Korean Job Discussion Forums

[driftingfocus]

So, I have a bit of a conundrum, and I'm hoping for some advice.

I work for 3 public middle schools in a rural area, and as such, I "belong" to the local education office, though one of the schools is in charge of my pay, and my vacation time, etc, though the supervisor of the education office can, I believe, override them. This is just for background and context.

Here's the deal:

The supervisor of the EO has told me that there will not be camps this January, as our summer ones failed so abysmally that apparently they actually had to pay students to attend. So, when I asked him what I would be doing in that time, he said "I think you can have free time.", i.e., vacation. Now, my contracted vacation is the entire month of February, but I would love to get some of January as well, if that is possible (I do not relish the thought of sitting in an empty school all day). However, when I asked him about my vacation days last week, he said I needed to talk to my main school's principal (the one who signs my checks). I have been hesitant to do so, as while two of my schools love me, that school is really only lukewarm in terms of how they seem to feel about me, and I am sure that they will give me only my alloted days.

But, I may have a bargaining chip, now. My school is now a WEEK LATE on my latest paycheck, and when I looked at my bank statement the other day, I realized that my last three paychecks have been about 400,000won under what they should be.

I am tempted to talk to the principal and play along with the corrupt game that Koreans seem to like to play and tell him that I will not tell the supervisor about these "errors", if he will give me two weeks of vacation in January. But, that might backfire. Alternately, I could tell the supervisor about their errors, and hope that he will offer to talk to my school about my vacation, as an apology (for background, due to the old moldy housing issue (http://jindowaygook.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/huzzah/), he has been instructed by the province to keep me happy, as it caused them to lose face) for the behavior of that school and the EO's lack of proper oversight.

So. What do you think I should do?

[jbpatlanta]

[waynehead]

I agree. These are public schools after all, and missed pay is most likely the fault of the school accountant, not the principal, and is also likely due to incompetence not someone trying to screw with ya. I know, I dealt w/ my fair share of it when I worked at a PS.

If that's the case, then you don't have much of a bargaining chip anyway.

[driftingfocus]

[jbpatlanta]

[driftingfocus]

[BS.Dos.]

Regarding January. You didn't mention which days you teach at your main school. If you suspect that they'll insist that you've got to come in and 'prep' etc, then I'd not tell them and simply have the others days off. If you think that they'll let you stay at home etc then tell them.

My situation is kind of similar, but I think I've got a much more cordial relationship with my main HS than it seems you do with yours. I teach at my main HS for 3 1/2 days per week and at my other MS for the remaining 1 1/2 days. Despite my good working relationship with both my schools, if I get an unexpected day/afternoon off etc, which frequently happens at my MS, then I don't tell my HS for the simple reasons that while my HS VP probably wouldn't force me to do any unnecessary 'desk-time' etc, I think it may piss-off my CTs a little. I like to think that what they don't know can't hurt them etc.

[driftingfocus]

[BS.Dos.]

Yeah, it's a tough call. I can see your dilemma. Personally, I'd keep schtum about and just go in for your two normal days. You never know, maybe your VP or whomever might cut you some slack. You'll still have February off though right?

[driftingfocus]

[Jammer113]

You wrote a bunch of stuff that basically said:

"Should I blackmail my principal in order to get out of doing my normal, assigned work?"

You're ok with that? Are those your values? This isn't a "Korean Culture" vs. "Western Culture". There's plenty of people in both cultures who are ok with blackmail in order to cheat the system. Only the methods and penalties differ by culture. Are you one of those people?


On a slightly seperate issue... if you're not going to have ANY English camp at all.... how about suggesting an English movie class. It's low prep, fun, gets you involved with students and community. No teaching, just watch movies, and maybe write something (in Korean) about what they thought about the movie. You can have someone in the school office go over them to make sure they're not writing anything bad.

It's got a lot better chance at being attended, and it's better than doing nothing. Even suggesting it might raise your standing with your principal (and it might help your principal too). Then, if you want, you can say "How about I go home after the movie class?"

[driftingfocus]

[Paji eh Wong]

[driftingfocus]

[cobright]

I was going to suggest putting together an alternative summer program. The idea of a film class is stellar. Other options, maybe do a play. English vocabulary through literature is an option. Like shakespeare or the Fight Club novel. Just something cool to change your esl gears a little.

Think of some value YOU can bring to your situation instead of looking for what you can get out of it. Make it seem like it's your bosses idea. "I like what you said at the meeting on [whatever] and was thinking along those lines myself... do you think a summer [whatever] program would fly? Maybe pitch the idea arround and see what other people think, I would be happy to run a [drama/lit/film/whatever] during that time.

Then after he blows a happy-gasket, Ask for a reasonable amount of time off. But christ, you already get like a month off.