Korean Job Discussion Forums

[drewlaiche]

I'm in a bad situation at my hogwan and I'm looking for other work. I haven't completed my contract period so I need a letter of release. My contract says I need to give 45 days notice. I can infer that this means 45 days or no LOR. I can give the 45 days notice, but don't trust my employer to play nice once I do. So, as of yet I haven't shown my hand.

I've gotten advice to simply get myself fired and therefore my employer will have broken the contract and my VISA will have been voided and I can just walk into a new job. The thing is that I'm not sure how to get fired without my not fulfilling my obligations under the contract and thus I would be the one breaking the contract and then no new VISA, right?

I mean I know how to get fired. But if I start showing up to work late, unshaven, unprepared, maybe hungover and I get fired, well can I get a new VISA with another school?

I appreciate any advice you got to give...

[Dan The Chainsawman]

How much time do you have left on your contract and what exactly makes it a bad situation?

[drewlaiche]

i) I'm only two months in on a twelve month contract.

ii) What makes it bad is a)that my school has, in total, no curriculum, which results in my working above and beyond what I was promised as a total of 40hr/week. This includes taking student work home to mark, b)that the school doesn't value student learning, maybe I'm old fashioned, but this is important to me. The school is more concerned with pandering to parents' inflated concept of their child's abilities c)that the school was reluctant to return my original degree to me, even though this was also put into righting before I signed, then once I took the degree home two days later it's missing from my apartment, yes the school keeps a set of keys.

Maybe this isn't so bad, even common maybe.

[Missile Command Kid]

[drewlaiche]

The second quote refers to the total of my post, not just the working hours quip. Seriously though guy, do you have any advice or are you just looking for small talk?


"They condemn because they do not understand"

[Cohiba]

I don't understand why you didn't change the lock on your
apartment as soon as you arrived. I would have thought
this pretty standard.

When I used to work at a hagwon, I did this. I'm sure the
boss was pissed, but what is he going to do? "We tried to
enter your private living quarters, but we couldn't, why did
you change the lock?" He doesn't have a moral leg to stand
on.

[mrsquirrel]

[ChuckECheese]

Why don't you try talking to your boss about your problem.

Just say "NO" to working more than promised (contracted) hours. If you do, tell them to give you overtime pay.

If you didn't agree to the development of curriculum and you don't want to do it, it's up to your boss to come up with it. But if your boss insists that curriculum has to be developed and you feel you can do this, it calls for renegotiation of your salary. Simply ask for more money because teaching and curriculum development are different monkies.

If you feel your boss has the key and free access to your apartment, change the lock.

The key is to stand up for yourself and confront your boss if you don't feel comfortable about something. Good luck.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

You could try getting a post-dated LOR in exchange for serving out 45 days. Otherwise your options are basically a) get fired or b) extort a LOR out of him. A list of all the parents' numbers and a bilingual friend were what made option (b) work in my case.

[jazblanc77]

First, your passport and your degree are legal documents that belong to YOU. If they have come into your apartment and taken either one, contact your embassy and the police and refuse to come to work until the respective document is returned.

Have processed your visa stuff legally? Did you actually go to the Ministry of Immigration and do all the forms? If your visa hasn't been completely processed, you should just wait until your next payday and make a run for it.

If your visa has been processed, I have heard of people getting out of the Letter of Release business by visiting Immigration and telling them that they were leaving the contract due to broken agreements, etc. Either way, you have to go throught the right process with Immigration, or else you won't be able to start a new visa with another school (you will have to wait until the term of the visa you have now is expired).

Next time, the things you should look for in a school are:

1.) NEVER work for a small (less than 10 full-time employees), or new (in operation for less than 5 years), school

2.) ALWAYS talk to a foreigner that is currently working there or has worked there previously (the best way is via there personal email address or their HOME phone number - in otherwords, in a medium that allows them to speak freely and honestly).

3.) Always make sure that you understand your contract and that it has everything in it that it should. This includes working hours, curriculum and what is expected of you, in general.


BTW, you should change your locks.

[jazblanc77]

Oh, and by the way, according to Korean labour law, you are only required to give the employer 30 days notice. AND, if you are fired, they are also required to give you 30 days and if they don't, they are required by law to pay you for the 30 days that you should have continued working there.

[Missile Command Kid]

In any teaching position, you will have more work than you can possibly do at school. This is true here, in the US, or pretty much anywhere else in the world. You're here to teach: didn't you expect that you'd be *working*? When did you think you'd find time to mark assignments, while teaching?

So the school doesn't have a curriculum. Go to Kyobo, find a few books that will work with your classes, photocopy them, and go to town. Voila! a curriculum. So the school doesn't appear to care about teaching. Listen to your director talk about what your students' parents are saying, nod and smile, and continue doing what you're doing. The parents aren't the educators, you are - or, at least, you would be if you weren't planning a runner. Of course the school has a set of keys to your apartment! It's *their* apartment. Do you think they'd give you all of the sets so you can leave them in your apartment? Better question: who do you think you're going to ask to help you into your apartment if you lose your set of keys?

Them going in without your permission/knowledge isn't kosher, however. I'd kick and scream about that. Call it a gross violation of your privacy, how dare they, the next time they go into your apartment without 24 hours notice you'll quit, etc. They'll likely be completely surprised and have no idea that it was a big deal, but they'll know for next time.

My snippity attitude in my first post wasn't exactly leveled at you, but I've seen so many people who come here to "work" and expect everything to be handed to them on a golden platter. Look, this is a job. Moreover, it's a teaching job. As I said, most teaching jobs require working outside of your scheduled hours, and even if they're not *required*, good teachers spend extra time making sure that their marking or lesson plans or whatnot are thoroughly prepared for classes. If you were concerned about curriculum, you should have asked before you came and accepted a job with a school that has a set curriculum.

[TheUrbanMyth]