apart from the card reader and safe at reception. Children are taught lessons in a damp cellar below the school (utterly sinister) and the entire building is walking safety hazard with concrete, rusted metal and no child friendly areas available to teach kids in a safe and appropriate environment. But that doesn't stop them charging parents a fortune for what is essentially the most expensive daycare going in Spain. Also, the business doesn't do background checks on it's employees that work with kids, something that is a legal requirement in Spain. The turnover of staff is immensely high due to the poor treatment and low wages in relation to the intense and demanding work. Teachers are expected to deliver classes at an unrealistic pace with the energy and zeal of someone who has ingested multiple stimulants and staff are left physically and mentally shattered at the end of each shift and week. I've had multiple physical and labour focused jobs in my career and this has been by far the most draining of them all. You are also blessed with the response of someone younger than you telling you simply, "Ah well its just part of being an adult." whenever you confide in them or explain how you are completely drained and exhausted. If it wasn't for the wonderful students and the fantastic colleagues (management aside) that you work with, there would be honestly nothing to drive you to continue dragging yourself into this woeful establishment. Seeing colleagues break down in tears and unceremoniously fired on the spot for the most minor of digressions is an indictment of the Victorian - workhouse attitude and approach of an out-dated and fraudulent company such as this. They also do odd things with their finances and your wages fluctuate significantly every month under the guise of 'Spanish tax" and then you are paid on the 5th of each month as the company apparently only has money on the initial five days of the month. Finally, the CEO and founder Sergio, is a pig. He waltzes in without acknowledging any of his staff and openly smokes inside the building and specifically in the rooms in which children are taught. He fancies himself as an entrepreneur/mob boss but in fact is just an aggressive, graceless thug who once uttered in broken, barely cohesive English, "Teaching is a privilege and this job is not just a way to live in Spain." The man has never taught anyone anything, apart from maybe how to chain-smoke. So do yourself a favour, if you want to legally live in Spain with all of your documents rightly sorted and to have a healthy and safe working environment without threatening and aggressive behaviour from people who do not understand the meaning of the words education or respect and neglect all the beautiful aspects of teaching someone a new language, then don't work here.

Lets begin with the hours. Your timetable for the following week will only be finalised (if you're lucky) the Friday prior. However this 'timetable' is almost certain to change. You may be due to finish at 4pm and have a class added at 7-8pm without even being told (this happened to me) when I explained I couldn't do this as I had made plans, I was told I had to take it. Planning a social life which is absolutely fundamental to one's emotional health is made totally out of the question. The timetable could have you working 11-2pm then coming back to teach 5-9:30 and returning the next day at say 10am. It may give you only a 15 minute break to eat your lunch during a 7 hour shift of teaching an excruciatingly dull and dogmatic method at their required unattainable level of energy they are obsessed with you constantly achieving. You will only have 15 minutes to run across the city to teach your next class in a different location, or you may only have 4 minutes between teaching a class of 12 kids and run to teach an online class leaving you no time to have a sip of water or for women to attend to their menstrual health which I was left on multiple occasions not being able to attend to for during the whole day (perhaps better since the door had no lock anyway). After working a day like as described you may be thinking you could do with some downtime? Absolutely OUT of the question as there were multiple occasions we would only be scheduled for the legal minimum of 12 hours between shifts, I stress the word ‘minimum’. This will keep you running on survival mode so you can expect not only your physical health but your mental health to rapidly decline, leaving you with very little energy or motivation to live a fulfilled and content life outside of work. Taking holidays was made impossible. I would sometimes be told different reasons from multiple people as to why my request was denied. I once asked for 7 days of holiday 6 months in advance. When it was declined I lowered it to 5, they said no, so I offered to take it unpaid, they still said no. This is the quickest and most efficient way to tell your employees they don’t value you. After being able to teach all the different types of classes Number 16 offers, constantly scoring well on my observations, being personally requested by in company classes, I believe this is the moment that admittedly, I checked out. My next point, the guilt tripping for taking sick days was rife. Sickness in my academy was very common since it never got disinfected and everyone had to eat their lunch in the small sized room we were provided in which we also had to prep in. On multiple occasions teachers were asked why they were sick (which I believe to be illegal) but furthermore were probed to see if they ‘felt better later in the day’ and could come in for the afternoon, or if they could just take some online classes from home instead. On one occasion I called in sick. Later on in the day from my home I had uploaded 2 photos to social media from a day trip I had taken 2 weeks prior, something I am absolutely permitted to do. My boss responded to my post at 10pm with (and I quote) ‘what the hell’. After I provided evidence that I wasn’t actually there I was still probed further asking to provide evidence of my whereabouts for the 2nd photo too. The following day I was called into the office completely expecting an apology, I was further told off and also told that calling in sick at 6am (my shift started at 8am) was not sufficient. I ask when might be an appropriate time to call in sick, other than the moment one starts to feel sick? We were made to feel guilty for operating within a system that was already broken. Management throughout the whole company was abysmal including our direct boss who I feel lacked managerial skills, was completely incapable of relating to her employee’s on an empathetic level and whose total lack of experience meant there were constant mistakes, missing information and terrible morale. My only positive takeaway is that going forward I now know to trust the reviews I read on glassdoor, and you should too.