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is an hour an hour??

 
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Mashimaro



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location

PostPosted: Thu May 01, 2003 8:05 pm    Post subject: is an hour an hour?? Reply with quote

My boss is trying to tell me I'm only 'working' for 25 hours a week, even though I'm at the hagwon from 3.45 to 9.45 every day (ie he takes out my dinner break & the 10 minutes between classes) I realise at worst, I'm not working longer hours than a lot of people, but we did have an agreement that I would work 25 hours, which assumed included break times ( I guess assuming anything in Korea is a mistake) What are others experiences? is 30 hours 30 hours of teaching or does it include breaks? 9-5 work in our good old home countries is considered a 40 hour week isn't it? It should be said that my dinner break is 45 minutes, which I am thankful for, thought I'd rather a shorter break & go home earlier.
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Gord



Joined: 25 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Thu May 01, 2003 8:44 pm    Post subject: Re: is an hour an hour?? Reply with quote

Mashimaro wrote:
What are others experiences? is 30 hours 30 hours of teaching or does it include breaks?


Some places include breaks, some don't.

Quote:
9-5 work in our good old home countries is considered a 40 hour week isn't it?


Only if you don't take any breaks or lunch. Otherwise, no.
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igotthisguitar



Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)

PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2003 12:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

>. My sense is, like it or not, most contracts work this way. Directors will do their best to credit you only with actual in class time. I hardly ever took my breaks & instead worked marking tests, report cards and accomodating students' questions etc. Naturally i too was quite frustrated with this un-credited "work" time Confused

You can bet NEXT year, i'll be presenting my terms to prospective employers & we'll negotiate from there.
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schwa



Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap

PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2003 1:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just dont get the mindset that goes into counting every minute worked. Wheres the beef? You've got a lighter workload than most hagwon folk, who cares how many hours the boss wants to call it?

Youre paid to do a fulltime job. The hours indicate more or less your class contact time. Prep time is extra too.

Heres a situation I watched unfold. Canadian woman is the only native speaker in a small hagwon. Begrudges the director every little schedule change, refuses to do unpaid prep in the office, refuses to speak with students outside the classroom, hauls out her contract regularly to argue trivial details. She was a pretty good teacher but deathly afraid her boss was gonna rip her off first chance he got (she read this forum a lot). Tempers eventually flared. She emailed her students & told them what a jerk the boss was & threatened to blacklist his school all over the net. I was asked to intercede & got them to shake hands & he wrote her a letter of release.

Another foreigner (an easygoing sort) took her post & couldnt believe his luck. Light easy schedule, lots of autonomy, pay (though sometimes a bit late) always came through, director easy to get along with. Same job, different take.

Comes down to trust & determination to do a good job. I dont mean to suggest you're like that woman but niggling about hours can really sour an otherwise good gig. The situation you describe sounds fine.
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Mashimaro



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location

PostPosted: Fri May 02, 2003 5:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Comes down to trust & determination to do a good job

I certainly don't trust my boss. I think its a pretty good practise in Korea. Before you think this is racist, I've even had koreans tell me not to to trust a korean in any business dealings. I wouldn't be stupid enough to nitpick with him over it until finding out what was normal first (hence my post) I knew someone would hit me with some critical stuff like you, but hey I got the information I wanted as well.. cheers
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bap



Joined: 10 Apr 2003

PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2003 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

for me, one 40 minute class is considered one hour of work. but, i also teach four 30 minute classes back to back every day and get paid for two hours. doesn't really make sense but so doesn't anything else.
as for breaks, these are considered "free time" which means that you do what you want and you don't get paid. this is how you can get stuck at work from 9am to 7pm everyday and still only be working 25 hours a week. it sucks but i try to fill my "free time" by getting out of my school and going to the gym or pc bang or something not work related. it makes life a little easier.
i was really frustrated by it for the first little while (especially when "free time" was twenty minutes or half an hour here and there - not long enough to do anything) but i got over it.
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Zyzyfer



Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: who, what, where, when, why, how?

PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2003 12:57 am    Post subject: Re: is an hour an hour?? Reply with quote

Mashimaro wrote:
9-5 work in our good old home countries is considered a 40 hour week isn't it?


Uh, nope. In America at least, most jobs give you an unpaid meal break, and 1 or 2 15-minute breaks, which are paid. Specifically, at my part time job, I had to work 6 hours to elicit the lunch break; otherwise, I had to devour food within 15 minutes.

This was also a wage job. Salary is a whole new ballgame, and what you agree to in the beginning may change with time. I don't think any wool's been pulled over your eyes yet...
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bucheon bum



Joined: 16 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2003 11:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A lot of contracts specify what a working-hour is. For instance, my contract states something along the lines of, "You will work 120 class hours/month. One class hour equals one 50-minute class and a 10-minute break." If yours doesn't have anything like that, then it leaves a lot of grey area and your boss can do that kind of thing.
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TINKERBELL



Joined: 07 Apr 2003
Location: GWANGJU

PostPosted: Mon May 12, 2003 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mashimaro, I feel bad for you cos I've experienced this myself. I'm at my school from 9.30am to 8pm. Initially I finished at 6pm but this gradually became later and later. Twice a week I teach somewhere else and thy don't include the hour-and-a-half travel time. However hard it may be, sometimes it's better just to swallow your tongue. I complained when they first gave me a later class without asking me first. The next week they had changed it again to 8pm! It is very frustrating to have everything decided above your head but unfortunately that seems to be the norm here.
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hellofaniceguy



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: On your computer screen!

PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2003 11:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, an hour is whatever the two of you agree to. And you'll never agree or be happy with the outcome.
Now, take the teachers at where I'm at. We teach 3 hours a day. 8-9 am and 6-8 pm. The rest of the time is ours. Split shifts? Hate 'em! But this gig is not all that bad. Sure it's an university gig but I know a few hokwons that teachers only teach 4 50 minute classes a day. Most teaching jobs in korea suck. But then again, no one forces us to sign a contract and agree to crazy hours and pay!
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