Gross misconduct? AIBU to report this college tutor

[fannyfelcher]

My eldest son is an absolute delight. He is hard working, loyal, loving and awesome. Due to his autism he has had a terrible time in schools and colleges until last September we found a course that he fitted in with right away and he has thrived. The last 3 months he has been talking about getting a part time job but has had no real luck due to shyness and most jobs being customer focused ( he struggles with IDing emotions on others).

Anyway, he came home on Monday thrilled to bits, his tutor had a contact that was looking for serious hard working college age students to train up. Very serious stuff, he has to wear a suit to the interview, attend an evening seminar to get an idea a=of which area he wanted to progress in and if the training was compatible with his college hours. I knew there was something wrong when I looked at the leaflet and it didnt actually say anything, it was all just words and fancy graphics without any real content.

He was so nervous he could not face driving so I went along with him for the 50 minute drive( thank god). We get there and right away, we sat dwn and I just knew what it was. It was a presentation for a company called ACN and they are a multi level marketing scheme. My son was eager to sign up and part with £500 to get "his own business,complete with online shop" so he can become independent and earn his own money. He is so excited by this opportunity nd it breaks my heart. If I had not been there he would have done it right away. I could not say anything there and then as the tutor that he adores so much is the very same guy that has tried to recruit him into this scheme along with another 5 boys from the IT BTEC he runs. I would have embarrassed my son and jeopardized the second year of the course he loves as well as had an entire room full of 100-200 very very enthusiastic people turn on me.

So, I really want to report this tutor, to me he has committed an awful error in his conduct by using his position of trust to try and enrol his students (some vulnerable) into a scheme that will benefit him and leave them poorer. My husband says that I should leave it and make it clear to my son that we will help him find a job that pays an hourly wage so as to give him set hours with a predefined wage as a reward. ( he does not need to get a job, he gets plenty of pocket money but feels he wants to be independent).

So, what do i do you lovely bunch of vipers?

YouOKHun You're quite right. Now, I would tell her to fuck off, but at the time, I didn't have the confidence, and thought that I would lose the job.
She got made redundant a few years later and ended up working, not exactly under me, but certainly on a lower grade than me. I wouldn't say I rejoiced, exactly, but may have been heard to mutter 'serves you right' under my breath once or twice.

But he has seen first hand the tears, the bullying and heartbreak that my son has been though all of his life. This is the first place he has felt comfortable with his course, his tutor, and actually has friends.

Whilst that is understandable, he must not be aware of the levels of bullying and mind fuckery that goes on in MLMs.

Its like joining a cult.

Given your sons history this is REALLY serious

he openly admitted to me that he had been doing this job to supplement his earnings for the last month/6 weeks

Then absolutely ignore my post(s) (although in fairness to me it wasn't in the OP, hence am wondering why you posted in AIBU as clearly you are not! ) and make a formal complaint - I would not however, do it anonymously to the school, otherwise it will be very difficult for them to act on the complaint in full, although you can request that the tutor does not find out who reported; just make sure you realise that the tutor does have the right to defend himself if he so chooses and may need to know fully what he has been accused of during the investigatory process..

And your DH needs to consider that if this tutor remains in place he’ll continue to groom new recruits with all the psychological damage that will cause. SpringHen is absolutely right; for your son this could be far more damaging than not getting a job. I really hope your DS finds something else.

Could you get your DH to have a look at MLMbotwatch, mlmtruth or Timeless Vie blogs so he can get information to balance against his understandable concerns for your son’s general happiness?

& think about it, you want you DS to stay on his course, but his tutor has only been in this cult MLM for a month and is already putting his job at risk for it. The course is already at risk of losing him as a tutor if he is already that reeled into the promise of millions #sacktheboss . The sooner the college know the sooner they can make sure they can cover the course till the end of the year!

Hello, I am from Bot Watch and I’d like to help you report this company/tutor. There are many things that concern me here-

Data protection as previously mentioned.
Trying to get someone to spend £500 in the first 2 weeks of joining (the legal maximum is £200).
The flyer not mentioning the company name, what is expected or the statutory wealth warning. Was there a statement about not promising rewards for recruiting on the flyer? Do you still have the flyer?

You can report the recruitment attempt to action fraud. They are a branch of the police that investigate pyramid scheme scams. Because of the breaches of the law I have mentioned above, the company/tutor could be said to be operating an illegal pyramid scheme. This is very serious.

You could report the flyer to the Advertising Standards Agency.

Both of these methods of reporting will ensure that the tutor doesn’t know it was you that reported him. Your son never needs to know it was you.

And then there is the ethical question. Would you want other students to sign up to this scheme and lose money? Over 99% of people lose money in these scams. Many people have dropped out of college or university to try and pursue the dream that these schemes sell.

SpringHen:
they list a phone number for people wishing to advertise jobs to students.

No thats probably not their only job. And they probably dont have a dedicated office and team just for that role. But damn right there's an official way to go about it and yes, I do think what youve done is "going rogue" and potentially dangerous if you are turning a blind eye to your colleagues doing it too. What happens when one starts picking out the pretty girls for their mates "cocktail bar" hmm??

We probably are going at this through crossed-wires, as I am thinking of work experience and organisations definitely don't approach us and never have in any of the places I have worked at - students have to approach companies themselves to organise this and I have always passed on to students if asked, places that took students successfully in the past.
In addition, I have assisted with students who wanted to get onto apprenticeships and have forwarded details etc. All perfectly fine and normal.
I do want to make it clear I have never 'recruited' any of my students for paid jobs.

Ok, I am deffinitely going to do it and botwatch thank you. I am off out to the after school activities but will update this tomorrow after I have spoken to my son.

I would like to thank you all. Everybody on here, you have made me feel better about protecting my son and his friends as opposed to reporting the tutor.

Well its done. They have assured me that it will not affect my son. We will see. Thank you .

Well done OP, not an easy thing to have had to do. It’s probably asking a bit much but if you can/are happy to it would be really interesting to read an update from you in due course as I’d be really interested to know how the college responds (though I guess you might not find out). Hope your son finds something soon.

Well done. You've done the right thing, not only by your son, but by every other young person vulnerable to being exploited by this tutor.

I wouldn’t be surprised that there was a clause in his contract with the college that any other work he did wouldn’t interfere with/cause conflict of interest for the college.
Hope he gets his arse handed to him

Hideous behaviour by the tutor. It would be horrendous enough if your son didn’t have autism (still a breach of trust) but it makes me feel even more sick that the tutor would take advantage of him (as my DNiece is autistic).

I’m a teacher and have had to check with my main job before taking on a job as a tutor, officially agreeing that that work will not impact on my teaching work in any way. So even normal other work should be legislated via the college he works at, let alone MLM which is just a huge an awful WTF behaviour by him.

I know I'm late but just want to add to the PPs who say go ahead and report.

My DH got conned by this MLM. DH is neurotypical and in his thirties but was new to the country and eager to work hard and make a living.

An autistic teenager is so much more vulnerable than my DH, and at that age we can be so trusting. It's a horrible horrible abuse of trust.

Might be worth going onto the college website and looking at their complaint procedure, and following that. I'd put everything in writing and request a written response at the very least.

I work at my college and I am in Work based learning. I do use my contacts to help students find opportunities. So if they are not happy with one company I might know of another company who might be a better fit. It is always for the students benefit first. I never benefit directly. This is gross misconduct.

Sorry, I posted on wrong thread & have only just noticed. I have reported myself