Korean Job Discussion Forums

[humanuspneumos]

To be or not to be. We all know that the whole industry is swamped with recruiters now with little clauses in the contract with owners/director that say something like: "If the teacher quits before ____ months the recruiter must repay the owner the fee or provide another teacher ASAP for free.

This creates a huge self-interest club in the industry. The owners and recruiters have common goals. It's a 1 X 2 principle now. A 100% or more increase in people not particularily interested in the teacher's outcome on several levels.

It's kind of pathetic that it comes to: teacher questioning how nice he/she should be when the industry as a whole has rarely blinked at screwing the teachers. Again- most westerners have just been too nice all these years in Korea. I'm trying to think of one- just one advantage in teachers giving notice. The scenarios are like this:

A. Teacher gives notice: owner and staff make him/her emotionally pay for the next 1-2 months for the "betrayal."

B. Teacher gives notice: owner conjures up bills with numerical distortions

C. Teacher gives notice: owner begins a court of discovery to see where teacher is going so he can phone in advance and insure teacher won't get the job

D. Teacher gives notice: owner hardens his heart towards final pay before final pay comes

E. Teacher gives notice: owner magically disappears the last days when it's pay-time

F. Teacher gives notice: owner sometimes shortens teacher's stay by firing as soon as the replacement comes

[lush72]

[just because]

I think the problem in this situation is as follows.

Most of the time, the jobs you want to leave, hence give notice for are bad jobs. Hence, the director is a bit of a shady guy to start with so people in this situation are liable to be screwed.

If you had a good job with a good director it is unlikely that you will want a release and hence don't hear the horror stories of what happens.

Wrap up
Good job = happy, stable, good boss and unlikely to want a release
Bad job= unhappy, unstable, bad boss and will more likely want a release so that is why you hear the one-sided horror stories so much.

[phaedrus]

[humanuspneumos]

I voted always because, honestly, people who do the right thing always win.

Fair enough- the laws of the land in Korea say that the "right thing" is found within the contract (assuming the school has 10 or more staff and the contract has- according to Korean law- been submitted to the labor board for "ok-ing" to insure its rightness/legality and those laws are posted somewhere where the workers can see them- on a wall). My point in being so wordy- when the contract has been breached by the boss there is nothing holding a teacher back from going- even on moral grounds. Sometimes the right thing is saving sanity and saving the situation- if you know you'll do/say something you will regret terribly later. Run, run, and run. Running can be a situation where one is being a "good guy" by not staying back and beating, slandering, or harming the school in some way beyond what running would do.

Since I have never been in a situation where the contract wasn't broken on several main points and sub-titles- I'm not sure what it means to just go when everything is kept.

Turning the other cheek can mean- I stay my hand of revenge by just going- no notice.


As for what happened with you and your wife- I think you mentioned your wife is Korean ("My wife runs the only Korean finances that I have close familiarity with, and she loves to save and squirrel away all the money she can. She hates to waste a single won." or maybe I misread that part)

- sadly- when there are mixed marriages schools will not only be less helpful- they can be down-right-racist and make it hard for mixed couples.

[phaedrus]

[tokki]

Thats the good thiing about the F2-1. My notice would be a midle finger in my boss' face as I told him to screw himself. If I ever get into a situation where Im being screwed over by a boss, Id just walk. The E2 is a slave's visa.

[Paji eh Wong]

I gave notice at my last job, and it was maybe the smartest thing I had done in 6 months. It meant I could take a step back from the job I hated and then do what I wanted to do for 2 months. I "won" because I walked away from some money, kept my shred of integrity, did the right things by my students and coworkers, and found a far better job.

[Real Reality]

tokki wrote,
The E2 is a slave's visa.

Do not forget about the E1 visa and all the other visas that require
servitude and obedience.

Is the F2-1 visa the only visa that allows for immediate resignation if
one needs to leave a job (without a letter of release). Otherwise, the
slave must leave the country, right?

[batman]

lush72 wrote:
"How can you harden something you don��t have? That��s like me trying to harden my uterus!".

Sadly that comment probably reflects the majority of hogwan owners.

As to the question of giving notice I believe it really depends upon the circumstances.
As someone pointed out the good schools don't give you reason to quit and the bad ones just make you want to run.

I spent two years at the same school.
The director was a decent (yet unstable) individual and if I had felt the need to leave I would have given him a month's notice.
And I am confident that he would have given me all money due without a problem.

When I left KC hell I was under no illusions.
I gave the school one week notice.
In my letter of resignation I also stated that I was taking my last week as a paid vacation.
(Which left them in a real bind and gave me the upper hand in our later negotiations.)

The work visa program here is prone to problems.
Giving the director power over the native teacher's income, housing, visa status and all is too much (how many of us have sat in meetings where the director starts to scream "I own you. You are mine to do with as I please. I could have you killed if I wanted"?)
But if the work visa was to be handed over to the teacher it would through the whole hogwan business into chaos.
Hogwan owners would then have to learn how to treat their teacher like human beings.
Teachers would start to feel empowered.
Hmmmm..... Union....Hmmmmm....

[just because]

[phaedrus]

[humanuspneumos]

I've heard similar stuff- almost identical. Makes me thinx it was the same school. Death threats- how really, really childish and pathetic!!!

[Gord]

[Mr. Pink]