Job Discussion Forums

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

Do you have to be British to work for Shane?

Piri-Piri · Joined: 23 Mar 2010 Posts: 24 Location: Osaka

Romonofu-kun · Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Posts: 8

I worked at Shane for just over a year. While it wasn't the greatest experience of my life I had much less to complain about than my friends at Nova. The management was generally helpful and the way I ran my classes was largely up to me. That being said, having to work on your day off for fee is almost insulting. I won't go so far as to condemn or praise the company; I'll just say that it was a fair entry-level job.

Although you don't have to be British I don't remember seeing any Americans there. Everyone I met was Commonwealth.

mushroomyakuza · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 140

The overtime is not unpaid. There's a lot of false info floating around on these boards.

I think people here (on these boards) just live to complain, generally.

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 5:55 pm Post subject:

Piri-Piri · Joined: 23 Mar 2010 Posts: 24 Location: Osaka

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

What's with the new 6 day work week? Why is that the new normal?

bluetortilla · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 815 Location: Henan

Okonomiyaki · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 9:21 am Post subject:

The number of contact hours (classroom hours) per day is a bit high, but I consider that the defining characteristic that makes chain schools profitable. Nova was infamous for its 8 hours of contact per day.

I'm surprised to hear that teachers at Shane are left to create their own lesson plans. In a small school, sure-- we all know that students are loyal to the teacher, not to the school, and therefore the teacher's lesson plans should be tailored to that teacher's special skills. Compare that to Nova's practice of using lesson plans-- and teachers and even set response menus-- that were so generic that any teacher could fill in seamlessly for any other. I would have thought that all large chains would make their staff and lesson plans modular, replaceable, generic.

What about Shane's teacher attrition rate? Nova's was famously 6 months: despite using a one-year contract and having many 2-year teachers, Nova was so unattractive to teachers that the average employee quit after only 6 months. What's Shane's rate?

When are those vacations? One of the worst points of working for small non-chain schools was that their vacation schedules were inevitably coincidental with the three major Japanese holidays (O-bon in August, Golden Week in May/June, and New Years'), so we couldn't vacation when it was cheap-- only when hotels and airports were filled with every other member of Japanese society. I always imagined that at a big chain, vacations could perhaps be taken outside of the lemming-rush seasons...?

Sour Grape · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 241

misoji_blue · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 6 Location: Kanagawa, Japan

I currently work for Westgate and find that I don't have enough time or resources at my school to plan my lessons during working hours. About 2-3 times a week I end up planning at home in the evenings after work.

Is it like this at Shane? Or do you get enough time to plan during your actual work day? Basically all I want now is a job that I can (almost) forget about when I leave for the day.

Cheers.

Shimokitazawa · Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 458 Location: Saigon, Vietnam

Shane was one of the worst places I've ever worked in Japan. It was comparable with NOVA. Foreign instructors who were in H.R. and "management" positions were terrible also. No concern for the people in the trenches.

The materials were terrible but I never had issues with time for preparing lessons.

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

Shimokitazawa · Joined: 16 Aug 2009 Posts: 458 Location: Saigon, Vietnam