Job Discussion Forums

[timothypfox]

If you happen to be an ALT or a teacher in a private school or university, you probably have too much desk time! More than you know what to do with...

I spend a lot of time playing Facebook Scrabble with a co-worker, and downloading movies from Youtube and burning them to DVD. I also watch entire movies on my computer as well as online shopping on Amazon.com (mostly window shopping mind you!) I hope to get back into studying Japanese, but I am out of steam doing that for the moment.

SO, how do you spend your desk time?

[move]

Good lord, no wonder Japanese teachers think the lot of us are layabouts. What do I do at my desk? Plan lessons, mark papers, look up new lesson ideas, help my JTEs with any questions they might have and occasionally study Japanese. Basically, I'm at work, so I work. Why don't you go clean the break room, or ask your manager if there's anything to help out with? I guarantee you won't get a bad reaction.

[rxk22]

[Glenski]

[rxk22]

[seklarwia]

[rxk22]

[Inflames]

[jillybean]

I plan lessons, make classroom decorations, do crossword puzzles (which I count as working...have to keep the brain sharp!), help my boss/coworkers study English and make birthday or holiday cards for the students. I have a lot of desk time but I feel guilty about doing personal stuff like checking email or Facebook. But sometimes I still do...

[rich45]

[Glenski]

Ah, the old semi-FT thing. Well, you are physically in the school for 8 hours so everyone around you sees you as FT, as as much as some ALTs hate being in school with "nothing to do", that's the way it is. Even direct hires (ALT or otherwise) will find themselves outside of a classroom for a large part of the day. Do they waste their time just because they are not in a classroom?

Appearance to the rest of the staff is important. They don't know your situation and will assume you are hired to teach/assist, and seeing someone do unrelated things only puts a blemish on the ALT system as a whole. You can take that for what it's worth to you.

My only suggestion is to make the best use of your time if you want to be treated better by your coworkers, if nothing else.

As for a salary of 190,000 yen, that's barely subsistence wages and pretty far from what IMO it should be. I won't talk about what a responsible person would be expected to do regardless of salary, because that would only stir up bad feelings here. Everyone takes their job seriously in a different way (some not at all) despite how much they get paid.

As for employers avoiding shakai hoken with "semi-FT" status, the fact is that if you don't like it, you should try to do something about it. There are some myths out there about that situation. For example, counting classroom hours is one thing, but if you are actually required to be there for 8 hours, how do they count the out-of-class time? If it's prep, that's work, too. Consider talking to the General Union if you really care. Employers can actually offer shakai hoken even if their employees work less than 29 hours per week. The onus is on the worker to try getting it.

As for breaking up bricks and such, that's your prerogative to help out, but do you consider that as much part of the job as teaching? If not, then I don't really see how anyone could complain about offering to do such things and not reap benefits (whether higher salary or shakai hoken). Sounds more like the school getting by without having to hire someone else to do the job, thereby saving money in the deal.

[seklarwia]

[Glenski]

[TokyoLiz]

[bobbysix]