Pros
Lots of bookings and easy lessons to teach!
Cons
You will never feel more alone. The support is minimal and 51 Talk keeps you disconnected from other teachers so you are unable to get help from anyone but their support team who take forever to respond or help you. There is a LOT of saving face in this company. They will train you and tell you to do something one way and if a parent gets upset with you then they will blame you, and then penalise you by either closing your portal to investigate you or terminating you. They rarely care what you have to say. I taught with this company for 2 years. I was told one time to ask for a parent to help with the lesson if it was needed. Once I had a 2/3 year old sat in front of a computer and she had no idea the computer was even on. I asked is your mom there and got penalised and almost fired for it. Another time they were 2 months late paying me my wages. ALSO, this company will pin you with fees and even if their systems are down and you can't teach a lesson because of them, they will still make you pay a fee to them. I was fired at the end of my contract because a student was texting throughout my lesson and completely ignored me. I wrote a note in the memo about it as Collin an AA had told me to do when I was almost fired a year earlier. I even went back and read the three sentences over twice to make sure they would be appropriate. Stated the student texted throughout the class and it may be a good idea to have a parent present to ensure the issue doesn't happen again and thank you. 3 weeks later my portal was closed down and I was terminated. I taught over 5,300 and had over 2,300 following students; many of which I'd had since my first week. I was a great teacher who worked 50 hours a week! Apparently they wanted me to submit the note in a ticket so they could handle it which they did not ever tell me as a teacher. They said they understood my reason for putting it there but still fired me. There was also AC issues and the footage just "happened" to be missing. I tried so hard to stay on with the company because I loved my kids but they refused to respond to me. This company will never support their teachers and will always throw them out if any issue comes up because they will pay someone else to take over their position in a second. They will never do the right thing. You are alone. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND WORKING FOR THIS COMPANY. You are seen as anything but valuable to them and they will get rid of you no matter how dedicated you are to them in a heartbeat. STAY AWAY FROM 51 TALK and their UNFAIR MANAGEMENT TEAM!
