Job Discussion Forums

[zues]

Added to a blacklist?

Speak of the devil! I just found this post on another forum. Creepy Interac. I am not at all surprised their tactics are backfiring. The new topic title is from the other forum and so is the message below. What is going on at Yokohama?

"I know there have been some posts here regarding Interac practices. Perhaps this company should be blacklisted or added to a blacklist if the following is what they do to workers.

I received a copy of an email sent to the Yokohama office from a friend who works at that branch office. Apparently a teacher sent this to that office regarding the native supervisor there. If you are going to out your evil boss or company, this may be how to do it (below)

'You are unable to understand, clearly, what happened. So let me be very clear.

_________ asked to meet me in August to discuss my assignment. And I then asked him, what about my assignment are we discussing? So I can prepare for this meeting. This was a very simple request. But he would not tell me. He then threatened to not pay my salary if I did not go to the office.

And I asked him repeatedly, what is the meeting about? He would not tell me. On August 14th he rudely told me: “As stated in my previous email, I would like to discuss your assignment. It is a merely a discussion, so you don’t need to prepare anything. I am not sure what it is you feel you need to prepare.”

This is completely disrespectful and incompetent communication. I am asking to be prepared with INFORMATION about THE PURPOSE of the meeting, not to prepare a lesson or presentation! This is an extremely evasive response and poor decision making from ____________.

It is his decision to not say anything, a very poor decision consequently. And perhaps your company does not know he chooses to communicate inappropriately with teachers, like this. It is not professional, honest, or transparent. It is also a “red flag” (warning) that he cannot be trusted and that the well being of his co-workers is not his concern. He is not supportive. I realized the opposite was true, that he was actually a threat to my safety and well-being.

So, after I realized he was unable to communicate, I requested to speak to another Interac worker about the meeting details because ____________ was unable to communicate successfully with me.

On August 14th, I sent this message to ___________:

“If you are unable to tell me why I am coming in, so I can prepare, please have someone else contact me at this point. It appears you are not able to communicate effectively with me at this point. I am ready to come in today, tomorrow, anytime.. I am not coming unprepared and you penalizing me for this is not appropriate. Please treat your employees with respect and integrity.”

He did not honor this request from me to speak to someone else. Instead, he continued to threaten me directly, choosing to hide his behavior from other interac workers in his office. This is total incompetence and the start of a very bad situation for __________ and interac.

Are you aware you have someone working for you who is communicating like this? Now you are aware.

He repeated this process multiple days during August. Not communicating the purpose of the meeting while making multiple threats to reduce my pay. It was a mistake in judgment by ______________ that got worse and worse for him. Then the situation got out of control, as he lost all communication privileges with me, as I had warned him.

Your company didn’t know this because _____________ did not tell you. He probably told everyone at the Yokohama office, “this teacher is missing… I don’t know what’s happening?!” Actually, he did know what was happening because I warned him that he needs “to communicate honestly, transparently and effectively.” He was too ashamed to tell you that the situation was actually out of his control, because of his inability to speak professionally to me, and that he had lost all contact with me because of his abusive treatment of me. Clearly, ____________ cares more about his job than being honest with you (or me).

Do you understand now, what happened?

If you need further clarification, ______________ can provide you with all the email communications from August and September. He has copies of these emails. Let me warn you though: if you ask him, he may not answer your request. He may choose to ignore your request repeatedly then he may threaten to take your salary for the day if you ask him again… because this is his communication style, as I have explained. Perhaps you should experience this multiple times, like I did, to truly understand my experience.

If he refuses to communicate honestly and professionally with you also, I can provide these emails to you.

The consequence for his poor judgment, and for your unawareness of his poor judgment, is your company receiving negative attention now. You really need to understand what ____________ is doing because it is damaging Interac’s reputation.

When I explained this all, in detail, and other concerns, to the labor bureau, they understood clearly, everything I said and everything that happened. I provided all the necessary evidence to them. I warn you now: get the details clear because the labor bureau will be contacting you.

And ___________ cannot threaten the labor bureau, or take their salary, so I suggest you have someone competent speak for him to avoid further embarrassment and damage to interac’s reputation.

Frankly, I would be very concerned that ____________ is involved with any responsibilities for interac, at any level, given his poor decision making choices. It is an embarrassment for interac to have someone in a leadership position who is unable to communicate and who then makes progressively worse decisions.

My recommendation to you: review ______________ work very closely. All his correspondences (emails, meetings, phone calls) with staff, check his work thoroughly, evaluate him, and ask for anonymous evaluations from teachers and co-workers, about his treatment of them and his performance. You will find many problems. I am absolutely certain of this. You have a “bad apple” in your ranks, as I have proven.

Then hire someone who can communicate clearly and respectfully.

Interac is now receiving negative attention from multiple authorities and parties because of ____________. And wasting all of our time.

Your apology is accepted.'”

[Rooster.]

What forum was it on?

[Shimokitazawa]

[RM1983]

This wasnt related to the vacancy posted on gaijinpot recently by any chance? They were advertising for a trainer in Tokyo/Yokohama.

[stumptowny]

What a disaster. Not sure what constitutes blacklisting a company but this may be it. How hard is it to tell the teacher what the meeting is about, I agree with shimokitazawa. The answer, not very hard at all. Ruling with an iron fist, just giving directives with no information is not professional and setting a terrible example. The teacher even asked to speak to a different person. Anyone want a job in Yokohama? Yikes!

[fluffyhamster]

Hmm, not enough information to go on, few actual concrete grievances given, TBH. And for all we know this could have been one of those positions with an autumn rather than spring start, and the meeting simply to discuss renewal options or alternative locations (with such a purpose presumed apparent to the AET. "Please come in to discuss your assignment" "What about my assignment are we discussing?" "Er, your assignment. Where you are or will be working". Not all AETs are particularly bright or that well-balanced!). Hardly that damaging to Interac's reputation, even if they do have something of a loose cannon in Yokohama.

[spiral78]

[fluffyhamster]

Well, we're talking about fly-by-night dispatch agencies, which are even less reputable than bottom-feeding pond-scum dank language mills fed from effluent-filled sewers. So yes, a lot can and does happen over the course of even a year working for such outfits. Buboes and worse, I've seen and had it all. And I for one have tried (had little option but to use) somewhat tough-guy tactics (but with far more reason) and can tell you that they are a good way especially in Japan to burn bridges pretty quickly no matter how justified the grievances.

I'd be more interested then in hearing about whatever umpteen bales apparently broke this particular work camel's back rather than about what appears to be merely the "final" straw. It just reads to me certainly on the surface of things simply like an overreaction and pretty paranoid and hostile behaviour from that teacher (again, aggressiveness doesn't solve much in Japan, at least not for foreigners, and woe betide you should you try to make any nominal superior lose face).

Now I'm not saying that one should be at the beck and call of these agencies, but given that the second (or in apparently 25% of Interac AETs' cases, the first) school semester starts in September~early October, I don't think it would be unusual to be up for discussing...?schedules, and indeed assignments, in August (assuming one was keen to continue working for the company). And if the company had had actual serious problems with this teacher I'm sure they'd have discussed things with him or her prior to the summer break (and certainly wouldn't be offering any more work within the summer holiday. Or maybe they did and the teacher did a lousy job or something).

Hence my thinking the teacher was probably reading too much into things, or even being disingenuous. Who knows. But perhaps all these dispatchers deserve all the mud that can be slung at them. I do know however that these supervisors sometimes need to be cut some slack regarding their English, and that the expectations and demands of Japanese employers may sometimes be above and beyond what is accepted or acceptable in the West (that is not to condone it, but how many jobs does one intend to go through in the meantime if one has chosen to live and work in Japan "regardless"?).

[nightsintodreams]

So this situation isn't regarding yourself Zeus?

[zues]

[quote="nightsintodreams"]So this situation isn't regarding yourself Zeus?[/quote]

Nope, I found this on jref. It’s the same, money-first, tact-later-if-at-all style. The onus was on the boss to communicate (or have someone else step in who could) and they didn’t. The end.

[Vince]

The teacher obviously thought he was in trouble. If he wasn't, the supervisor surely would have allayed that fear by giving a bit more info or at least saying that everything was fine. It sounds to me like the meeting was disciplinary, and the teacher tried to gain leverage by discrediting the supervisor. Sadly, he didn't do himself any favors with his multi-page tirade that concludes with accusing the supervisor of being a bad apple and presuming to tell management how to handle him.

Supervisors usually won't get into disciplinary matters over the phone, which is understandable. But after a certain amount of pushing, it's most practical to say that there was an issue, that he wants to give the teacher a chance to tell his side of the story, and that he prefers to discuss the details in person to avoid any potential for misunderstanding.

I'd like to know more about the supervisor before writing him off. I've known a few who couldn't get through three sentences without their judgemental, power-hungry mentalities having a wardrobe malfunction. I've known others who were great people, but were forced into bad situations by their superiors.

[marley'sghost]

"The teacher obviously thought he was in trouble, and the supervisor surely would have allayed that fear by giving a bit more info or at least saying that everything was fine. It doesn't sound like it was fine. It sounds to me like the meeting was disciplinary, and the teacher tried to gain leverage by discrediting the supervisor. Sadly, he didn't do himself any favors with his multi-page tirade that concludes with accusing the supervisor of being a bad apple and presuming to tell management how to handle him."

That's sort of the feeling I got too. The whole rant just came off as a pre-emptive strike. I just can not imagine anyone with a clear conscience going off like that about being called in for a discussion.
The August 14th date caught my attention. Is it possible the said teacher was say...not exactly able to come into the office because the said teacher was....perhaps on a beach in Thailand? Could someone be trying to stall until their flight leaves? Just a thought.
Though if the boss really went straight to, "Get your ass in the office or I'll cut your pay." I'd be pissed too. It would be hard to enjoy my vacation in them knowing I have that jerk waiting to can me when I get back.

[G Cthulhu]

I liked how the "letter" was complaining about a lack of clarity and professionalism in communication when the letter itself was borderline comprehensible and not at all structured as a professional letter.

It looks like something a high schooler would write about if they thought they were being all clever and playing at grown-up-professional. Personally, I'd fire someone with such poor writing skills. They clearly can't write for a professional context. That they are supposedly English teachers just makes the irony all the more amusing.

[Shimokitazawa]

[G Cthulhu]