Member-only story
My Bosses Gave Me Gifts Instead of a Raise
Each one felt like a slap in the face
In the year 2009, I got hired to teach English for Disney. Yes, that Disney. The company Disney English got set up in Shanghai, China sometime in 2008, and about six months after I got hired the company was killing it. They had centers all over the city, parents clamoring for classes, and CEOs laughing maniacally as their bonuses got astronomical.
But at the center of all that profit and buzz stood the teachers. We went from having a few classes a day to being inundated with new changes, new schedules, constant meetings, and endless technical problems, all while the people in charge went on and on about this amazing company we all worked for! Yeah, it probably was amazing to be at the top. Those at the bottom rung of the ladder felt happy to have our computers function for the entirety of a class.
Soon everyone at my level was grumbling. Everything Disney asked us to say or do felt insane. Even our uniforms included hideous, polyester pants that none of the foreign staff could fit into properly. The Chinese company that made them thought bigger was synonymous with longer, so all of the tall Americans who arrived got presented with a package of pencil-thin pants that stretched across the classroom.
