Job Discussion Forums

[Canuck2112]

I've been teaching at a High school for a few months now. When I mentioned to my coworkers that I used to teach at James, many responses seemed to positive. It seems that, partly because of this board, people tend to have a positive image of James English School. In my opinion, a lot of this is based on old and outdated information.

I worked at James for just under 3 years. When I started, it actually was a very good company to work for. However, in the last year I was there, things really started going downhill. I don't know about the current state of the company, but based on the steady downward path it was following when I left, I can't imagine its very good.

A few points of note...

1.) The James branches themselves were absolutely deplorable. The owner of the company (lets keep his anonymity) had stopped investing money in the basic upkeep of his schools. The carpets were soiled, the walls were bashed in and drawn on with crayon, and in fact most of the furniture and appliances were salvaged from the garbage. There was never any kind of cleaning done. It was embarrassing, to say the least, when students complained about the filth of the classroom they were taught in.

2.) Under the same light of excessive frugality, the management of James stopped offering training for their teachers. Thats right, there was NO professional development offered at James. The reason? The owner didn't want to pay the bus fares for teachers to come to the Sendai headquarters. This is a man who owns 17 (at my last count) schools in Tohoku. He is LOADED. Having trained teachers would have made him more money, yet he wouldn't shell out BUS FARE to facilitate this. This became a common theme at James...saving a few yen in the short term but losing many yen in the long term because of it.

3.) James had no kind of syllabus or lesson structure whatsover. The teacher was basically told to "do stuff". Many teachers may welcome this idea...as I did when I first started...and its fine for private students. However, you would get group lessons thrown at you where one student was studying for TOEIC 900, one student was diligently following a beginners textbook, one was an intermediate salaryman looking for business English and one was a 16 year old girl wanting to shoot the breeze about "SMAP". At this point, "doing stuff" to please everyone became extremely difficult, and if the class complained you were blamed for it.

4.) When I left, James had NO academic director of any kind. There used to be one, but she (again, anonymity) ummm...."left abruptly" I guess you might say. The management didn't want to pay someone else extra to design programs...so they didn't. "Do stuff" became the educational mission statement of James.

5.) James didn't contribute to health insurance, but you were expected to work a full 9 hour day.

6.) James would send you to some of the remotest corners of Tohoku for business classes. I remember days where I got home at 11:30pm. Their "travel allowance" was absolutely insulting.

7.) You were offered a second year leaving bonus. It was basically one month's salary and a little extra, but you had to promise to leave Tohoku and not return for one year in order to get it. I'm pretty sure this was illegal. They were also notorious for withholding these bonuses, and in fact were brought to court because of it.

8.) There was a clause in the contract called "Teaching Related Duties". Basically, in the eyes of the company, this was a ticket to have their teachers do anything James wanted for money. This included having photos taken for advertisements, appearing on television commericals, "pro bono" proofreading work, and having your full name and likeness posted on ANY poster James saw fit. Teachers were not paid for any of this.

9.) James made money off the apartments it rented to its teachers. I know this for a fact...I went to a rental agency and saw an old public listing for the apartment I lived in. The price was 15,000yen cheaper. You had to pay a 70,000 yen "deposit" to James that you would never get back. James dealt exclusively with landlords who DIDN'T charge "key money". This 70,000 yen went right into James' pockets.

10.) When you moved into a "James apartment", you more or less had to buy a "James household package". I remember getting the itemized list before I moved in. It looked good on paper and seemed worth the 120,000yen they charged me for it. However, upon moving in I discovered that James furnished their apartments the same way they furnished their classrooms...FROM THE GARBAGE. I'm not joking about this. My sofa had a prepaid "garbage tag" affixed to the bottom of it...someone had paid the 4000yen to throw it out, but James scooped it up from the trash heap. Again, money straight into their pockets.

I could go on and on. Again, it USED TO BE a good company to work for, and I had many good memories there. However, it really took a turn for the worse. It showed, too...teachers used to stay at James for 3 or 4 years. When I left, the average stay was probably 1 year, and many people were breaking their contracts early because of the crummy state of the company.

Without exaggeration, my first year working at NOVA was far better than my last year at James.

I don't think James deserves the good reputation it seems to have. In good conscience, I really couldn't recommend it to anyone even halfway serious about teaching English.

[Insubordination]

I worked for a company where the management changed and, from that day, they refused to spend a cent.

The classrooms were filthy (walls, sills etc.) and it was up to the teacher to clean them or they would stay the same. I was even told as much (office staff & everyone else refused because it wasn't their job). I had to carry all the rubbish down to the skip or it all just piled up because everyone refused to do it.

Conditions were reduced (same money for teaching a class as for a private and they cleaned up on the privates) and no resources were ever bought. I tried to re-negotiate my contract to no avail. I knew that I could either continue put up with it or quit, so I quit. I wonder what's going on with them now.