Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shawner88]

My boss has a small staff and over 150 students yet he still wears the same shirt 3 days a week, he drives the school bus, which is also his only car, and he never buys supplies such as pencils and the damn copy machine is always out of paper.

[crazylemongirl]

My school has a prospective parents day next week and the boss is refusing to pay for someone to come in and buff the floors (they really need them too!). Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face. If even one parent decides not to go there because the school looks dirty (we clean but some of it is really built in grime) then she's already lost more than what the cleaner would have cost!

CLg

[mo]

My pay was 1,894,000won, but my boss only had change of 1,895,000won.

You can guess what he did next, can't you...

[Joe Thanks]

[shawner88]

[Arthur Fonzerelli]

[jajdude]

I had a previous employer who tried to take the Japan visa run airfare back from another teacher and me on our next payday. We both told him that if did that we would not show up, so he begrudgingly didn't keep the money, but thought we were being greedy! Another boss cancalled his subscription to the Korea Herald to save that extra 20,000 or whatever a month. He apparently was quite rich though.

[Saxiif]

Hmmmmm my old white board was over two years old and wouldn't erase unless I mopped it down when I swapped classrooms with a Korean teacher who wanted my warmer one (which I didn't want anyway, too warm for a Mainer ).

[some waygug-in]

You had a white board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How about not having a copy of the textbook, but a used copy of the workbook.

When I went an bought my own copy of the text, the boss took it and sold it to a new student.

I'm glad to be gone!

[Saxiif]

well only about half of the books have teacher copies, so either I use an absent student's text or (if its there) I grab a used book and try to hide the answers.

[Son Deureo!]

Ugh, this is a real problem at our school. My boss, who cannot speak English, was picking the textbooks for the classes based solely on which ones were the cheapest. You can imagine how well that works.

When I suggested we moved to Let's Go, she balked at the extra 3000 won per copy, but caved. When I asked for the flash cards (Teachers cards) she bought a set of the student cards which are the size of playing cards. Useless as flash cards.

This month she refused to buy any new copy paper until we had re-used all the used paper in the school. Then she complained about having to pay the photocopier repair man when the copier kept jamming.

She wouldn't buy wastebaskets for the classrooms. Her reasoning was that if the students saw wastebaskets they'd be more likely to bring garbage into the classroom.

I like my boss, she's a nice woman, but I hate having to ask her for anything.

[shawner88]

My last boss was even worse than the one I have now. He had over 500 students and paid the korean teachers peanuts. He photocopied ALL the books for the kids and stapled them together. Pages were often out of order or missing and forget teaching the color chapter. Imagine photocopying 500 books. By the time he got done with a set, the kids had finished the books, so he was ALWAYS using that machine...which meant no other teacher had a chance to make copies ever. And, go figure, the machine broke down at least 3xs/week. He would get so angry at the repair man. Well, duh, it wasn't made to be run day and night.

[Joe Thanks]

[oneiros]

I have to buy my own whiteboard markers and my own copy paper. The school has no books, so I've had to buy those as well.

On the subject of copyright violation, they had a well-known middle-school grammar book photocopied and rebound with a new cover that claims it was produced by our school. We then sold these new books to the students for a profit.

I have no medical insurance or pension contributions.

They wouldn't buy me a tv or telephone, despite it being in my contract.

My Korean co-teacher has to pick up the kids and drop them off back home.

Instead of buying new whiteboard erasers, we have to wrap cloth around them, which hypothetically could be removed and washed, thus being reusable. We are not permitted to wash the clothes too often, because running the washing machine is too expensive.

Beat that.

[wowser]

Ohhhhhhhhhh- I think I can!!!

I used to teach story class- and the school wouldn't by books. So, they would photocopy borrowed books and have me make them look attractive..

They used to have a printer (never a photocopier) but that was removed because it was too expensive to run. It was replaced with a fax machine. We had to fax things if we wanted them copied...obviously you can't fax/copy books- so we would have to go in our own time to a copy-center and pay for copying ourselves.

My apartment was on the roof of the directors church. The roof was shared with the Pastor and three other families. It was like living in a goldfish bowl. When I complained about the situation they rewarded me by getting a male room-mate in...(housing in the area was just too expensive for them to do anything else?!?! )

I was never given health insurance, pension, they refused to reimburse my airfare, they told me they would not be paying a 'bonus' (severance) because they couldn't afford it.

They have fired 9 people thus far....6 of them they gave less than 24 hours notice. That way they didn't have to pay them for a full month...

When I complained about multiple contract violations- and asked for a release letter- they fired me. They said that seeing as I didn't work a full month- I wasn't entitled to National holidays or sick leave (???!!!).

I am/ was the only legal foreign teacher at the school...none of the other teachers had contracts- so that they could be fired without notice.

The school didn't have cleaners- we all had to clean before we could leave.

Ah- I'm ranting...anyways- that's only 1/2 of it....I think I win....