I Got Fired from My ESL Job in Eastern Europe via Email
By: Nicole Bedford
Tags: This Happened To Me, Culture, Travel, Education, Life Lessons

I Got Fired from My ESL Job in Eastern Europe via Email

And what it taught me about my Social Media use and understanding cultural differences.

Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash

I gaped as the words blurred into a blob on the screen. Incredulous, I read through the email again and again; my bags laid packed in my periphery, mocking me, daring me to turn my full glare on them.

My eyes snagged on a group of words in the email “EMPLOYMENT TERMINATION” the letters leaped off of the page, and I’m snapped out of my reverie.

There was no recourse now; my flight was less than five hours away, my friends had said their final goodbyes, and my family was ready to let me go; I had to go. Where was I going?

Screenshot of Author’s Email

The email was brief and left much to be desired, my employment was prematurely terminated, and on the day that I was due to return no less. Think. I needed to think and plan. Pride would not allow me to divulge this information to anyone, a deep need for an escape from my life solidified my resolve.

However, their timing was suspect. Who waits the day of the return flight back to the job to fire someone? A trip they booked.

Nothing had changed. I was leaving as planned, and no one needed to know of this termination, not until I wanted them to, of course. I was about to do the bravest yet the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life, flying to London without a plan after being unceremoniously fired. But that’s a story for another time.

I was hungry for an adventure, and although I was disappointed that I was fired, I felt despondent for what I was not returning. My host family had become such a real extension of my very own, my friends, and everything that I would have experienced if things had continued according to plan.

Events that Lead Up to the Termination

My termination came on the heels of a string of incidents and experiences that I voiced on Facebook during my time in Georgia.

Before the start of my employment as an ESL teacher with the Ministry of Education and Science in the Republic of Georgia, I made a scathing Facebook post of what I deemed as their lack of professional dignity.

A part of our contract as volunteer teachers included paid airfare from our country of origin. I was scheduled to arrive with the second wave of teachers on August 15, 2010. The problem was that up to a week before our scheduled departure, we had not received confirmation of our flights.

Everyone was questioning the efficiency of the Teach and Learn with Georgia program. I decided to voice my opinion on the program’s Facebook group, it was my first mistake, and for them a strike in the cultural impropriety column for me.

The post went something like this:

“Whatever happened to professionalism, common courtesy, promptness, and consideration?”

It got a lot of likes and comments from disgruntled prospective program participants. Within 2 hours, I got an email from the Job Recruiter I used to get the job stating that the TLG program was considering canceling my contract because of my incendiary comments on Facebook. I was required to send a formal apology, and so I did.

I’d learned my lesson. I needed to have more tact when addressing my employers online, and so I adjusted. I tightened the privacy on my posts and excluded individual TLG program directors from seeing my posts that had anything to do with Georgia.

During my time in Georgia, many incidents left me in a state of needing to vent my frustrations. The cultural differences and the microaggressions I experienced as a foreigner, a woman, and a person of color.

I had a few brush encounters with racism that I addressed on my page, sexual harassment, insubordination, and racism from high school students in the classroom and my host sister’s bride-kidnapping.

I kept a personal blog during this time and cataloged my experiences and shared them on my Facebook page. There were two incidents where a TLG representative called about something I said on Facebook even after I made sure to cloak my posts.

When my host sister’s bride-kidnapping happened, I received a call asking if I wanted a new host family because of the emotional turmoil; I declined.

I got another call when I aired my grievances about not traveling so far to teach children that had no respect (this was after the racially charged rudeness I got from two male 11th grade students).

Those incidents led to being fired.

Checking My Cultural Insensitivity

My feelings were valid, but my methods for airing them were inferior. I understand now, in hindsight, that I should have kept my frustration away from Facebook.

My blog was the perfect place to vocalize all the issues I was having, but I could not help myself. I needed to express my righteous anger; the consequences be damned.

In Georgia, it was deemed culturally inappropriate to speak against the Government in such a public forum. I never took that into consideration, the cultural differences, because I allowed my western privilege to get the best of me.

After the release from my contract, my anger didn’t abate for a time. I raged on my blog about the injustice. There my passion is encapsulated, and a more defined history of TLG is explained.

I was interviewed by various publications in Georgia and Aljazeera English about the circumstances surrounding my termination with a few other teachers that were fired for multiple arbitrary things.

Social Media Etiquette on Facebook

I have since learned when to construct my soapbox and rage against the machine, and which issues to keep off of Facebook.

In 2010 Facebook was still relatively new, although I used it while in University before it was made public, most people treated it as a diary of sorts. As the platform has been defined over the years, the way in which we voice our opinions has changed.

What I learned from being fired because of my posting on Facebook:

Privacy settings on your posts are critical when you want to keep some of your more controversial and unpopular opinions within your friend circle. Don’t add anyone to your personal Facebook that is involved in maintaining your employment. Never make negative posts about employers. Save that for your best friend and your mom. Think before you post. Facebook is not a dumping ground for everything that grinds your gears, so use caution when deciding what you want your image to be on social media. If you have a lot to say, save it for your blog or start one so you can have your soapbox to bleat.

The Overall Lesson

Part of me wishes I could rewind to 2010 and approach things differently. But I am grateful for the lessons I’ve accrued in the process of my mistakes.

Georgia was a country just opening its doors to the outside world. They’d been sequestered for so long, and as such, they had little to no Western influence on their society. The program itself had so many kinks in the beginning and almost failed. Many of us didn’t know how to cope with the culture shock, and it showed.

I’ve traveled a lot since Georgia because I had such a visceral experience in terms of a culture clash, I have now widened my awareness, understanding, and appreciation for the difference’s country to country.

It’s best to educate yourself about the customs and way of life before moving to any country. While I did before Georgia, I still allowed my standards to cloud my openness to immerse myself in their culture and way of doing things.

Now, when I move about the planet I do so with an open mind, I see things through a wider lens than the one I grew up with, and I embrace the richly diverse cultural landscape I get to explore.