Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Draven]

While he still continues to duck our calls, it seems as his phones are working perfectly well. He's been burning up the phone lines calling all of our Korean coworkers to find out if they knew we were staying in town. It's a lousy situation for them. A real damned if you do, damned if you don't circumstance. Those who say they knew get an earful questioning their loyalty to him and the school for not telling him, while those who claim ignorance are called liars 'cuz "everyone in town knows, why don't you?" Some of these folks are pretty good friends of ours, so they promptly call us and tell us what happened after he's finished with them.



The craziness of all this astounds me.

Anyways, it's about 5 hours since we've left messages with him, and still our phone hasn't rung.

[tokki]

Well, you got your E2. Now screw him over. Sue the bastard, and serve the papers personally. When handing them to him flip him the bird and say "see you in court...Im gonna like driving your car"

[Draven]

[Skippy]

Be careful. It sounds like your boss is getting a hell of a lot worked up about you guys leaving him. Careful at any meeting he may get violent or get into a shouting match. If things go violent. Just leave. You may want someone to wait for you outside ready to call the police if things go nasty.

Also do not give any of the old (korean) teachers your new address for a while. Your boss may try and get the details and harass you.

Sorry I am being a little paranoid and I am not trying to scare you. Just be cautious please.

As a side note and to make the mess more complicated you worked for 14 months for him. You got your severence on month 12. You are still due two more month of severence. I mean 2/12 or 1/6 of Severence payment. But me I would write that off.

Skippy the Concerned Evil Twin

[Draven]

[Draven]

So now it's a done deal. We've had our meeting and seem to have settled matters. Basically once we got past all the bullsh*t (which was numerous), it boils down to they feared that we would steal their students. That based on our reputation earned at their school, we would take their students and kill their business.

They claimed that the reason they acted as they did was because they felt that we had betrayed them by not telling them we were applying for work in the same city.

So we signed an agreement with them stating that we won't teach any of their current students (which we weren't planning on anyway). In return, they will not make any publicly disparaging remarks about us and will call my new school and apologize for creating a disturbance.

Anyway, the head of the school seemed very concilliatory and upset about the events that had transpired. It was clearly his wife, whom he had to repeatedly tell to shut up during our meeting, who was the instigator of all the crap.

So I guess that's it for now. We'll see how this last week of work goes, and while I'm sure it'll be at least a little bit uncomfortable, I think it will be endurable. Perhaps it won't be as enjoyable a time as I was originally anticipating a month ago, but it'll be okay.

I want to thank everybody who responded with helpful, encouraging advice (which I think covers anyone who responded to this thread ). We watched this thread closely yesterday and every response solidified our resolve.

[waterbaby]

Glad to hear it's all been worked out and sorted. No big surprises with their reasons... just a little difficult to understand their behaviour.

Phew!

All the best...

[just because]

Good stuff, Draven. Kept your cool when a lot of people i know would have lost their temper with no results. i hope it all works out for you but I'm sure there will be dramas to come. it is Korea after all

[Draven]

It's ain't over. They're trying to change the agreement. It goes on...

[rapier]

Koreans try to sc**w eachother over all the time. They live in constant paranoia, secrecy and mistrust of eachother.
They assume that foreigners are as bad, and they project their insecurities onto us. they are the least trusting, and least trustworthy people I know.
but once you've convinced and shown them you're a worthy person, they'll do anything for you.

[just because]

[Draven]

Well here's the update. Whether this will be the end of it is beyond me. I hope so, but I have my doubts.

So we were at the notary to make the document official. The notary suggests we rework some of the language. As we do, the boss wants to significantly alter the terms of the agreement. He says that he's only prepared to offer his silence to my new school. He wants to be free to bad mouth us to any other school, individual, or organization as he sees fit. He was particularly adamant that he be free to talk to Immigration about us. Ring, went the alarm bells, ring!

We told him the agreement was unacceptable to us and that we would have a lawyer work on language that we would be amenable to. This seemed to smarten him up somewhat. He agreed that he would only contact Immigration if he had proof that I was doing something contrary to Immigration laws, as well as agreeing to not bad mouth us publicly. He even put in a clause at the end to the effect of "both parties will try to get along."

So we signed.

They told us where they received confirmation about my new job. They said they had been hearing rumours for a couple of days, so they called Immigration who told them a new visa had been issued for me. Now, I appreciate that because my present visa was issued with them as sponsors, they might be entitled to that information. Might. I sure hope Joe Idiot off the street can't call Immigration and find out my visa status. A point to ponder, perhaps.

We went back to work and they asked my wife (who is Korean and not under the same contractual constraints as I) whether she would like to be done with work today. If she'd like to never have to come back. Of course she jumped at this opportunity. I, however, must go back and complete the week. Thing is, if we weren't in this mess I'd probably take my first sick day since working there. I think the stress has taken it's toll as I've got the mother of all colds. Settled in right after we got back from the notary and before my first class of the day.

So, all in all, today's been a party. Speaking of parties, they've cancelled our going away event, not that we were planning on attending anyway. Go figure.

[Skippy]

Draven could you give us details on what school and where you live. As to warn any other people who will follow you to be careful.

Skippy

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Why the bloody hell do Korean employers do this time and time again?

Is it a Korean custom to lie to employees future bosses to sabatouge their future?

What is it?

I have had this happen to me 3 times while in Korea, the last time being the most serious.

I never had it happen to me in Taiwan or Japan. Only in Korea, and every job I had!

No wonder I turned my back in Korea...

[Draven]