Friday, May 25, 2012

Leaving Bahrain - and the British Council !!

Hi Bloggers,

Well, I'll finally be moving on from Bahrain, but not to Malaysia as originally planned, but direct to the Philippines where my wife is.  In an incredible turn of events the British Council decided to revoke my contract for Kuala Lumpur exactly nine days before I was due to travel.  Nice one, BC!

It created complete turmoil in my life, as my wife was getting ready to join as soon as I arrived there.  Of course, I appealed against the decision, but the bureaucratic ways of the Council prevailed.  They could get someone of higher calibre than me, so I was sacrificed at the altar.

Fortunately, though, they are going to give me three months pay in compensation, which should work out at about $10,000.  That may seem a nice payout, but when you're getting older and suddenly find yourself homeless and unemployed you'd probably plump for the job security.  I may have more to say about what I think of the BC in a later blog!

Meanwhile, I'm hoping to make a new start in the Philippines.  It'll be quite an adventure for me, because I've never worked there before. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed something comes up.

Update on my next blog!

Cheers,
Rob

3 comments:

Old Pal said...

Bad luck, Rob - what an indescribably horrble bunch of utter shits the BC must be. Sorry to quote Dickens - and I know how glib this'll sound - but something will no doubt turn up, and it'll probably be a lot better than the BC: life's just like that.

PAT'S VIAJES said...

Hi Rob!
I don't understand why the BC did that and with only 9 days before you were due to fly out there.
It's not good at all when the BC mess about with people's lives.

Good luck!

Patric

tropicalrob said...

Thanks Pat.

Yes, it was a pretty callous decision by the BC. But I find most of the BC senior management are like this. The humanity's got lost somewhere along the line. Procedures are now more important than people.

Are you still in Tunisia? How is it there? I've got a couple of friends working in nearby Libya.

Cheers,
Rob