Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Barking Mad Lord Snapcase]

Please bear with me, for this is pure speculation, and might turn out to be hopelessly far-fetched anyway.

Some time over the next two years, there will be a new crackdown on foreign workers who violate their visas - more intense than ever before. This will not only be limited to those who teach privates on the side, but also to expats who teach in more than one school, and those who take part in profitable activities outside of school grounds.

Roughly around the same time (give or take a few months), someone will engineer a �rat on a runner� campaign. Anyone suspecting a foreign worker of planning or acting out a midnight run will be encouraged to phone a hotline. Depending on the circumstance, the employer may be able to convict the runner or sue her/him for damages. In the process, the caller receives a monetary reward if one�s claim turns out to be well founded.

A few months into this brave new era, one expat will post here complaining about new demands his boss is placing on him. They want him to play the dancing clown on another premises, and the circumstances CLEARLY violate both his contract and his visa. The majority of posters would encourage him to refuse, regardless of the consequences. However, a very vocal minority will blast him for being a crybaby, and tell him to man up and do as he�s told. (Interestingly, one or two of these flame warriors might have held the Busan Nine in contempt, but naturally would resent being reminded of this apparent discrepancy with cries of �STALKER!�). These posters would explain that a contract in Korea is only a suggestion, and that waffling on about contracts, one�s rights, logic, fairness and the rule of law is just a hangover from the privileged and pampered West, and how dare you impose your Western values on my beautiful and unspoiled adopted homeland? Some of these posters will conclude their argument with the time-honoured chestnut: �If you don�t like it, LEAVE!!!�

Anyway, the expat in question decides to follow the advice of the majority and refuse. Instead of firing him outright, the director suddenly realises that he cannot afford to let business waver for one single week, so he tries to keep him on. Over the few days that follow (the expat received only one week�s warning regarding the clown act), he is treated like garbage. The Friday before the planned excursion (which will be on a Monday), the director tells the expat that if he refuses, rumours will be spread about him.

Finally snapping under the strain, the expat plans a runner. He packs up his luggage, books a flight for the following (Saturday) afternoon, and catches the first bus to Seoul. A few hours later, from a PC bang near his motel in Incheon, the expat - perhaps foolishly - announces his plan to leave on Dave�s ESL. Naturally, the majority (at least the ones who are online so late at night) will praise his decision. However, one poster - perhaps someone who has yet to join this forum - will see this as an opportunity to make some cash of his own. While the expat was careful not to give away too many details of his identity and workplace (at least in the recent thread), the snitch in question would spend two hours rifling through his posting history (thus emulating the STALKING! he himself condemned days earlier), and piece together a few clues regarding the expat�s workplace, age, background, nationality and possible appearance. (For example, when this expat was far less guarded, he took part in threads on the subject of nationality, weight/height ratio, and educational background, among other things). Then the snitch phones the 24-hour hotline with all the information he could muster.

The following afternoon, at the airport, the expat finds the police waiting for him.

Could this happen?

[Captain Corea]

[Barking Mad Lord Snapcase]

[Captain Corea]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Sounds to me like a case of uncontrolled paranoia. Maybe a vacation is in order. Or some medication.

[Satori]

[periwinkle]

I don't think their plan is going to work. First of all, they'll have to find English-speaking Koreans to man the hotlines I think people who can speak English well enough are best utilized elsewhere. Otherwise, it's a waste of resources, IMO. Also, ppl could call the hotline and rat out ppl that aren't doing runners, etc. Plus, how will they publicize the hotline #? It's hard enough to find numbers for immi. and other services (in English) as it is.

Also, if someone's doing a runner because their boss hasn't paid them, I wonder how that will work. They viloated the contract first by not paying the worker. Also, I thought contracts don't hold up very well here...

[Moldy Rutabaga]

[....]

[crazylemongirl]

[Barking Mad Lord Snapcase]

Fiction is fiction, no matter what inspires it.

[DaeguKid]