Job Discussion Forums

[flaco]

i've read my employment contract and i have a question for any current or ex-GEOS employees.

with regard to the 10 paid holidays - ("Selected Holidays"), ..."the dates of which shall be fixed by mutual agreement by both parties", what do they mean, exactly, by ..."the Employee shall take Selected Holidays so as to avoid excessive lesson cancellations"? i was under the impression that it would be fine to take those days consecutively. am i wrong in assuming so? will they let me take 10 days in a row?

[PAULH]

Flaco

what they mean is they want to avoid half the teachers all deciding to take time off all at the same time, during the busy holiday periods, long weekends etc when most students want to take lessons.

If there are not enough teachers the school has to ring up students and get them to cancel or re-book lessons. Often what happens is there is a bottleneck and students cant get lessons when they want and it is hard to re-schedule. The school will try and avoid this by 'staggering' your holidays with other teachers rather than have you take them all at once to avoid congestion or scheduling snafus.

[flaco]

thanks, paul. makes perfect sense.

there was one other thing that i was wondering about --

"During the term of the Employee's employment , the Employee shall devote the whole of his time an attention to his duties under this ageement and shall not directly or indirectly carry on or be engaged, concerned, or interested in any other business, trade, or occupation in any capacity with or without remuneration."

i have no intentions of illegally working in japan outside of my work with this company. i will, however, have money coming in from work already completed in the states (in the form of royalties). i hadn't thought this a conflict until reading this clause...

is this clause just in the contract to help get employees' visas processed?

[april]

Without any legal knowledge, I think what they are referring to is that you won't work for any other language companies, nor teach private students. Everybody teaches private students anyway, and i know at Nova they turned a blind eye to it. Just don't go poaching any of Geos's students!

[Glenski]

A friend of mine who worked at GEOS for 2 years had this to say about the first query.

The truth is don't plan on using those holidays. When I worked there, there weren't many "mutually agreeable" times to take holiday: there is always some promotional campaign going on like a renewal drive or something, so your manager will do anything to nix any vacation plans. You may get a week-- if you're lucky--on Obon: the only slow time of the year for English lessons.
Honestly, in my day (5 years ago) it was rough getting holidays out side the norm; now, it must be darn near impossible... no way you're getting two weeks off.

[flaco]

thanks, paul. makes perfect sense.

there was one other thing that i was wondering about --

"During the term of the Employee's employment , the Employee shall devote the whole of his time an attention to his duties under this ageement and shall not directly or indirectly carry on or be engaged, concerned, or interested in any other business, trade, or occupation in any capacity with or without remuneration."

i have no intentions of illegally working in japan outside of my work with this company. i will, however, have money coming in from work already completed in the states (in the form of royalties). i hadn't thought this a conflict until reading this clause...

is this clause just in the contract to help get employees' visas processed?

[ryuro]

Howdy folks!

Did a little time with GEOS myself a few yeasr back and know a little about their holiday practices.

Bascially everything everyone has said on here is true. And to reiterate what Glenski said- they are LOATHE to have employees take heaps of time off.

However, that being said- they are YOUR HOLIDAYS to do with as you wish. In fact, during my tenure with them, they had a little run in with the Japanese Labor Office over this very issue. In the contract we had, it actually stated that GEOS had to "approve" the holidays- which turned out to be BS. They were forced to change the contract to the new wording that appears in flaco's contract.

So can you take them all in a row or at holiday times? Yes, you can. Will this have negative rerpercussions for you later- most definitely. If you put their feet to the fire and take the holidays whether they like it or not, they will definitely remember it come bonus and contract renewal time. At the same time, if they had their way, teachers would NEVER take their holidays- so it's just a matter of how far you want to push the issue.

I should be fair and say I had a great experience during my time at GEOS. Did I agree with everything they did and all their practices- of course not. But I had decent co-workers (western and Japanese) and a fantastic Japanese manager (not always the norm mind you) so we did our best to take care of each other and work out these issues so that classes got covered and we could maximize our holdays and other perks. I also had friends working for GEOS who had HORRIBLE experiences. It really is a bit of a crap shoot sometimes and a function of throwing a bone to get a bone once and a while.

Anyway, hope that was helpful.

Cheers,
ryuro

[PAULH]

[guest of Japan]

Regarding outside work: don't ask, don't tell (anyone).