Unexpected News

As excited as we were with the offers, I wanted negotiate some parts of the contracts. The standard benefits for international teachers were included (accommodations, annual flights home and medical insurance); however, retirement contributions and shipping allowance were not included. I had never negotiated salaries or any other benefits in my life, and I was determined to at least give it a try. Dennis was not pleased. He wanted to sign the contracts the moment we received them. I, on the other hand, wanted to make sure that we negotiated the best contracts possible—all they could say was “no”, right?

I have to admit that the two weeks between my email attempting to negotiate the contract and the school’s response was awful. Most nights I couldn’t even sleep. When I did, I’d wake up every hour. It was torture, and the worst part was the contracts they offered far exceeded what we were prepared to accept. I was afraid that they would think I was being greedy for asking about retirement and shipping allowance, but in hind-sight considering everything else, I probably was being greedy. In my defense retirement and shipping allowance are standard for larger international schools; it just so happens that this was a small school that is fairly new. There was a part me that rationalized that I just wanted to try to negotiate, but there was a bigger part of me that was kicking myself in butt for insisting on negotiating. I’m pretty sure Dennis was mad at me—I was mad at myself—for potentially ruining our chances of finally going abroad.

I cannot express how relieved I was when the school responded. Granted, they basically said no to everything, but at least they didn’t withdraw their offer and I can’t say I didn’t try. Plus, we did get a one-time, shipping allowance for excess baggage. It was nothing spectacular, but it was better than nothing. We signed and sent the contracts on a Thursday. The following Tuesday we found we were pregnant.