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Borderlink vs. Interac? Help!
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abracadaver



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 4
Location: Baltimore, MD USA

PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 10:29 pm    Post subject: Borderlink vs. Interac? Help! Reply with quote

So, I'm in a bit of a quandry. I received an acceptance letter from Borderlink to be an ALT in the Tokyo area. However, I was doing some sleuthing and found a lot of complaints about the company. I had an interview/seminar session with Interac on Saturday and really am interested in their company/they seem to be more organized and professional than Borderlink. I feel I have learned more about Interac than Borderlink. They've been around since 1974 and Borderlink has been around since 2000. I don't know how much of a difference this makes though. I need to send in my information to Borderlink by the end of this week telling them whether or not I want the job. Should I tell them no thanks and wait to see if I get a job from Interac? If I don't get a job from Interac, then I have shot myself in the foot.

I really need some sort of advice. It would be excellent. I really want to go to Japan and teach, but don't want to work for a bogus company.

Thank you for your help everyone!!!

Brian Confused
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fluffyhamster



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 12:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Borderlink is simply not a good company to work for (i.e. they are bad!). I worked for them only partway into a second semester before deciding they no longer deserved or could command my services. The reasons for my quitting included: deduction of entire loan/advances to AET from each and every paycheck (e.g. if you'd had to borrow the princely sum of say 120,000 yen to survive for the first two months - especially the second! - until your "first" payday, you'd then get only the remaining 130,000 yen from a supposed 250,000 yen paycheck until such time as you could somehow magic up that extra 120,000 yen shortfall from somewhere else and/or reduce your borrowing); unnecessarily confrontational/psychotic/hypocritical attitudes from Japanese management (Morgan Jones, seemingly their only western manager, must've also disagreed - only much moreso - with the direction the company was taking, because he quit around the same time); denial of unpaid leave for genuine sick days - extreme pressure was brought to bear to make AETs always go into work regardless of how ill they were - and extreme bureaucratic obstructiveness regarding taking accrued and legally-owed leave after six months' employment; unfair deductions from pay/no "breaks" ever given or appreciation or even the slightest inkling of awareness ever shown for one's hard work (and I believe I for one was working hard - see for example the syllabus that I wrote on my own initiative and in my own time, and which was well-received in my schools: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=714767#714767 ) - for example, on a day my school was shut and no teaching required of me, there was also a "meeting" at/with the BOE, but I assumed I would not really be required to attend (OK OK, foolishly despite a call from BL to "remind" me a few days beforehand)...but no, I was, and how much did my hour's absence cost me? 20,000 yen, for what, an hour of wasted time all round? (See below for what the next meeting after that was like - general ball-busting and BS all around from BL, and made possible it seems only because the BOE guy had excused himself to go to a funeral. Seems with BL like there is no day or even hour or minute that you can be excused and off enjoying yourself one iota - as if, on their salary! - without repercussions out of all proportion - it wasn't like I'd missed actual classes in that, my one "major" slip-up, and I doubt if the BOE cared who exactly was present or absent at any of these meetings - called like I say at BL's insistence rather than the BOE's and certainly not the AETs'!); no health insurance offered (that is, no co-payments/assistance with paying (N)HI was offered), a problem exacerbated by the aforementioned unfair deductions ('I'm sorry that I'm now ill and no longer able to work for you/endanger my health further, <koff koff>, but I could never afford any health insurance...'); the general ball-busting at meetings with teachers; ill-conceived, illogical and illegal-sounding arguments from management at said meetings to convince AETs in uproar that e.g. 'Because you aren't doing any actual work during your lunch breaks - despite our insistence and the consequent school expectation that you will eat every lunch with your students - that is why you AETs are expected to work from 08:30 until 17:00, a longer day than most other dispatch AETs and quite a few of your so-called hardworking Japanese colleagues have, especially at elementary schools, and which will therefore always put you smack into the rush hour on your looong expensive-for-you homeward commute ha ha ha...anyway, so believe you us, you have to make up at least the half hour. You don't get anything for free from us I mean this BOE - smoke and mirrors time again! - if you cannot prove that you are true samurai and not the lazy corrupt decadent western scum that we will obviously always assume you to be'. (WTF?! I thought lunch breaks legally had to be paid/given freely even if you sat on your ass doing nothing but recovering from teaching, let alone eating, conversing and playing with students. And I didn't leave some schools until at least 7pm this week because I was typing up my forthcoming term's lesson plans in Japanese as a courtesy, especially to the guy who submits this sort of stuff to the BOE who was worrying about what I had i.e. or might not have had up my sleeve). I could go on, but I think you've probably heard enough by now to convince you to look for another employer...but by all means string BL(T - the sandwich that nobody really wants) along until other offers are forthcoming, and if you've not got savings then even the nicest employers can soon make you their b*tch!

This is perhaps the most damning of the dozen or so threads that discuss or mention Borderlink:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=57766


Last edited by fluffyhamster on Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:04 pm; edited 8 times in total
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abracadaver



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 4
Location: Baltimore, MD USA

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. That's really insane. You provide a very strong argument against them. Its really funny cause the two guys I talked to on the phone were really nice and seemed like rather cool people. Then again, they didn't teach though they used to. But they had no complaints. I'm not really sure what to do. I have only heard positive things about Interac. I suppose i'll just wait to hear from them and if I get a position with them, then i'm going to Japan. If not, then i'll just re-apply next year.

Do you know of any other companies? I know the deadlines are nearing, but i'm sure there are a few places that might still be hiring.
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fluffyhamster



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The funny thing about these fun-sounding management types is that all the nickel-and-diming they have to do (or at least turn a blind eye to) can start to get to them - I guarantee you they will not sound half as jolly after a year of being caught between a rock and a hard place (i.e. between the conflicting demands of profit-hungry unreasonable Japanese management, as personified in Morikawa (no -san for him!), and genuinely hard-done-by AETs with heart-rending sob stories galore to tell). But some people will do anything to not have to teach anymore, eh (what a loss it must have been to education to see them go!). Still, if you have lots of savings and won't therefore need to be borrowing and jumping through hoops every time they say jump, who knows, you might enjoy the relentless micro-managing and ball-busting that they have to offer/inflict (just make sure you bring plenty of pairs of shoes for all those long treks back and forth to the monthly BOE debriefings, when you could be getting on with some actual work instead!).

Sorry, I can't honestly recommend any dispatcher other than Interac, and even then, much would depend on the state of at least your financial health going in. I suspect that my time with them was "good" only because I luckily didn't have to borrow from and get indebted to them (i.e. I could leave on my own terms, and did, when an apparently better job offer came along...but that's another story!).

I suppose the main thing that annoys me about working for dispatchers is that I doubt if they would have a good word to say about ANY of their employees, so any period(s) you spend with them may well have to be "written off" (of your list of possible references if not your CV entirely). But hey, it's dispatch, right, and anyone who does it is a mug and a useless teacher to boot!
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AgentMulderUK



Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 360
Location: Concrete jungle (Tokyo)

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 3:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't get me started on Interac.

Just never trust them. Evil company.
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abracadaver



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 4
Location: Baltimore, MD USA

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, after reading this and the information someone told me on another thread I made on Gaijinpot, I have decided to steer clear of Borderlink. I just don't want to have to deal with those kinds of people at all. I've dealt with jerks before I'd prefer not to have to deal with them again. I'd rather find a job in the US if it comes down to it.

Interac is bad too? Jesus, is there any company that is not bad?
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AgentMulderUK



Joined: 22 Sep 2003
Posts: 360
Location: Concrete jungle (Tokyo)

PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I put "Japanese ALT Despatch Company" into my Word thesaurus
and it came up with:

"Greedy money grabbing *beep* that are not to be trusted. You have been warned"
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Mr. Ludd



Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

BorderLink....a whole hearted giant boo. Interac, either deceptive or unorganized. Contract with local school board was not renewed, but the company had forgotten to mention it, despite inquiries. Claimed they had a signed contract although one was never sent. Next contract `lost`. A smothering nanny type company, okay for a while, but don`t feel guilty if you need to up and quit suddenly.
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Great Teacher Umikun



Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Posts: 63
Location: Back in Japan

PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah. Borderstink waited until the VVVEEERRRYYY last minute to tell me they didn't have a job for me after my first year with them. I would've looked for another job in that wait time, but I decided I'd had enough of Japan.
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yamanote senbei



Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435

PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

fluffyhamster wrote:
Borderlink is simply not a good company to work for (i.e. they are bad!).


http://tokyogeneralunion.org/issues/ALT/borderlink/
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bobbysix



Joined: 07 Oct 2010
Posts: 23

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Comparing Borderlink and Interac is like comparing death by stoning with death by having hot pokers shoved up your ass.
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Metacchi



Joined: 01 Jun 2011
Posts: 17
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looking at the original post, and the information on the Tokyo General Union link, its shocking that, in those 2 and a half years NOTHING has improved whatsoever. It's good to see that someone is trying to do something about it. How are these companies allowed to even exist?
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AgentMulderUK wrote:
Don't get me started on Interac.

Just never trust them. Evil company.


Only a few tiny ALT companies are any good. Have to say that Interac is much better than some of the really scummy eikaiwas.
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Metacchi wrote:
Looking at the original post, and the information on the Tokyo General Union link, its shocking that, in those 2 and a half years NOTHING has improved whatsoever. It's good to see that someone is trying to do something about it. How are these companies allowed to even exist?


Honestly, this is a big reason why I am sour on teaching English in Japan. Seems like most the companies are awful, and the 'good' ones are only bad.
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Metacchi



Joined: 01 Jun 2011
Posts: 17
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's the companies that spoil the whole thing. I love the job, but it's clearly a dirty business to be in.
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