Korean Job Discussion Forums

[VFRinterceptor]

I sat down with my director on friday and approached them to discuss the option of me leaving the academy. I told my director that I wanted to move to a bigger city and that I felt like doing it before the end of my contract. After hearing my reason for leaving, I was told that I needed to finish my 1 year contract agreement. I stated that although I have a 1 year contract, section 11.2 says:

11.2. Early Termination by Mutual Consent
Either party may terminate the Agreement by 60-day prior written notification; anything less than 30 days shall be considered a breach of contract by either party unless the termination is for cause

I pointed out that my contract says that 'either' party may terminate the agreement, but my director said that they would not agree to it. We went back and forth about the clause in the contract, but then my director said that the only way they would give their consent or letter of transfer is if I were to give them 3 mil KRW. Upon hearing this, I immediately realized what direction the conversation was going and activated the 'voice memo' system on my cell phone discreetly. I asked them the question of what I would need to give them if I wanted to transfer, and they told me 3 mil KRW. I pointed out that there was nothing mentioned about that in my contract and I was told that this was some kind of 'side deal'. The conversation went on for a few minutes, but kept coming back to them asking me for money if I wanted to leave.

The following Monday, I was called into their office again, this time, I activated the recorder before going in, because I was not sure what they would say next. Again, all they did was say that they wanted money. I told them that I could send a letter via registered mail and that would be the end of it. Nothing really came of that meeting either.

Leaving the school would not be hard except that every recruiter I have contacted ignores me after finding out that I am leaving my school prematurely. RBI, a frequent poster in the classified section here has all but forgotten me, despite my emails and phone calls...thanks Kelly.

So right now I'm between decisions because on top of all this mess, I've got my brother and sis coming to visit me next month. Not sure if now is the best time to drop this on my school because I'm half expecting them to change the lock and toss all my stuff out with a note that says i'm fired or something. You never know with these type of people.

I am fairly certain that the school will only keep me until they feel they've gotten their moneys worth. At which point I will be called into their office with 4 separate warnings so they can 'contractually' fire me. One of my coworkers said that they were planning to do that to me a few months ago, which has only strengthened my resolve to leave. The only question is how and when.

My contract says that I can give them between 30-60 days notice. So I was thinking I should just wait until my family leaves when they visit me, and then give them 30 days notice or just do a visa run. With this approach, the only problem I have would be finding a school. I'm almost thinking I should just wait until my visa's done and then apply for jobs saying that I am a tourist, and not even use Kids College as a reference, or worst case scenario, just bail out of korea and teach english in Japan or something.

Advice?

[sulperman]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/evil

So they want you to finish your contract. That's evil?

[TheMeerkatLover]

Sounds like you created this mess due to your 'desire' to move to another large city. Your boss is still just running his business and expects you to hold your end. You feel you want bigger and better..and want to bail.

Try to look at things from his perspective, you're going to torpedo his business and you want him to smile and hug you as you leave him in a bind?



Meerkat

[Silence Dogood]

Peace and Love will solve your solutions. Embrace the 60's Woodstock Era and you will find your answer in solace.

[okayden223]

Yeah I have to agree with Meerkat. Unless your hagwon is simply hell on earth why leave man? Korea is what you make of it. How small is your town? Anything bigger than 250k and I'm thinking you need to stick it out. Yes Korea can be pretty boring in a lot of areas. But there aren't too many schools that are going to look kindly upon a teacher who broke their contract because they wanted a better social scene. How long have you been at it?

[asmith]

You signed a contract. It means something. Finish the contract. One year isn't going to kill you.

[Elvis Gratton]

Whatcha have against small towns? Whydya take a job there if you don't like them?

[VFRinterceptor]

my school is absolute garbage.

In the 5 months i've been there, they've fired 10 people (Korean Teachers and English Teachers), all for BS reasons.

We've been audited by the Ministry of Education.

A contractor who worked on the school came with a tank of LPG, and released the gas, during business hours, with kids around, because he was not paid for his labor.

The average enrollment time a student is at that school is about 2 months, then the parents pull their kids out, either because the director did or said something stupid, or the parent has no faith in our system.

I follow all the protocols and procedures, I get a long great with the kids, they learn in my classes, but some of the books we use in our classes are clearly redundant and pointless. Some even have major grammatical errors.

You guys talk as if you've never heard of a bad hagwon.

[asmith]

[VFRinterceptor]

stay=11th month firing

GUARANTEED

[okayden223]

hmmm...well if what you say is true then...yeesh man. I don't know what to tell you...sounds like you ended up in a bad situation. Did you do the due diligence to the place before coming over? (speak/email directly with current foreign teachers at the school, post on here asking for info, etc.) Sorry if you got mislead into a bad situation.

[okayden223]

p.s. I've seen plenty of books in the public schools that have grammatical errors...that pretty much comes with the territory.

[VFRinterceptor]

[wesharris]

Don't delete this please.
It is very useful.
_+_+
Wes

[Straphanger]