Job Discussion Forums

[JZer]

I have been offered a job near Chiba. What are the possibilities of finding someone who will hire me to work Mondays(my day off) only?

[AndyH]

PM sent.

[JZer]

[Glenski]

Totally unenforceable. Red flag about micromanagement control. Nobody can tell you what to do in your time off.

[AndyH]

Spoken for truth.
Most employers will assume their teachers don't know any better.

When I lived in Hokkaido, I was basically caught teaching private lessons after work, but management didn't dare confront me over it. Instead, they turned a blind eye, with self-righteous indignation.

[JZer]

So is it better just to sign the contract and then if they catch me to confront them or to confront the employer about the clause now. I have other options, so it does not bother me to tell them get lost!

[AndyH]

In my opinion, the best route to take is to do what's best for yourself, both economically and in respect to needed rest and recreation time. Chances are, your employer will never find out, and as long as you aren't recuiting thir students (not recommended), what they don't know won't hurt them!
Another option could be to ask your employer if they offer overtime, and are able/willing to have you work more classes for extra YYY. Sometimes, schools need teachers who are willing to serve as substitutes on their days off, or fill extra contracts.

[JZer]

Is there anything one needs to do to be legal when working a second job?

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[JZer]

[markle]

[JZer]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

I've never heard of that happening before. Do you mean immigration showing up at the one day a week job, or at the main job? At the one day a week job, yoiu probably shouldn't be carrying your contract with you, and like Ive said, I've never heard of them showing up at a school and asking to see the teachers' gaijin cards. Unless you are actually at the one day a week job, they find out that you are on the payroll, and then go contact the main school and demand to see the contract to make sure that you aren't breaking it, then you should be fine.

Basically, it is a risk, but a pretty minor one. That said, my first employer did try to use it at one time to force me out of recontracting for JET so that they could get an American for the next year. It was a stupid situation. They knew my predecessor (and his etc) had been teaching at a private company (not an English school) in the evenings a couple of times a week. The BoE had told the private company to contact the JETs (there was only one native English speaker in the entire town) and up until me, every single one had been teaching them. I refused to teach because it was outside of my contract, but the BoE assumed that I was doing it, because every single JET in the town had done so in the past. They then tried to say that because I was doing that I couldn't recontract. I told them I wasn't teaching the private company, they contacted the company, and then after the deadline for getting an Amelikan had come and gone, they tried to get me to teach the private company. I refused again and they said that all the company people were disappointed because they looked forward to getting English lessons. I told them to remove the outside work prohibition from the upcoming contract and they said they couldn't, because the prefectural BoE might notice. Then they said it didn't matter, everybody does it. I still refused (because I knew they had tried to use it to get rid of me, there was one English teacher in particular who simply did not like anybody who wasn't both from the US and male, and he made the life of the town BoE really miserable).

My point is just that if for any reason someone high up decides they want to get rid of you, they will try anything they can to get rid of you, and then if it didn't work, suddenly they will be your friend again. Rules like this one exist to protect the employer from the teacher doing an end-run around them. They are unenforced unless you are actually trying to do an end-run around the employer, or if the employer wants to get rid of you because of something that would be illegal or not allowed. In order to deny a JET recontracting, there has to be some really serious reason- BoEs can't just say things like "we really wanted an American", or "this person doesn't even have blue eyes- they aren't a real foreigner"- both of these are examples that BoEs have tried to use in the past near where I live. The prefecture gets involved and about 90% of the time, the municipal BoE backs down.

[markle]

[JZer]