Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

I'm posting this on behalf of an ELT News reader. Most of it is made up of a letter the reader sent to the Japan Times in response to a recent article about Japanese managers at the big eikaiwa chain schools, GEOS in particular.
�
------
�
"I cannot express how pleased I am see that GEOS's malpractice is being exposed an article written by the Japan Times.
�
Like Sean, before I came to Japan, one of the prospective teachers enquired at a training session whether or not they could become a manager within the GEOS system. The answer was "Believe me, you do not ever want to become a manager".
�
After, I arrived in Japan, I soon realized why nobody in their right mind would ever want to become a manager. In the 5 years that I worked for GEOS, I must have had around 17 managers.
�
In Sendai Ichibancho, one manager lasted only a week before she collapsed and had to be taken to hospital. Fortunately, she had parents who came down from Hokkaido to take her back with them. For other managers, they were not so lucky.
�
In Sendai, one of my managers worked from 10:30 in the morning to around 2:00am at night at both the school and the Head office in effort to 'make the SM (rather an ironic acronym that stands for Student Money) goal' set by the Head Office.
�
In the GEOS system, even though the schools are required to make money, they are actually unable to keep any of the profits they make. The GEOS policy is basically a "Take all - Give nothing". As soon as a school is able to make money, the managers send nearly all of it to the Head Office. Left with around ¥1,000 to manage the school, often we could not even afford to buy garbage bags, toilet rolls or even make photocopies for the students' classes! This made it a very tough predicament for the manager who had to somehow find and attract new students.
�
Working incredibly long hours, made it impossible for staff to look for other jobs too. All day, the fax machine rattled off pages with names of schools, managers and teachers who had managed to 'Make SM'. The added pressure, caused managers to conduct very questionable sales practice with prospective and existing students.
�
Every night, around 10 to 11pm the managers had to call Head Office to explain their current status. At Nago GEOS, I could actually hear from a meter or so away the verbal abuse shouted at our male manager over the phone.
�
At that time, these extremely abusive phone-calls typically lasted around 20 minutes, and our manager would just sit there saying "Hai, wakarimanutsa". As extra form of blackmail, managers were often threatened by Head Office by the prospect of having to change schools, or attend a 'big meeting'.
�
At the 'big meetings', mental and verbal abuse sessions were simply conducted on a large scale. Certain managers who had done well were publicly praised by Mr. Kusonoki, president of the GEOS corporation, or other high ranking managers. Then those who had failed to 'make their school goals' would be shouted at and basically humiliated in front of all. Due to the stress and pressure of these meetings, I have heard of managers who would
�
�leave the room so that they could vomit in the restrooms to relieve themselves of the stress.
�
Mental and physical illness was not uncommon among managers. Many of my managers suddenly gained or lost weight due to stress. Depression was also common. One manager from SEndai GEOS contracted pneumonia from overwork and not eating well. Two of my female managers developed stomach ulcers, and one of the male managers suffered from rectal bleeding. This condition began when he worked for Chubu GEOS which was run by a 'nephew' of Kusonoki's. He said it was like "working for Yakuza".
�
How do people end up in working in conditions like this? Quite simply, there are very few options, especially for women, to choose from in Japan. Jobs that offer company insurance, pension, and the prospect of 'professional development' are increasingly hard to find. The only reason why these people ended in such horrific working conditions is simply 'fear'. They fear forming trade unions. They fear the uncertainty and incurred costs of taking this work issues to court. They fear losing their awful jobs. They fear not finding any other form of work. The fear not being able to 'make ends meet' and becoming homeless. Unfortunately, fear causes these managers to be compliant and obediant which simply invests in the GEOS company even more power with which to abuse them.
�
This is because Japan's social insurance policy system makes it even more difficult for people to quit their jobs to find alternative work. Are these conditions reasonable for a developed country? There really must be some kind of movement of to ensure that people working in the Eikaiwa industry are protected. Isn't this the government's responsibility?
�
As the article pointed out, there are very few opportunities for women in Japan. Invariably, jobs at supermarkets pay very little money in terms of the costs of living in Japan. For others, the only work that pays well is working at 'snack bars' and the like. For women who wish to make a respectable career for themselves there are very few options."

[Tonester]

Amen to that! Finally that scumbag Mr Kusanoki and his ruthless high-pressure tactics are finally revealed to the media! Only sad thing is, is that monster thinks he's always right so he'll never change his attitude.

[Rice Paddy Daddy]

Japan needs to start cracking down on these slimy companies.

NOVA operates in the same way also.

[kovac]

Eikaiwa...is evil....plain and simple

The whole concept behind it is mind shatteringly wrong, yes create a school and teach a language, but eikaiwa, thats something else....perhaps the reason those of the higher echelons beat down on those below them is because they are so afraid that they know the whole eikaiwa industry is at fault from the ground up....its such a bloody shoddy embaressing business to be in.....

[AgentMulderUK]

[worldwidealive]

[travelasia]

so paulh.. rading from yur comment. you must have had a good experience with geos?

[PAULH]

[Willy_In_Japan]

I keep hearing about the poor text at NOVA, and that the customers should get some 'value' for their money. Some of the messages here seem to imply this is a problem with all the 'Big Four'.

GEOS may be a gulag for the Managers, and their classes are over priced, but having poor texts is not one of their faults. They have very good text books. They have their own publishing company and sell one of their own texts to each student. Also, they have many very good supplementary texts. However, as any GEOS employee knows, the teachers are expected to push these at every and all opportunities, along with Homestays.

I worked there a year, if anyone is wondering.

[AgentMulderUK]

[worldwidealive]

Yep, makes sense to me Mulder - but then I wonder how many Japanese leave Nova unhappy and spread the word? You think this would have a negative effect as well.

Anyway, I work at Nova, and in my opinon there is a bigger problem with English language education in this country than just the prescence of the "big" schools. I can't count how many students I have that have 6 years of jr high and high school English and then tell me they have graduated uni with an English degree and still are VERY low level and can't even carry on a decent conversation.

Heck, I took two years of Spanish in high school and have retained more of that language than they have of English.

The shame in this country is the English education system is poor from the start. Nova is just another cog in the broken wheel as far as I can tell.

WWA

[AgentMulderUK]

[Erikku]