When Your Job Offer Changes: How to Spot Contract Red Flags Before You Sign

You’ve done the interview. The recruiter sounded friendly, the hours seemed manageable, and you were already picturing yourself exploring a tier-3 city with weekends free for travel. Then the contract lands in your inbox, and the fine print tells a completely different story.

It’s a scenario far too common in TEFL: what you’re told verbally doesn’t match what’s written in black and white. And once you sign, those extra hours become your new reality.

The Classic Bait-and-Switch

The recruiter promised 15–20 teaching hours a week with no office hours. Sounds perfect, right? But the contract suddenly shifts the language to “120 working hours per month,” and those 120 hours include “classroom teaching and workshops.” Notice what’s missing? The contract doesn’t specify how many of those hours are actual teaching versus other tasks.

That’s a huge red flag. If they can’t clearly separate teaching time from administrative time, you could end up spending half your “working hours” doing unpaid prep work, meetings, or covering for absent staff.

What “120 Working Hours” Really Means

Let’s do the math. A standard month has around 4.3 weeks. If you’re working 120 hours a month, that’s roughly 28 hours per week. Compare that to the 15–20 hours you were promised. That’s a significant increase—and it doesn’t even include lesson planning, which the contract explicitly excludes from those hours.

So you’re working 28 hours in the classroom or workshops, plus additional unpaid lesson prep time. Suddenly your “easy schedule” is a full-time job with hidden overtime.

The Holiday Clause That Isn’t

Twenty days of holiday sounds reasonable until you read the fine print: those 20 days include all public holidays. In many countries, public holidays can take up 10–15 days per year. That means your actual personal holiday days might be as low as 5–10. For an annual contract with no housing allowance, that’s a tough trade-off.

The Real Trap: Winter and Summer Schooling

The most alarming paragraph in the contract allows the school to exceed the 120-hour monthly limit during winter and summer schooling periods. They even state that “the standard limitation of a five-day work week” can be ignored. That means for several weeks a year, you could be working six or even seven days a week, with no extra compensation.

This kind of clause is designed to protect the school, not you. It gives them total flexibility at your expense.

What to Do Before You Sign

If you receive a contract like this, don’t panic—but don’t sign it either. Ask for clarification in writing:

• Request a breakdown of the 120 hours: how many are teaching, how many are workshops, and how many are administrative?
• Ask if lesson planning time is paid or unpaid, and if it counts toward the monthly total.
• Get a clear definition of winter and summer schooling hours. Ask for a sample schedule from previous years.
• Negotiate the holiday clause: request that public holidays are separate from your personal leave days.

Trust the Contract, Not the Promises

Recruiters are salespeople. Their job is to get you in the door. The contract is the legal document that actually governs your work life. If the two don’t match, the contract always wins.

If an employer is unwilling to clarify or amend these clauses, take that as a sign. A transparent school will happily explain their working hours in detail. A school that relies on vague language is likely hiding something.

You deserve a job that respects your time from day one. Don’t let a recruiter’s smooth talk override what the contract is telling you.