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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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 Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:30 am Post subject: Have You Ever Been Paid Late? |
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There was a short thread recently which compared two Asian countries. One line jumped out at me:
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| I met some Gaijin here who look like they'd start hyperventilating into a paper bag if their pay was an hour late. |
This can happen in other countries, but I'm asking about Japan. Besides the final days of Nova, I've never had this happen to me.
Any other gaijin had to deal with this? |
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Hot-Carl
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 63
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:34 am Post subject: |
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Yes, at British Cultural Academy in Kawaguchi, Saitama.
I don't advise working there. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:43 am Post subject: |
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| Hot-Carl wrote: |
Yes, at British Cultural Academy in Kawaguchi, Saitama.
I don't advise working there. |
Was being paid late a one-time thing? |
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Inflames
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 486
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 3:33 am Post subject: |
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| One of my senmon gakkos has messed up extra classes and stuff. For example, last year I had a few days worth of classes cancelled because of swine flu. I got pressured into doing make-up classes and I wasn't paid for them in my paycheck. I told them about it, they apologized and said they would be paid in my next paycheck (they were). |
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Bread
Joined: 24 May 2009
Posts: 318
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 7:42 am Post subject: |
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| Hot-Carl wrote: |
Yes, at British Cultural Academy in Kawaguchi, Saitama.
I don't advise working there. |
Haha, I know two people who interviewed for this exact job. It had way more problems than that. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:54 am Post subject: |
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GEOS people were paid late, I believe, just before the bankruptcy.
Interac also had the habit of paying half on time and half 10 days later, yet somehow managed to avoid any legal ramifications. This has not taken place for a few years now, as far as I know. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:10 am Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| GEOS people were paid late, I believe, just before the bankruptcy. |
Like Nova. That was not an ordinary pattern.
| Glenski wrote: |
| Interac also had the habit of paying half on time and half 10 days later, yet somehow managed to avoid any legal ramifications. |
Really? Never heard that before.
My point for this thread was that the quote I posted was talking about another Asian country where it is not uncommon to get paid late from time to time.
In Japan, that is very unusual. And often a bad sign. Very bad.
Now, my new job is a small operation. The owner teaches the juku classes and I teach the eikaiwa lessons. Just us two. So far, so good.
Last week, the owner said to me that he might not be able to pay me as scheduled on Monday. Maybe Tuesday. I have some cash in the bank, but I am a tad concerned if the owner is hiding any secrets from me.
I will find out next week. |
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timothypfox
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 492
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Actually, GEOS paid late much more often then most of you realize. When I worked for them from 1995-1997, they had a system in place that made each school manager meet a sales target. The targets were overwhelming, and faxes regularly went to schools ranking managers - listing several who fell below their target. I believe that if they didn't meet their target their school was considered in the red. They then had to phone head quarters and apologize profusely to have enough money send over to cover operating costs - namely teachers' salaries. Once I had a manager who was shaking at her desk saying don't make me call head office. The Japanese teachers made her because somehow everyone was paid except for me - my pay was 1 day late. The result of this system is that managers sometimes were late on pay trying to psych themselves up for a day or two to make the phone call where they would be yelled at. |
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Bread
Joined: 24 May 2009
Posts: 318
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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| timothypfox wrote: |
| Actually, GEOS paid late much more often then most of you realize. When I worked for them from 1995-1997, they had a system in place that made each school manager meet a sales target. The targets were overwhelming, and faxes regularly went to schools ranking managers - listing several who fell below their target. I believe that if they didn't meet their target their school was considered in the red. They then had to phone head quarters and apologize profusely to have enough money send over to cover operating costs - namely teachers' salaries. Once I had a manager who was shaking at her desk saying don't make me call head office. The Japanese teachers made her because somehow everyone was paid except for me - my pay was 1 day late. The result of this system is that managers sometimes were late on pay trying to psych themselves up for a day or two to make the phone call where they would be yelled at. |
Haha, they still did that with the unreasonable targets and almost every school being way under the target when I worked there. One of the Japanese teachers told me that she had been to the managers' meetings at head office a couple times and that it was just a room full of women crying while the person in charge yelled at them. Dead silent except for muffled sobbing the whole way through. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, NOVA paid late, too, and they went through bankruptcy, but it was not like GEOS. NOVA failed through a conniving thieving president, while GEOS just went under due to poor economy and presumably bad management. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski wrote: |
| Yes, NOVA paid late, too, and they went through bankruptcy, but it was not like GEOS. NOVA failed through a conniving thieving president, while GEOS just went under due to poor economy and presumably bad management. |
A big difference there, to be sure.
Actually, the last few months at Nova in 2007, I can remember getting paid late. A few hours late, in the afternoon and such. We got paid, but we all started worrying. For good reasons, as it turned out. |
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Sour Grape
Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 241
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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Late - no.
The wrong amount - sometimes, by Shane. However, that was incompetence rather than dishonesty. A quick phone call to head office always got it sorted. |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 11:49 pm Post subject: Re: Have You Ever Been Paid Late? |
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| steki47 wrote: |
Any other gaijin had to deal with this? |
Are you only interested in people being paid late for English-teaching jobs?
Twice I was paid after the weekend instead of before it when the 25th was on a Saturday or Sunday by one of the yoga studios I teach at because the staff hadn't got all the banking done in time.
One time this was a problem because I was leaving to do a teacher training course overseas over the weekend and needed at least some of that month's pay to pay for the course fees and the trip etc. Because of this the director of the studio gave me my pay in cash on the day it should have gone in and then I reimbursed him once I got back (my pay had gone in by this time). This option was offered to everyone, not just me.
Both times it happened there were very apologetic emails sent out in advance and the pay was there on the Monday. It hasn't happened for a few years now and was pretty minor really.
I've never been paid late by any other Japanese employers, and there have been quite a few- I worked at Nova for 2.5 years but well before they started having trouble (1999-2001), and there were no issues with pay then. |
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steki47
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
Posts: 1029
Location: BFE Inaka
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 12:24 am Post subject: Re: Have You Ever Been Paid Late? |
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| Apsara wrote: |
| steki47 wrote: |
Any other gaijin had to deal with this? |
Are you only interested in people being paid late for English-teaching jobs?
Twice I was paid after the weekend instead of before it when the 25th was on a Saturday or Sunday by one of the yoga studios I teach at because the staff hadn't got all the banking done in time. |
I was thinking about teaching jobs originally. This is ESL Cafe, after all. But your example fits into the thread.
I remember back in Sept. 2007 when Nova didn't pay us. Payday happened to fall on a Friday and a bunch of the teachers had planned to go out for dinner and drinks after work.
Most of the teachers lived paycheck to paycheck and had to cancel that evening. I was a bit more careful with my moolah and went out for dinner with my GF. |
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starteacher
Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 237
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 1:51 am Post subject: |
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Late - yes, usually for good reasons of little concern
Early - YES too ! Because it was a weekend, got paid a day in advance.
Even got paid once before the winter holiday started as heading abroad, so that pay was well well in advance, but it stank since the next payday wasn't until the end of January which was a long wait.
Anyone got paid early ? |
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