Some good, mostly bad - Anonymous employee First Leap Employee Review

Thank you for your review. Every employee in the company will be offered a contract and handbook. The handbook is an extension of the contract. While the handbook can change every 6 months, there is a one month notice period before change. The salary is listed in the contract and is unchangable until the contract is changed upon mutual consent. Working location is also not changed. If an employee has agreed to a city location, the company is unable to make the employee move to another city unless the employee agrees to this once they have begun working in this city. The employee may be required to work in a different centre location in the same city, but this is limited to one month unless upon mutual consent. This is clearly laid out in the handbook, and the handbook should be provided to every potential employee at the same time the contract is offered during recruitment. The second con mentioned is actually false. There is no media development team in the company, the positive reviews have been completed by teachers. First Leap currently has around 200 international employees in its corporate centres, so if any prospective or current employee would like to converse with other employees, they should contact their recruiter to be put in contact with multiple employees. With regards to the third negative, this is true. However this is not related to the company. It is standard practice for housing agents to ask for rent to be paid quarterly (so every three months). The initial payment for a new apartment will be the 3 months, a deposit (which is normally an equal amount to one months rent) and an agency fee (again, which is normally equal to one months rent). The agency fee is negotiable, however. This is normal in larger cities such as Beijing. Having said this, however it is possible to find alternative arrangements, sometimes without agency fees, that will allow you to either sub-let or pay for an apartment on a monthly basis. I suggest looking at thebeijinger.com classified section (for Beijing) as well as contacting current employees for other information or suggestions. Lastly I would like to add, we are saddened you have had this experience. While you have not detailed what you feel you were lied about with the salary or working location, or what was going on in your school, I do notice you have listed yourself as a current employee. So we would like to rectify the situation to make you feel more comfortable. The company had a grievance procedure that you can use to formally make a complaint about management. Information can be found in the handbook.