Korean Job Discussion Forums

No L · Joined: 17 May 2004

Don't need to get into all the details on how I've been screwed over. Who needs to listen to the bitter ex-employee, right?

So just look at the math, it's reason enough to stay away.

Income
32 students x 140 000 = 4 480 000

Expenses

Foreign teacher 2 000 000
FT's house 200 000 (little, dirty hole without a window)
Korean teacher 1 400 000
Secrectary 800 000
2 drivers 2x 1 000 000 = 2 000 000
Utilities (?) 500 000?

Total expenses 6 900 000 won (or more)

income-expenses= 4 480 000 - 6 900 000 = - 2 420 000

Think you're going to get paid? Last month, I didn't. The Korean staff didn't either.

OiGirl · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Hoke-y-gun

Not getting paid is a good reason to stay away. I'm not so sure what your math is supposed to prove. Working for someone who is trying to turn a profit is not necessarily a good reason to stay away. If it bothers you, I guess it's time to start looking for a nice non-profit organization to work for.

FUBAR · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: The Y.C.

32 students in the whole Hagwon? Are you teachers driving them away?

Michelle · Joined: 18 May 2003

No L · Joined: 17 May 2004

OiGirl, the math was just supposed to show it's difficult to get paid when there isn't any money to be paid with. I think it would be great if the place was making money.

FUBAR, almost looks that way, eh? Management is incompetent and doesn't do anything to recruit students or keep the current ones. Parents were unhappy with the last owner and were more unhappy when we went from 2 foreign teachers to 1.

Michelle, yeah owners do a lot of stupid things they can't afford! Owner #1 lent 6 million won to friend earlier in the year which resulting in not paying any of the staff for 3 months. ("He was supposed to pay me back last week!") Thought things might improve with owner #2. I was wrong and I don't think it's becasue owner #1 is constantly in her ear either.

OiGirl · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Hoke-y-gun

No L · Joined: 17 May 2004

Bump.

I'm still owed money. The current teacher who is subbing has only been partially paid. Enrollment has gone down.

I heard that they hired a newbie from Canada. Maybe he'll take a look at Daves' and run the other way. Probably not. It's funny how many people come to Korea without doing any research on the job, culture, food, customs, etc. Call me cautious, but I'd never dive off a cliff until I've checked how deep the water is below.

chronicpride · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

FUBAR · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: The Y.C.

kprrok · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Location: KC

Two comments on this whole thread...

1.) Your Wonderland is only charging 140.000 per month per kid? that's got to be the cheapest Wonderland in the country. Mine is charging (for 25 hours/week Kindy) more than double that and we're in the cheapest 5 in the country. Our 40-odd Kindy students pay almost all of the bills (salary, etc.) and our 40-odd afternoon primary students are almost all profit at over 200.000 per month for 10 hours/week per student.

2.) Not all Wonderlands are bad and I'm really tired of reading that. it's the same with any and every franchise school/store/anything. Some are good, some are crap. It depends on the individual school/store/whatever. No franchise is inherently evil or bad (Wal-Mart being the possible exception).

Sounds like your boss is an idiot and should pull the plug, and if I were you, I'd find a new job.

KPRROK

chronicpride · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Son Deureo! · Joined: 30 Apr 2003

Where's "Kiss It" from the old board when you need him? He had a collection of personal complaints that was so large, he had to post it in 4 separate posts in order to make it fit. It definitely wasn't a small list, and while "Kiss It" definitely had a negative slant in all of his posts, for some reason, he was able to collect a lot more dirt against Wonderland than anyone else.

While perhaps it doesn't prove that ALL Wonderlands are bad (the chains of franchises tend to be run fairly loosely, after all), I'd at the very least, definitely look at all of them with a bit more skepticism.

No L · Joined: 17 May 2004

KPRROK, Not "my" Wonderland anymore. I DID leave the job. Got given 30 days notice in my 10th month for a variety of made-up/stupid reasons that all resulted in the owner saving a lot of cash. I had already told her I wouldn't re-sign, hence why she had no desire to keep me around and pay me. She thought that I would be easy to replace. Not so. They couldn't recruit anyone for a long time and then that guy didn't show. Lately (about 5 weeks) it's been a temp teacher to cover until a new one arrives.

As to tution, 140 000 is the standard in Andong. Students get 1 hour five days a week. English hagwons are being killed by super cheap ip-si hagwons in Andong. Kindergarten was more, but it went by the wayside in March when there weren't enough students.

Chronicpride, I agree with not bashing an entire franchise name. Surely there's at least one Wonderland with a decent owner. I wouldn't say don't work at any Wonderland. With all schools, check with the current teachers. I did.

FUBAR, Why did I take the job? Well, I must not have been thinkly too clearly since I did know about the past reputation. However, all those matters had been settled. I took over the job from a friend who went home. I also was joining another friend working there. There hadn't been any pay problems for almost 2 years. Also, everyone said that the owner wasn't trying to screw people, he was just disorganized and stupid. I wanted to stay in Andong and this was the only job opening at the right time. I was stupid. I can only guess that I wasn't thinking it wouldn't happen to me. I learned my lesson.

The current pay dispute and problems are with a different owner than I originally signed. The place was sold. Things didn't go bad until the end when the owner saw me as not being useful to her anymore when I refused to re-sign.