goesslry
Joined: 19 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:11 am Post subject: Blacklist school alert! ECC in Gumi |
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This is a terrible school, run by a terrible man. He is the chairman of the hagwan association in Kyungsangbukto, and is a complete *beep*. He pocketed all my taxes, my pension, and refuses to give it to me. He also had me blacklisted in Korea after i gave him my 8 week notice to leave korea. Luckily, i have some very influential korean friends that were able to reverse things. Anyway, this is a letter my co-worker sent to the recruiter that brought him over here while i still worked there.
The Communist Regime
- A few months ago, I was told by our supervisor that the boss would not be happy if he found out that I was spending my weekends with the foreign teachers from the other ECC, nevermind that I worked at that ECC for the first month of my contract and made my first friends there. God forbid I even speak to teachers from other hagwons.
- On a related note, last month I was scolded and punished with more work for telling a foreigner at the other ECC facts about our school. I never told him "Our school is better," or "You should try to come over to our school when Ryan leaves." Just straight up facts. When the foreign friend complained about his split schedule and possibly doing work at a public school and then mentioned the schedule at my school, the boss told my supervisor to give me more work. Sure enough, when intensives came, this month I have the most work of all the foreigners. 12:30-8:30 or 9:30 straight, no time for dinner. Coincidence? Ask them. What REALLY bothers me isn't the fact that I was punished (although that was quite a slight), but that instead of trying to improve my friend's situation, the boss decides to try to bring my situation down to his level.
- Yesterday, the foreign teachers and kids were provided with gimbab as a "lunch" during intensive sessions. This was from a restaurant that is usually reputable, but it made two foreigners sick to their stomachs and a few of the kids ill. Instead of being concerned for the health of her employees and students, the teachers were reprimanded for not "covering it up". We are now "not allowed to complain about schedules or food." We were not given lunch today.
- I have just a slight concern about even sending this e-mail for fear of punishment for complaining to someone I'm supposed to complain to.
Money and Benefits
- We don't get pension. I never really pushed for it, and I'm not entirely sure about what legal issues there are with it, but according to Ryan, who has studiously gone over the laws of Korea, we're supposed to get it.
- In our contract, we're supposed to get at least 12 vacation days in addition to holidays. Only 8 were scheduled. Due to the timing or my arrival, I'm able to get three of those, but the other teachers are going to have a much tougher time getting them.
- One time Ryan was asked to go to an ECC seminar on a weekend, and Ryan agreed to go with the understanding that he'd be reimbursed for the train rides. He was not, at least not until Ryan threw a fit and even then, only got a portion of the money he spent.
- Even with the slightest expenses that the managers are supposed to be responsible for, it is difficult for us to get management to pay for them. When I came to this part of town, Ryan was expected to pay for a copy of an apartment key, something he had no reason to do. I was also not given taxi money when I was told to transfer to my current ECC.
- Whenever we are sick, our supervisor doesn't seem to believe us. She pretty much orders us to go to the doctor (which is fine), and then when it is determined that we should not work, she makes us go to school and tell every teacher exactly what they need to do when they cover. She acts like we don't know what we're doing, and even if we've never taught that class before, we have teacher's guides for everything.
Lack of Concern
- Another foreign teacher once lived in an 2-bedroom apartment with 2 other teachers, and has been asked or basically forced to move to two other locations. Her current apartment has no refrigerator, something she has brought up on multiple occasions. A call has never been placed by our supervisor about getting one.
- The same foreign teacher is from South Africa and therefore needed a visa to get into Japan. She asked our supervisor if she could help, but she told her to get the travel agent to do it, but she ended up having to go to Busan one night during the week to drop it off. Sure enough, at the other ECC, they were able to do the whole visa process for us to get into China without a hitch. The supervisor even volunteered to do it.
- Heavy grudges over petty stuff are very common, such as the backlash for telling my friend about my schedule, or when Ryan asked for his money for his business trip to Seoul.
- WHENEVER we have a complaint, our supervisor attempts to guilt trip us by reminding us that we don't have to talk to the parents and that we get more money. While we do think that the Korean teachers deserve more money than they make, we shouldn't feel like we should take a pay cut or be given extra responsibilities to be given proper concern for our problems.
- There's an overall disorganization and inconsistency with management. I've learned something new every day this month that I was seemingly always supposed to know.
-One last tidbit is that our contract explicitly said that we needed to wear dress clothes every day, so I packed a ton. I came to Korea and came to realize that I could wear a t-shirt and jeans or shorts. I wear my beer cap to work. If it came down to them demanding I wear my dress clothes, fine, whatever, as long as it's not punished for telling my friend that I have 8 kids in my IBT class. But really, the suitcases could have been packed with many other items I would have much rather had with me. |
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