Job Discussion Forums

metropolis · Joined: 01 Nov 2011 Posts: 32

Working for 1,500 yen is crazy. You should at least expect 2,500 per 45/50 minute lesson. I do not understand why anyone would put up with that. You could go to Korea or China and make so much more money...but then again, the socially handicapped people that Japan attracts would be eaten alive in places like Korea and China.

mateacher · Joined: 07 Sep 2013 Posts: 180

really? I found the level of gaijin in Korea was actually even on a lower scale than Japan. There were people I met at Hofs in Korea that couldn't even get a job at Gaba. China I wouldn't know, but I can imagine they would be right at the botom.

RM1983 · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 360

Jagariko · Joined: 14 Oct 2013 Posts: 40

I have an acquaintance who just quit GABA. Some days, he was teaching up to 10 40-minute lessons one-to-one. It sounded hideous. He had basically burnt out for bargain-basement wages. Fortunately, he is doing something much, much better now.

Lamarr · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 190

Thought I'd throw in my tuppence worth. I did some work for GABA recently.

I really wouldn't recommend it to a newbie, as you don't have a fixed wage each month. Your pay fluctuates depending on how many people book your lessons. Some people do well off it, others less so. Some months are good, others are bad. If you're going to come over to Japan, I'd say you'd be better off working in a place like Aeon, ECC, Shane etc., where you at least get a fixed monthly salary.

Other issues I had with GABA were the negative evaluation system, where a client can rate your lesson on a scale of 1-5, 1 and 2 being counted as "negative". If you get four negatives in 6 months, you can't belt up for 3 months, and you have a 3-month "window" within which, if you get another negative, it then moves to a four-stage "disciplinary process". This disciplinary process consists of a reprimand, warning, final warning, then non-renewal of contract, each with the same 3-month window.

They say next to nothing about this in training, and for the first three negatives I received, the ISL said little about the potential consequences. Support was nearly non-existent, and the seriousness of it didn't hit home until the fourth negative, when the ISL described the disciplinary procedure (which I'd had no prior warning of). That was when I decided to get the hell out of there. It felt like living with a gun pointed at your head.

Any decent company would be over-emphasizing the seriousness of negative evaluations and doing everything they can to help you avoid them. GABA do nothing of sort, keeping instructors insecure about their employment, keeping their wage bill down, and an excuse to get rid of you if they want to cull their workforce.

I also noticed that most of the belt As weren't getting belted up. It seems very difficult to get belt-ups these days.

All in all, yet another dodgy, stinking English "school" in Japan! Sincerely hope someone sticks it to them sooner or later, like they did with Nova. They'd deserve it.

mitsui · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki

That sounds similar to how Amazon treats their employees.

Jagariko · Joined: 14 Oct 2013 Posts: 40

Thanks for the information, Lamarr. Hopefully that will prevent some people from accepting GABA positions, or, at least, they will know what they are getting themselves into. I've noticed that GABA has recently been advertising in the UK press: perhaps its reputation in Japan is making internal hiring difficult.

It sounds like you made the best decision by quitting. I hope your current employer is treating you much better.

I've just had the opposite situation with too much information: I'm taking on a few business intensive classes in the near future and at the rather useless "training" it kept being pointed out, "If you arrive less than ten minutes before class starting time, we will dock your wages 1000 yen. If you finish class early/don't submit paperwork on time blah blah blah, we will dock your wages 1000 yen."

That sounds illegal anyway, but hearing all that left a really bad taste in the mouth. If the company has hired bad apples in the past, that's its problem but don't treat all new employees as though they are going to do stuff like that. It's enough to say, "Please arrive ten minutes before class starts and paperwork is due by X".

Fortunately, I've not had much experience with dispatch companies and am only doing this to get a little extra cash as I have some free time. I can only compare this one with the other two companies who have recently found me work who are treating me well and don't seem hell bent on taking 1000 yen from all their employees!

Lamarr · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 190

A lot of these eikaiwa and dispatch companies are like that. They have very strict "disciplinary procedures", fines and penalties etc. if you do anything that goes against the rules. They're not interested in your side of the story at all.

There are some more horror stories about GABA over on Let's Japan. A girl was refused extra lessons, and told to move branches, because she wouldn't change her starting time. Contracts not being renewed or extended the full 6 months for things like turning up less than 10 minutes before class, not speaking politely to staff etc. Basically, ISLs (school managers) doing whatever the hell they like to you if you don't do as you're told, or are considered some kind of problem to them.

GABA, like many eikaiwa, assume that instructors (especially the new ones) are a bunch of idiots, intent on treating the job as a joke (which it is) in order to pay for their partying and fun in Japan. Hence they come up with these systems of punishment to try and keep you in line. In my case, and I think in the case of many others, it has the opposite effect - damaging employee morale and driving them away.

And of course, that's not much concern to them, as they can simply get some other goon fresh-off-the-boat to replace you.

marley'sghost · Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 255

Gaba is the worst of both worlds. Gaba employees are not even eikaiwa drones, they are subcontracted, eikaiwa drones that have to hustle like they are doing their own private lessons. I have a buddy working there now, puts in 60 hours a week.
I guess there could be an advantage in that instead of having to run all over town from private to private, the students come to you, without you having to shell out and manage your own space. But dang, putting in those sort of hours for those sort of wages with no chance of any sort of advancement just sucks.

Lamarr · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 190

About the only thing I'd say in its favour (I use the term loosely) is that you can potentially earn a shed-load of cash off it. People on the higher C and D belts working a lot of lessons can be raking in 400k a month (even more than that in some cases).

To get to that kind of belt and salary though, you'd have to slog away at it for years (C and D belt people have usually been there at least 5-10 years, and it's not easy to get), do tons and tons of lessons, lots of unpaid training, and not rock the boat or piss them off too much. I couldn't be bothered with all that.

Use them to get yourself a visa, then look around for other work. Or else just do part-time hours with them to fill up your time and top up your income.