An Appeal to all Filipino Coordinators
By : Ormon

Have you heard the story of a man named Narcissus? It’s about loving one’s self too much. You call this phenomenon as Narcism. I’ve heard there are a number of Filipino coordinators in Thailand who have this kind of disease. They love seeing their Filipino teachers burdened with anxiety and self pity. The coordinators dreaded unfair treatment is the cause of envy and hidden hatred among colleagues. If the coordinator feels that a teacher is better and a threat to her position, she finds ways to dishonor and shame the poor and unaware teacher. Some even complained but nothing happened because nobody cares. This kind of plot is classic in a telenovela or soap opera. Sounds corny but it’s really happening in real life. Is it insecurity or plain ingratitude towards others?

I saw a friend of mine crying while talking to her friend on the phone. After that emotional heart to heart talk, she told me the whole story why she wasted gallons of tears in a 30 minute call from a friend. The antagonist is a Filipino coordinator working in a not-so-good school. I’ve heard this school doesn’t give work permits to some of the teachers. The salary is a slave wage because it falls from 10K-15K. There are plenty of Filipino teachers working here. Some are education graduates and some are pretending to be teachers just to survive in Bangkok. Those trying hard teacher s have two categories: leeches (sip-sip) and survivors (di na makatiis sa masamang ugali ng coordinator at ng boss)

As you can see leeches have symptoms of Narcissism. They protect themselves by spying on the other teachers weaknesses and go directly to the big boss and bingo. You know the rest of the story. The survivors are working hard, trying to avoid mistakes, and carry tons of unexpressed hatred towards leeches. The leader of leeches is the Filipino coordinator.

Ms/Mr. coordinator, are you insecure? Do you know that there are a number of Pinoy teachers who hate you very much? Do you know that you are terrorizing the mind of your teachers? Do you care? I believe that there is a reason why you behave like this. Whatever that reason is, please bear in mind that you are dealing with humans. Don’t disregard their feelings. If you feel like you’re just doing your job, well, you are not. Remember this: A good leader is not the one who can do the job of ten men but the one who can ask ten men to do the job.

I can’t understand why Filipinos have this kind of attitude. I experienced this kind of treatment too. A coordinator treated me like a boy. She corrected me in front of many people. Shouted at me like a slave. Doesn’t look at me every time I talk to her and after I finished my line, the answer is a heart breaking “ huh?” “what”. I lost my self-confidence. I tried to be perfect with my lessons and with my words. I became laconic. Psychologically burdened with these thoughts, I resigned with hatred in my heart.

These kind of coordinators don’t know how to manage people. They don’t know about management. Remember this: People first, then money. Try to love one another. Show compassion. Give love even if its not Christmas day. Be professional. If you see something wrong, don’t shout to the world “ Hey, your pronunciation of storch walk is wrong.” If you want to correct someone, do it discreetly and constructively. To all those “feeling good filipino coordinators”, please be humble. Help your countryman. And please do it kindly not brutally.