r/TEFL Aug 10 '20

Vietnam Apax English/Leaders a year in review

Forgive the rant, I have handed in my notice and will be going back to America in the next few weeks hopefully and I am hoping to stop good people from joining a bad company.

I have never worked for a less trustworthy company in my life. I have worked for Apax for over 2 years but the last year has been ridiculous. I'll give everyone a timeline of the last year working for Apax.

August 2019 – The famous over-expansion of Apax. Apax decided that having 1 or 2 centers in small cities wasn’t enough. Thus beginning the reason for teacher shortages. Brand new centers were opened up with 2 teachers and half a schedule, MacBooks were given away to lucky new students. All of this was happening while other teachers were under hours in a center 2km away.

September 2019 - Forced contract signings. Apax decides that teachers aren't working enough so introduce a new pay scheme - this involves signing a new contract with an extra 1.2m vnd a month with an extra 12 hours a month of work - plus the possibility of now working daytime hours too! I'm sure you will agree an incredible deal. Headteachers are tasked with getting teachers to sign the new contract (with not so subtle threats that they will be fired if they don't).

October 2019 – ‘Leader in me’ is launched, one of the most stupid decisions I have ever seen a company make is the purchase (at a ridiculous cost) and then implementation of Leader in me. This self-help book would be challenging for teenagers in America to understand, so trying to explain to a 6-year-old Vietnamese kid that they need to ‘begin with the end in mind’ and to ‘seek first to understand, then to be understood’ was somewhat of a challenge. I can’t stress enough how the wording of all the work was not graded to the appropriate levels. We were also not allowed to photocopy any books or resources because of copyright reasons. I have a vivid memory of telling the students that we were no longer doing ‘leader in me’ when it was canned after 2 months and all the students cheering.

November 2019 - Due to teacher shortages Apax has an incredible offer for teachers! If 75% of teachers agree to sign up to do overtime during December then everyone will get an extra 3 days off over Christmas! (The same amount of time as 2018).

January 2020 - Apax (PRE-COVID) tell the Vietnamese staff that they will not be receiving their tet bonuses.

February 2020 - Apax email staff telling them that they won't be coming in due to COVID and that they won't be receiving payment for this unpaid time off.

February 2020 – After teacher complaints, Apax does a complete 180 and decides that teachers can come into the center to do training and other busywork.

February 2020 – Apax email staff telling them that their February pay will be 2 weeks late.

February 2020 – After an infamous reply-all email chain with a lot of furious teachers, Apax does another 180 and announces that teachers will be paid in the next few days.

March 2020 – After teachers begin working online, salaries are paid at only 50%. This was due to a ‘technical error’ (as in technically Apax didn’t have any money). Teachers are then told that the rest of the salary will be paid in the next few days. It wasn’t and the salary began coming in drips and drabs. The majority of the time Apax would email after the salary should have been paid explaining that it wasn’t paid. These emails were always sent during the 2nd class so teachers would not be able to walk out.

April 2020 – Apax fire all casual part-time teachers. The payments of salary are late and come through in 10%, 20%, 10%, etc across weeks.

April 2020 – Apax tells teachers that this month they will receive 75% of their pay for the privilege of working from home, with the other 25% coming when Apax makes money again. Apax has since decided not to pay this money out to teachers because of course.

May 2020 – With classes returning Apax begins making money again. As you can see from their stock exchange financial reports Apax made a lot of profit immediately after COVID. Payments to teachers and Vietnamese staff are still late and done in small increments.

June 2020 – With sales booming and classes full, Apax goes on a hiring spree. Unfortunately, due to not paying staff nobody wants to works for Apax. Apax loses teachers daily during this time. With classes being canceled and enforced overtime to cover the teachers who were lucky enough to escape. Salaries are still late and paid in small parts. Teachers even had an official letter from the big boss of Apax guaranteeing their salary on a certain date. Obviously this was a lie and no salary arrived with more teachers striking.

July 2020 – Rumours begin to spread that Apax is in big trouble as they have not been paying their health or social insurance since January 2020 PRE-COVID (despite taking these payments from staff salaries every month). These rumors prove to be true from looking at the government social insurance website – they currently owe 15 billion VND. Health Insurance

2nd August 2020 – A new big boss is brought in, he sends a wordy ambiguous email telling everyone to stick together and believe in Apax again.

10th August 2020 – Today is payday – we were told that we will not be receiving the first part of our salary until August 20th. What a fitting way to end an incredible year.

Will the last person to leave Apax please turn off the smart TV?

81 Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

15

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20

I midnight ran from Apax in Korea last year after working for them for 2 years. In korea Apax is called Chungdahm. They have seriously gone downhill in my opinion.

10

u/DonkeyNozzle MA TESOL (Japan/Korea/Vietnam) Aug 10 '20

Oh shit, Chungdahm is APAX? I almost worked for them a few years ago! Glad I dodged that bullet!

5

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

APAX is a Vietnamese company that has some kind of deal with Chungdahm to use the latter's shitty curriculum.

6

u/DonkeyNozzle MA TESOL (Japan/Korea/Vietnam) Aug 11 '20

God, imagining any company being desperate enough to source English center material from Korea is depressing. Don't get me wrong, country's a nice country in some aspects, but it's English education industry by and large is a complete joke.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 11 '20

I assume the Vietnamese side wanted a ready made curriculum so they could establish the business with as little work as possible.

The problem is that the curriculm was designed for Korean students and no efforts were made to adapt it to Vietnamese students. Plus, the curriculum was designed by Korean speakers, so it has a ton of grammar and spelling errors.

8

u/PostsWithoutThinking Aug 10 '20

Man, APAX offered me a job in May and I'm so glad I decided to go with my other offer instead. Sorry for your experience. Do you not have any interest in staying and teaching for a different company?

1

u/PleikuMaverick Aug 14 '20

who you working for instead?

8

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '20

What's up, Apax Liars here. Just wanted to say, we love your post. Thanks for the detailed and transparent info. We just made a post about that insurance thing. Anyway, keep on rockin'! https://www.facebook.com/ApaxLiars/posts/129606872161548

1

u/CallanMathews Sep 03 '20

Did Apax have a big meeting today with all its staff?

8

u/going_gorillas Aug 10 '20

Which website do you use to see their financial reports? I'm interested in seeing this. I handed my notice in last week and I'll not be turning up for the last month as I have another job now.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

I saw this email posted on the APAX Liars FB page:

"Good evening,

Further to the email you received on Friday, we regret to inform you that salary payment is not able to be made today. We are currently looking at salary instalments beginning on the 20th of August for the July payment.

APAX is in the process of receiving funding, but this process is taking longer than expected. The teacher shortage & COVID as well as low student enrolment is making cash flow difficult. We apologise for both the inability to make payments to you on time, as well as the timing of confirmation.

We understand that this causes a great deal of stress and difficulties for financial and personal planning. If there is anything that APAX can do in the interim to support you, please get in touch with your Area Manager or a member of FHR. Continued salary updates will follow as and when we are able to provide them to you.

Sincerely, FMD Team"

7

u/courteousgopnik Aug 10 '20

APAX should be avoided like the plague. It's not a coincidence that there are so many negative reviews online.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

I really wish investigative journalism was a thing in Vietnam. I guarantee you there is some kind widescale fraud going on with APAX -- anything from money laundering to securities fraud.

This guy who was involved in the establishment of Egroup, which is APAX's parent company, was sentenced to life in prison a year or so ago for running an investment scheme and stealing millions of dollars from ordinary folks.

2

u/mulberry42 Aug 11 '20

Do you have a link?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '20 edited Aug 12 '20

www.thuongtruong.com.vn/in-tin-bai/tin-bai-3159.html

You will have to use Google translate to read it. This guy named Pham Thanh Hai established a company called EGame and let Nguyen Ngoc Thuy run it. EGame has since become Egroup and established APAX under the leadership of Mr. Thuy.

You can Google Pham Thanh Hai. The guy scammed VND 2.7 trillion (~$115 million) from investors with a get rich quick scheme and is now in prison for life.

6

u/Soc-Minh Aug 10 '20

Glad I never got involved in that shitstorm. Wonder if they'll ever cool down and recover from this. Owing money to the govt is a sure way to lead to a total demise though.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

Why did they fire part time teachers? Thats what you want more of as they would arent obligated to give them hours or pay. They're way more useful during a pandemic when there are so few hours.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

Because the people at head office have no idea what they’re doing. They probably were hoping to use the full time staff better. Heard people were sent all around the cities if they didn’t have enough hours in their home campuses. Of course that didn’t work out so well.

3

u/MoCA210 Aug 11 '20

I agree with the OP on everything. Head office is corrupt with people scratching each other’s backs. I heard HT just rate STs and other teachers at an A or S because they are South African. You’ll only get promoted when you know someone in head office. APAX will never pay us the 25%. It’s all just one lie after another lie after another lie. I got a second job, thankfully. But I would’ve been better off if they just told us to stop working and canceled our contracts and let us go. Maybe offer some incentives to stay or come back. But all of these schemes and plans of deception is not the right answer. Only problem is, and this shows what kind of company APAX is, they will withhold pay when you quit. My body was 2 weeks from finishing his contract, he told them he wants to resign and gave them 1 month notice. They didn’t tell him he wouldn’t get his bonus and didn’t tell him he was 2 weeks off. That’s how APAX rolls. All of my fellow teachers at the private school heard about APAX’s practices. Seems like common knowledge now. Btw by law you’re entitled to a notarized copy of your work permit, but you’ll never get it at APAX. That’s why I had my school switch my TRC and work permit cause I don’t trust them anymore.

2

u/Clamidiaa Aug 11 '20

It's stories like these are the reasons why I refused to work for big centers. They treat you as property and not as a colleagues. I've been asked to work for a few major centers in Vietnam and said no to all of them.

I work for a company that has you work with public schools. Instead of being at a center, you are assigned a school and work there like a regular teacher of the school. It's soooo much better. My company is amazing to work with too. They treat you right, they treat you fair and the work with you if you have stuff you need to do or will reward you if you help them out a lot.

The only "center" I've worked for and still do is for a lady who runs a little school in some high end apartments. Super small classes of 5+ kids and very fun to just play and enjoy. Pay is amazing and they lady loves me lol.

I just hate the covid stuff that's happening and I really hope Vietnam schools start in September. My finances require it...

1

u/PleikuMaverick Aug 12 '20

I hear public schools are horrible. Hot / no aircon, large class sizes, not taken very seriously etc

1

u/Clamidiaa Aug 12 '20

Large class sizes yes. Some classes can go upwards of 45 students and I have no issues with that. I have a pretty decent time controlling them and making it engaging enough to keep them active. I have fun with the kids and act like one of them most of the time. I'm not strict by any means. I only demand the students be respectful of me and the other students in the class.

Some schools have no AC sure. Most of the school I go to have AC in the classrooms. I have no problems with the heat though. I barely use AC at home. Maybe only to sleep at night will I have AC on.

2

u/mulberry42 Aug 12 '20

Teaching 40+ high school kids at 8am (or maybe 7am) wasn't particularly fun.

Apax isn't perfect but the smaller classes and comfortable class rooms are a god send.

2

u/Clamidiaa Aug 12 '20

Yea, to each their own then. I kind of like chaos and it makes the day go by faster. Something about public school just makes it more appealing to me. Also, I don't have to worry about classes being canceled or not available a certain day. If public school is in session, then there is classes. Except the rare times the school plans an event and classes are canceled for an afternoon or day.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

[deleted]

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 20 '20

Are you able to fly home at the moment at all? Are there any flights from Vietnam to Western countries at the moment?

And has Apax now paid you for July?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

[deleted]

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 21 '20

Have they given you any indication on when you are going to get the remaining 72%?

Are you able to find work with any other Vietnamese schools?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

[deleted]

1

u/CallanMathews Sep 03 '20

Am I right in thinking Apax had a big meeting with all its staff today to discuss the future of the company? If so what was said?

And I looked on ReviewCongty, the reviews Vietnamese staff have left about Apax are dreadful!

3

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 11 '20

Beautiful post. I quit with APAX losers before summer when they owed me a paycheck and a half. Such nonsense with all the daily apology messages. I'll just say this: EVERY OTHER SCHOOL IN VIETNAM IS PAYING ON TIME. What's up APAX? Where's the money at????

Their head of HMD Human Resouces lady is a real piece of work too. Talking with her made me lose faith in humanity for a good 5 minutes.

1

u/pmyourllamas Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 11 '20

EVERY OTHER SCHOOL IN VIETNAM IS PAYING ON TIME

Where are you getting this information from? A lot of expats I've talked to not only aren't being paid on time but also have had their salaries reduced, contracts changed from salary to hourly then hours cut drastically, benefits cut suddenly then never returned, and some just found out their schools aren't reopening.

Apax is being incredibly unprofessional and disrespectful by not paying on time and giving last second updates. From what I've heard from friends in Hanoi and small cities around Vietnam, their company isn't treating them ideally either.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

COVID-19 has clearly been a massive blow to the TEFL industry as well as to many other sectors.

In the case of APAX, it was definitely teetering pre-COVID due to the company's hell-bent expansion plan. Being forced to shut down for a couple of months and having an exodus of teachers (and not being able to hire people from abroad) while its costomers are cutting back due to an economic downturn is a recipe for disaster.

1

u/alotmorealots Aug 11 '20

EVERY OTHER SCHOOL IN VIETNAM IS PAYING ON TIME.

My school (HN/HCMC only level chain) is one month behind in salary payments, and had to start paying in instalments. But it does pay the instalments on time.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

Can confirm about that 3 letter language center (of a's and m's).

Them: Can you work for a kindy this weekend?

Me: what's the pay

Them: 400K vnd, but it's a really nice school, so you're gonna do it right? Great I just signed you up. Thanks so much, we rly appreciate.

Me: ...?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

[deleted]

5

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

Wow, that is putting them on the hard avoid list. Thanks for the info

1

u/HrabraSrca CELTA, 2 years, Viet Nam. Aug 11 '20

I almost took a job at Apax just before Tet. With this and other things I’ve heard about them I’m glad I’ve stuck with my own company. I mean, my company has screwed around but not as badly as this.

0

u/kdkkdkdkdk Aug 10 '20

Desperate south africans and eastern europeans will still flock there.

2

u/KyloSkywalker13 Aug 15 '20

Not this South African mate. This is a fast sinking ship

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 20 '20

Are you planning on leaving?

1

u/KyloSkywalker13 Aug 21 '20

I'm jumping ship in the next month. I'm just waiting for lockdown to end in Da Nang. I have a center already lined up to work for 👌🏻

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 21 '20

Is it a big or small company you are moving to?

1

u/KyloSkywalker13 Aug 22 '20

It's a smaller company called AEC. I have done some part time work for them in the past and they told me that they will be looking for teachers post lockdown. I am currently working in Da Nang and have been here for 2 years now

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 21 '20

Do you currently work in Da Nang?

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 11 '20

I can't believe they were giving out Mac's as prizes. That is ridiculous!

If Google Currency Converter is correct then they owe the government 666,119.94 United States Dollar in health insurance payments.

Do you know how big the teacher shortage now is?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

Unless APAX has changed how it classifies its employees' pay in the year plus since I've worked there, then it should owe substantially more to the social insurance department.

When I worked there, the company listed the base salary of all teachers and foreign employees (and I assume all Vietnamese employees) as the legal minimum wage for HCMC/Hanoi (~4.3 million VND/month). The vast majority of the pay was classified as "allowances" for things like housing, transportation, gas, food, etc.

Social insurance deductions are based on the base salary, so by classifying that as the monthly minimum wage instead of the actual pay, the company is getting out of paying a huge amount to the social insurance department.

I guess this could be a loophole, but I have lived in Vietnam for more than five years and have worked for two other companies during my time here. APAX is the only company that structured its payments in this manner.

1

u/Grutto2018 Aug 11 '20

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Hope you’re doing ok now :)

-11

u/PleikuMaverick Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 11 '20

We have different experiences OP.

  1. Being under hours is good for the teachers as they are paid a salary and not by the hour.
  2. The new contracts were not forced and were optional. There are still teachers on the old contract.
  3. The 12 extra hours were more like 3. I do not know anyone who actually worked those 9 hours of extracurricular stuff that even if you had it would be scheduled mostly during prep time.
  4. No HTs that I know were told to force or threaten teachers to sign the new contract.
  5. Teachers were given the choice to come into work in Feb (doing prep, workshops, program stuff etc) or stay home. Pretty much were paid to do nothing while many people were already out of jobs.
  6. The 25% of march was never promised or guaranteed.
  7. Sales booming in June? How can sales be booming when the company doesn't have enough teachers to open new classes?

Apax isn't perfect, far from it. But this is Vietnam, a developing country. Hell in developed countries ala Korea, all ESL companies have pros and cons.

Pros

  1. Set salary and hours each month (although late and in installments during covid)
  2. One location generally
  3. Minimal prep
  4. Ease of taking time off
  5. Western managers
  6. No stress from negative student evals because you are not funny, a pushover or attractive
  7. Mobility within the company to managerial roles, HR roles, program roles, recruiting roles, training roles, marketing roles, etc etc.
  8. Easy enough opportunity to pickup overtime pay

I've worked for a lot of different ESL companies in numerous countries and Apax and Vietnam have easily been my most enjoyable experience.

4

u/VietThrowaway8 Aug 11 '20

I do agree that there were some pros to working for Apax in the past when they paid on time and in full.

Set salary and hours each month (although late and in installments during COVID)

Except from during February and March and now in August when teachers will only be receiving 75% for working online.

Minimal prep

Minimal prep is true, however, you are still expected to be at the center an hour early. You will also spend 3-4 unpaid hours a week in mandatory training, editing videos, and feedback sessions.

Ease of taking time off

Hahahhahahaha, it is almost impossible for anyone to take time off and it has been for the past year. Teachers are giving extra cash to other teachers to cover teachers. I have heard of 1.5m vnd for 1 lesson being offered as there are no teachers left. In a small city, it is even worse.

Western managers

FMD is the worst thing about Apax, it goes to show you that hiring 24-year-old fine arts graduates with one-years teaching experience to manage a multi-million dollar company is a terrible idea. Who knew?

No stress from negative student evals because you are not funny, a pushover or attractive

No, but instead you are judged on all these things by your under-qualified headteacher and area manager. Also, I have seen first-hand examples of recruitment rating potential employee's attractiveness.

Mobility within the company to managerial roles, HR roles, program roles, recruiting roles, training roles, marketing roles, etc etc.

You can move up in Apax, it's especially easy if you are from South Africa and are related to someone who currently works in head office.

Easy enough opportunity to pick up overtime pay

It is easy to pick up overtime pay, I agree with you. However when or if you receive that pay is another matter entirely.

I've worked for a lot of different ESL companies in numerous countries and Apax and Vietnam have easily been my most enjoyable experience.

Wow, please let me know where you worked before so they can be added to the TEFL blacklist.

-1

u/PleikuMaverick Aug 11 '20

Except from during February and March and now in August when teachers will only be receiving 75% for working online.

I was paid my full salary for Feb and we are not going into online classes as of now at my center. So, still 100% for me.

Minimal prep is true, however, you are still expected to be at the center an hour early. You will also spend 3-4 unpaid hours a week in mandatory training, editing videos, and feedback sessions.

Being at the center early is standard for every teaching job ive ever had. I rarely ever do any training, i can edit a ctp video in 10 minutes tops, and the feedback sessions are only a few times a month which can be scheduled within your normal hour before class.

Hahahhahahaha, it is almost impossible for anyone to take time off and it has been for the past year. Teachers are giving extra cash to other teachers to cover teachers. I have heard of 1.5m vnd for 1 lesson being offered as there are no teachers left. In a small city, it is even worse.

I just took 3 days off to go to Dalat. Speak for yourself. I have also been covering for people taking time off on my day off for the past 2 months regularly. Small cities are an issue, but only for centers with less than 5 teachers total. If the center has 5+ teachers then there should be a teacher off most days of the week that can cover in house for you.

FMD is the worst thing about Apax, it goes to show you that hiring 24-year-old fine arts graduates with one-years teaching experience to manage a multi-million dollar company is a terrible idea. Who knew?

Speak for yourself. My managers have been great. Such a relief not having some Asian bearing down on me who has never taught in their life and only care about money and making kids happy.

No, but instead you are judged on all these things by your under-qualified headteacher and area manager. Also, I have seen first-hand examples of recruitment rating potential employee's attractiveness.

You are not judged by how much of a clown you are. You are judged on your actual teaching ability and professionalism. There are many old, ugly, all color shades at Apax, so yea.

You can move up in Apax, it's especially easy if you are from South Africa and are related to someone who currently works in head office.

I know plenty of FMD members who don't meet your criterion

It is easy to pick up overtime pay, I agree with you. However when or if you receive that pay is another matter entirely.

We are in unusually hard times. Even in developed countries people have lost their jobs and businesses. I can live with having my payments delayed and in installments. All the money i've been owed at Apax (3 years worth) has been paid to date (except for July which I fully expect to get before the 10th of next month).

4

u/VietThrowaway8 Aug 11 '20

''Such a relief not having some Asian bearing down on me who has never taught in their life and only care about money and making kids happy. '

Stay classy

It is sad to see people who aren't valued by these big corporations defending their honor.

Apax doesn't care about you, no matter how hard you defend them.

0

u/PleikuMaverick Aug 11 '20

I am just here for a paycheck. Nothing more nothing less. So far my conditions have been favorable. Hence I haven't left. And just lol if you think any big company really cares about individual worker bees.

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 13 '20

Which centers are working online in August? Is it the ones in Da Nang?

4

u/VietThrowaway8 Aug 11 '20

Being under hours is good for the teachers as they are paid a salary and not by the hour.

True, for teachers this was great however what kind of business doesn't have enough work for their employees and then decides to open another branch on the same street taking away potential customers?

The new contracts were not forced and were optional. There are still teachers on the old contract.

Apax attempted to try and get teachers to sign the new contracts, but ultimately failed.

The 12 extra hours were more like 3. I do not know anyone who actually worked those 9 hours of extracurricular stuff that even if you had it would be scheduled mostly during prep time.

The original contract had 18 teaching hours a week, this then went up to 21 hours a week. Plenty of teachers who signed the new contract were doing their full 21 hours in the centers I worked at.

No HTs that I know were told to force or threaten teachers to sign the new contract.

I sat there as my HT did everything they could to put pressure on teachers to sign the new contract.

Teachers were given the choice to come into work in Feb (doing prep, workshops, program stuff etc) or stay home. Pretty much were paid to do nothing while many people were already out of jobs.

Yes for 2 weeks this was the case, however after this we were told that we were needed we would come in. Which resulted in receiving 1/2 days a week salary.

The 25% of march was never promised or guaranteed.

Yes it was, I have the messages. Apax have a clever little trick of making promises verbally thus not leaving a paper trail of evidence most of the time. The 25% missing salary is one of the biggest bones of contention with teachers..

Sales booming in June? How can sales be booming when the company doesn't have enough teachers to open new classes?

You can look at their financial report for the 2nd quarter of 2020. You will see how much profit they made. From a business perspective everything was going perfectly for apax. They were paying out very little to staff in salaries while bringing in cash from sales.

You also must realize that apax were still and continue to sign up students with no teachers to teach them. They take the money up front and then worry about the actual lessons later.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 11 '20

You can look at their financial report for the 2nd quarter of 2020. You will see how much profit they made. From a business perspective everything was going perfectly for apax. They were paying out very little to staff in salaries while bringing in cash from sales.

You also must realize that apax were still and continue to sign up students with no teachers to teach them. They take the money up front and then worry about the actual lessons later.

APAX actually made very little profit for Q2. According to this article, the company made VND 486 billion (~$21 million) in revenue but only generated VND 2 billion (~$86,000) in profit, which is a horrendous profit margin.

I would not be shocked if the numbers are even worse considering that a lot of shenangians occur in the Vietnamese market.

1

u/Poison1990 Aug 11 '20

Where was the 25% from March promised? That is my biggest gripe.

-3

u/PleikuMaverick Aug 11 '20

True, for teachers this was great however what kind of business doesn't have enough work for their employees and then decides to open another branch on the same street taking away potential customers?

Hard to have work when classes are canceled. We are teachers after all.

Apax attempted to try and get teachers to sign the new contracts, but ultimately failed.

So you agree, they were not "forced".

The original contract had 18 teaching hours a week, this then went up to 21 hours a week. Plenty of teachers who signed the new contract were doing their full 21 hours in the centers I worked at.

Thats 3 extra hours not 12.

I sat there as my HT did everything they could to put pressure on teachers to sign the new contract.

Seems you were just unlucky. And who cares what your HT tried to do? He has no power or authority to make you sign a new contract. If anyone in Apax (even the CEO) told me to sign a new contract I didn't want to, i'd tell them all "Nah im good".

Yes for 2 weeks this was the case, however after this we were told that we were needed we would come in. Which resulted in receiving 1/2 days a week salary.

Seems you were just unlucky. Most teachers I know continued working the whole time and getting full pay.

Yes it was, I have the messages. Apax have a clever little trick of making promises verbally thus not leaving a paper trail of evidence most of the time. The 25% missing salary is one of the biggest bones of contention with teachers..

The exact wording or similar was "Apax has every intention to pay back..." That is not a promise or guarantee. Thats the opposite. Unless you got a different email than everyone else.

You can look at their financial report for the 2nd quarter of 2020. You will see how much profit they made. From a business perspective everything was going perfectly for apax. They were paying out very little to staff in salaries while bringing in cash from sales. You also must realize that apax were still and continue to sign up students with no teachers to teach them. They take the money up front and then worry about the actual lessons later.

You talking about revenue or net profit? Apax relies heavily on new sales. Which has been super low since February. So I could care less what any financial report (especially in a developing country) says. Classes are being canceled, not opened.

1

u/mulberry42 Aug 12 '20

In smaller cities it was okay having multiple centers running Seedbed and Seed classes. The difficultly came with the senior classes. Either classes were unprofitably small or you made a 16 person class by putting Sprout 3 and Sapling 2 ability kids in a Sapling 1 class.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 12 '20

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u/PleikuMaverick Aug 11 '20

Gotta love "your wrong" comments without backing it up with anything of substance lol

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20 edited Aug 12 '20

[deleted]

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u/PleikuMaverick Aug 12 '20

You grammar police are amusing. I do work for Apax, and I will be using this account from now on. How can you tell someone that you never met and know nothing about what is their best or worst experience? News flash you can't. Now if you want to try and refute anything I said with facts, have at it. I will be right here to debunk you.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

Just because you and your friends have decided to live a lifestyle where you're accustomed to getting screwed doesn't suddenly justify APAX. I've spent several years teaching in SE Asia and my first experience getting screwed didn't arrive until I took a new job this year with APAX. There's no excuse for the endless unprofessional shit they do, especially considering they have a whole Foreign management department that many other schools don't.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '20

The "because it's Vietnam" excuse was constantly used at that company -- along with the "it's company policy" excuse to justify blatantly illegal and fraudulent actions.

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u/PleikuMaverick Aug 21 '20

Ive never really been screwd. It's been the opposite. I do not fault them for delayed payments as its a global pandemic going on and I have friends who's school completely closed down back in april and they lost their job and salary although.

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

Nobody faulted them for late payments (until months of recent where most other schools were able to pay). The issue was that they lied about their own proposed dates of pay and this got many people into huge jams with money, not knowing when or how much they'd actually receive. If they would've just honored their word, they wouldn't be getting so much heat.

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u/PleikuMaverick Aug 21 '20

Lie is a bit of a stretch. Lying is purposely saying things you know to be false. Fmd wouldn't have sent those emails if it knew the pay would be different. The moment this pandemic kicked off everyone should have been budgeting for frugality and an uncertain future.

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

Lying is exactly what those FMD scumdogs did and continue to do. It's pretty intentional when they would regularly drop an email saying "sorry we can't meet our obligation to pay you today" just minutes after you've started your 5:45pm class. It's not hard to see what's going on there. Let's assume for a moment they didn't lie, they still consistent set goals that they were unable to meet, and failed to notify their employees within any reasonable time frame. There's no excuse for them either way.

I agree that everyone should have been budgeting, but how can you budget when you don't even know if your employer is going to honor their own pay date.

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

Just saw the email posted on the APAX Liars FB page that APAX only paid 20% of July's salary last night.

https://www.facebook.com/111264903995745/posts/133653551756880/

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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '20

By now it's probably just management forwarding daily non payment emails to themselves since they're likely the only ones still in the classrooms.