Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bixlerscott]

I normally don't post negative topics of any sort, but this one pokes a needle in my spine. Not answering the phone is obviously the most simple and effective solution, but some people can't ignore a ringing phone. I can and will after answering it once, but my friend can not. I only answered to see what the deal was as I thought maybe my apartment had burned down or something really serious like a family death was communicated to them to be passed on to me. I have email and calling home regularly though I hadn't called in 2 weeks until last night.

EDIT * I guess they're honoring my vacation as I didn't hear anything more since I hung up on a co-teacher Tuesday morning complaining her vacation was canceled and that I must come back to work. They really did take most Korean teachers vacation away this year in my district according to other FT's I recently spoke with. The situation is terrible for my K friend as well as he's working his vacation with no rescheduling or anything in lieu of it. Talk about corruption from his employer, but he's not a teacher; just a tech support cubicle dweller.

We had planned to go spend time doing fun things all of this week like eating out, hiking Jirisan, batting balls in a batting cage, checkin' out the babes at Busan's Haeundai beach, and various other things like touring Buddhist temples as we did a few years ago when I lived in his home city. He's a real friend and we looked forward for so long to spend time together this week and have a good ole' time just like back in the day.

[bixlerscott]

Update. Wow, this really slam dunked me. Co-teacher calls me last night stating I must move out of my apartment early Friday morning. Instead of official vacation time, I'm getting one big headache and must be here at my apartment instead of being offline enjoying myself in Seoul. I was going to go from this morning until next Sunday, but it's blown as they wouldn't budge to wait until next Monday at earliest. I'm trying to get extra time off next week in lieu of their last minute issue as it won't cost them anything and I'm sure someone's getting a financial advantage by evicting me out of my apartment on such short notice with new tenets moving in at the same time. While employers at home usually don't give you 2 weeks official Summer vacation, I'm now getting anzty to be finished with Korea as I didn't get to enjoy my time since they knew I was staying in Korea. What would they had done if I were out of country during my vacation? Moved me without my knowledge by surprise? Well, I don't yet even know where I'm moving to.

[reactionary]

who do you work for? EPIK?

[bixlerscott]

[winterfall]

I hope SMOE honors mine.

[bixlerscott]

Yes, I believe my situation is uncommon for public school jobs as you don't see anyone else talking about this. I just got unlucky, but if final payday work out in 2 weeks from today then I'm good to go. I'd better make a calculation and submit soon to ensure I get paid the right amount. Everything has been a negotiating challenge as my school never had the experience of sponsoring a foreign English teacher. On a plus side. At least the job itself was only a tiny fraction as hard as my old hagwon job was and offered more free time, but the staff and locals were NOT interested in English nor having a foreigner so they just ignore me. I had to remind them to pay me many times and negotiate many sticky situations as this is their 1st go around. Ugggh, gotta get them caught up on pension payments too. The kids were mostly great students though as compared to my old hagwon. Now it's time to get ready to leave.

[matthews_world]

It's only Seoul.

Just think if you spend a wad of money on overseas travel.

Perhaps they're taking preventative measures against swine flu by having you stay home.

[kprrok]

Talk about a misleading thread title. Your experiences are not indicative of "many" Korean employers.

[bixlerscott]