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WaveFunction1984
Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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 Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:37 am Post subject: Quitting my adult hagwon, need advice |
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I came to Korea a few months ago (for the third time) to work for an adult hagwon in Seoul. I worked PS and I worked at a kiddie hagwon before so I thought adults would be a refreshing change.
The manager/hiring person told me that the schedule was rough. I'm okay with that, I have weird sleeping habits anyway. However, he told me that January, February, July and August were the roughest months because Universities were on vacation. I was told that the other months would be cakewalks in comparison.
I came here expecting that situation and found out that it's pretty much a nightmare. I work 7am to 9pm some days, 7am to 10pm others. The breaks are rarely long enough to warrant a trip home so that means I practically live at the school.
The job itself is fine. I have some issues but nothing major. It's mainly the hours, I have a really hard time dealing with it. I feel like I've been in that damn building since I returned to Korea. I get home after a long day, have barely enough time to sleep and then I have to repeat. I'd actually prefer split shifts over this.
Anyway, moving on...
When is the best time to quit?
Would I be able to find a new job in under a month (I live in Seoul)? Should I quit first then find a job or find a job first then quit?
I like my current apartment/location, is it possible to get another company to take it over?
Any info would be appreciated, thanks. |
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Evanzinho
Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Location: California
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:49 am Post subject: |
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Teaching one to one, eh?  |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:13 am Post subject: |
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| 7-9 or 7-10 is a pretty standard adult hagwon shift. Most people don't make it past 6 months. |
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WaveFunction1984
Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Evanzinho wrote: |
| Teaching one to one, eh? |
Haha, that hard to tell, is it?
To be honest, I was expecting it to be bad within tolerable levels, ie: split shifts and early mornings. I could handle that. Sacrificing all of my time to be at the office was something I was not expecting. If I had known it would be 7:00am to 10:00pm everyday without enough of a break to spend time at home... that's just insanity.
| Quote: |
| Most people don't make it past 6 months. |
I don't even intend to make it before then. I've been thinking about it and I think I'm going to quit before the next "busy season" starts. I'll put it my notice in the beginning of May and hopefully start a new job in June-ish. The only thing that sucks is that I have to pay back my plane ticket (even if I quit in the 11th month). |
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winterfall
Joined: 21 May 2009
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Nah you need to move, chances are your hagwon either owns the place or has an agreement with the landowner. Probably better for you in the long run anyway, commuting sucks |
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Evanzinho
Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Location: California
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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| WaveFunction1984 wrote: |
| Evanzinho wrote: |
| Teaching one to one, eh? |
Haha, that hard to tell, is it?
To be honest, I was expecting it to be bad within tolerable levels, ie: split shifts and early mornings. I could handle that. Sacrificing all of my time to be at the office was something I was not expecting. If I had known it would be 7:00am to 10:00pm everyday without enough of a break to spend time at home... that's just insanity.
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Not hard to tell at all, I worked there last year, you're probably teaching some of my old students. Looking at your location, you may even be living in my old apartment!
It's too bad about the schedule because the job is actually pretty good; teaching adults one to one is the best gig, IMHO.
I did end up completing my one year contract; the trick is when you have one of those "breaks" during the day (you probably have two of three of them each day, lasting a couple of hours) leave the school and go somewhere else; a cafe with your netbook, PC Bang, anywhere. Just get out of there when you don't have a class. Luckily, the school is in a good part of Seoul and there are many places to hang out in walking distance.
Good luck with whatever decision you decide to make! |
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WaveFunction1984
Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Evanzinho wrote: |
| WaveFunction1984 wrote: |
| Evanzinho wrote: |
| Teaching one to one, eh? |
Haha, that hard to tell, is it?
To be honest, I was expecting it to be bad within tolerable levels, ie: split shifts and early mornings. I could handle that. Sacrificing all of my time to be at the office was something I was not expecting. If I had known it would be 7:00am to 10:00pm everyday without enough of a break to spend time at home... that's just insanity.
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Not hard to tell at all, I worked there last year, you're probably teaching some of my old students. Looking at your location, you may even be living in my old apartment!
It's too bad about the schedule because the job is actually pretty good; teaching adults one to one is the best gig, IMHO.
I did end up completing my one year contract; the trick is when you have one of those "breaks" during the day (you probably have two of three of them each day, lasting a couple of hours) leave the school and go somewhere else; a cafe with your netbook, PC Bang, anywhere. Just get out of there when you don't have a class. Luckily, the school is in a good part of Seoul and there are many places to hang out in walking distance.
Good luck with whatever decision you decide to make! |
I'd send you a PM but I don't have 25 posts yet. I'm pretty sure we're working at the exact same place. Just to confirm, what floor did you work on? That will settle it.
Anyway, I don't know if I'll stay for the year or not. I've been staying at the school because I haven't really got a full paycheque yet and while I'd love to go to a PC Bang/wherever during my breaks, I simply don't have the $$$ in order to do it. 
Maybe that will be the deciding factor. I'll see how much I get paid and how good my quality of life is afterward. I'll see if spending more time doing things I like in this area (playing games at PC Bangs or going to the gym) helps. I'll also see what happens to the hours. It's better to wait these things out then act too quickly.
I also wonder if getting a scooter would help. That would certainly cut down on the commute. |
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Evanzinho
Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Location: California
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:12 pm Post subject: |
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| WaveFunction1984 wrote: |
| Evanzinho wrote: |
| WaveFunction1984 wrote: |
| Evanzinho wrote: |
| Teaching one to one, eh? |
Haha, that hard to tell, is it?
To be honest, I was expecting it to be bad within tolerable levels, ie: split shifts and early mornings. I could handle that. Sacrificing all of my time to be at the office was something I was not expecting. If I had known it would be 7:00am to 10:00pm everyday without enough of a break to spend time at home... that's just insanity.
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Not hard to tell at all, I worked there last year, you're probably teaching some of my old students. Looking at your location, you may even be living in my old apartment!
It's too bad about the schedule because the job is actually pretty good; teaching adults one to one is the best gig, IMHO.
I did end up completing my one year contract; the trick is when you have one of those "breaks" during the day (you probably have two of three of them each day, lasting a couple of hours) leave the school and go somewhere else; a cafe with your netbook, PC Bang, anywhere. Just get out of there when you don't have a class. Luckily, the school is in a good part of Seoul and there are many places to hang out in walking distance.
Good luck with whatever decision you decide to make! |
I'd send you a PM but I don't have 25 posts yet. I'm pretty sure we're working at the exact same place. Just to confirm, what floor did you work on? That will settle it.
Anyway, I don't know if I'll stay for the year or not. I've been staying at the school because I haven't really got a full paycheque yet and while I'd love to go to a PC Bang/wherever during my breaks, I simply don't have the $$$ in order to do it.
Maybe that will be the deciding factor. I'll see how much I get paid and how good my quality of life is afterward. I'll see if spending more time doing things I like in this area (playing games at PC Bangs or going to the gym) helps. I'll also see what happens to the hours. It's better to wait these things out then act too quickly.
I also wonder if getting a scooter would help. That would certainly cut down on the commute. |
If I remember correctly, I was on the fifth floor, but last I heard you guys moved up one floor to the sixth?
Right next to the the school there's a Starbucks, and next to that a Pascucci.
They probably didn't tell you this either, so just to warn you, your first paycheck will be tiny, probably under a million won, because they will take out both your first AND second month of rent, and only give you one housing allowance. Then, on your last check they won't take anything out for rent but they'll give you a month of housing allowance.
BTW, is the housing allowance still 200k? That's the other part of the job that sucks big time!
Anyway, I worked there from 2009-2010 and I'm not even in Korea anymore, so it doesn't matter to me what you decide to do.
Good luck in any event. |
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WaveFunction1984
Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Evanzinho wrote: |
If I remember correctly, I was on the fifth floor, but last I heard you guys moved up one floor to the sixth?
Right next to the the school there's a Starbucks, and next to that a Pascucci.
They probably didn't tell you this either, so just to warn you, your first paycheck will be tiny, probably under a million won, because they will take out both your first AND second month of rent, and only give you one housing allowance. Then, on your last check they won't take anything out for rent but they'll give you a month of housing allowance.
BTW, is the housing allowance still 200k? That's the other part of the job that sucks big time!
Anyway, I worked there from 2009-2010 and I'm not even in Korea anymore, so it doesn't matter to me what you decide to do.
Good luck in any event. |
Yes, my first paycheque was... well, almost nothing. They didn't tell me about that until I was about to get paid. Hopefully they don't do this again. The housing allowance is 10mil down and 200k. My apartment is worth 500k (it kinda has a loft) so my monthly payment is 300k. Also, they deduct 100k for the first three months as a deposit. It's rather painful.
I guess I'll stay with it unless it looks like I'm going to burn out. It seems that it is a good job if you can handle the schedule and I'm already pretty comfortable so I should just stick it out. Especially if the pay is worth it as I'm here to pay off loans this time. Next year I'll get a nice, relaxing, retirement-type job in Jeju as a way of re-cooperating, hahaha.
How did the overtime pay treat you? I worked about 30 hours overtime last month and I get my paycheque from that soon so I guess I'll know soon enough.
I wish they gave more than 10 vacation days per year... that's for sure. |
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chaz47
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:16 pm Post subject: |
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I'm enduring a rather similar situation at the moment. I was promised a much different schedule by the hiring director in Seoul then arriving at a branch in Busan and getting a hellish schedule. I have emails from the hiring director assuring me that this schedule wouldn't happen to me and lo and behold. The first few months I had class cancellations which afforded me at least 7 hours of sleep but now I work from 6am to 10pm with classes scattered throughout the day. So, yeah, often times not a significant enough amount of time to nap. It seems inhumane and it's not what I agreed to when I signed the contract. Unfortunately none of what the hiring director promised is in the contract.
I plan to leave the school ASAP. I'm sure it isn't any sort of maliciousness on the part of the branch that hired me it's just that they're cheap and want to work the few foreigners they have to death rather than hire one more. I could call the hiring director but I know he'll just tell me that he wasn't aware of the conditions at the branch I work at. Honestly though, the way the branch I work at tries to tightfist everything it makes me a bit nervous. Probably better to move on quickly anyway. |
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Evanzinho
Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Location: California
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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| WaveFunction1984 wrote: |
| Evanzinho wrote: |
If I remember correctly, I was on the fifth floor, but last I heard you guys moved up one floor to the sixth?
Right next to the the school there's a Starbucks, and next to that a Pascucci.
They probably didn't tell you this either, so just to warn you, your first paycheck will be tiny, probably under a million won, because they will take out both your first AND second month of rent, and only give you one housing allowance. Then, on your last check they won't take anything out for rent but they'll give you a month of housing allowance.
BTW, is the housing allowance still 200k? That's the other part of the job that sucks big time!
Anyway, I worked there from 2009-2010 and I'm not even in Korea anymore, so it doesn't matter to me what you decide to do.
Good luck in any event. |
Yes, my first paycheque was... well, almost nothing. They didn't tell me about that until I was about to get paid. Hopefully they don't do this again. The housing allowance is 10mil down and 200k. My apartment is worth 500k (it kinda has a loft) so my monthly payment is 300k. Also, they deduct 100k for the first three months as a deposit. It's rather painful.
I guess I'll stay with it unless it looks like I'm going to burn out. It seems that it is a good job if you can handle the schedule and I'm already pretty comfortable so I should just stick it out. Especially if the pay is worth it as I'm here to pay off loans this time. Next year I'll get a nice, relaxing, retirement-type job in Jeju as a way of re-cooperating, hahaha.
How did the overtime pay treat you? I worked about 30 hours overtime last month and I get my paycheque from that soon so I guess I'll know soon enough.
I wish they gave more than 10 vacation days per year... that's for sure. |
The overtime pay was 20k won for each 50 minute class that went over your 120 required hours, so...yeah, the overtime rate is the same as the regular time rate; do the math if you want.
The ten days of vacation is standard as far as hagwons go, and what's nice is that they allow you to chose which days you want off, although they need to sign off on it first.
They really need to raise the housing allowance up to 400k or 500k. You can't even rent a closet in Seoul for 200k won! |
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WaveFunction1984
Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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If the money doesn't reflect the circumstances (I'll know after a few paycheques) then I'll probably walk. I can't be bothered to slave away for a standard salary. The reason I'm even weighing this, though is because I have to make a huge dent in my student loans this year. If it weren't for those loans I would've quit already, taken the easy road and got an after school gig for four hours a day.
My base salary is 2.2 so we'll see how much that overtime adds up to. |
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WaveFunction1984
Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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If the money doesn't reflect the circumstances (I'll know after a few paycheques) then I'll probably walk. I can't be bothered to slave away for a standard salary. The reason I'm even weighing this, though is because I have to make a huge dent in my student loans this year. If it weren't for those loans I would've quit already, taken the easy road and got an after school gig for four hours a day.
My base salary is 2.2 so we'll see how much that overtime adds up to.
What I don't understand is, why don't they try to keep people? They design a system that has the highest turn over rate imaginable and there is very little incentive to stay. It seems kind of ridiculous to me. Why is it done like this?
I even directly asked my boss (he's a decent guy: this clearly isn't a local strategy). I brought it up in a meeting. We have a handful of teachers, so why can't half the teachers cover mornings to evenings (say 7am to 5/6pm) and the other half cover afternoons to evenings (noon to 10pm). That way a lot of teachers would stay and they'd keep in the quality. The only answer I could get was: "I see where you're coming from but no. That is impossible. Corporate would never allow that..."
As I said, if it weren't for the scheduling I'd probably stay at this job for years. I do, in fact, like this job. I just hate the scheduling.  |
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cyui
Joined: 10 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 8:52 am Post subject: |
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So you don't get breaks at all with these adult gigs? I would think 120 hours wouldn't be too undoable in context ( that only adds up to 32 hours a week/7 hours a day ( less then a public school); so once you could get routined out, it wouldn't seem that totally insane?
And don't forget you still have the full weekend days' off.
Housing allowance? Maybe this has to do with living in Seoul?
Anyways, Good Luck |
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RMNC
Joined: 21 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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| cyui wrote: |
So you don't get breaks at all with these adult gigs? I would think 120 hours wouldn't be too undoable in context ( that only adds up to 32 hours a week/7 hours a day ( less then a public school); so once you could get routined out, it wouldn't seem that totally insane?
And don't forget you still have the full weekend days' off.
Housing allowance? Maybe this has to do with living in Seoul?
Anyways, Good Luck |
He stated the same problem that most people have with adult hagwons, which is that he barely has time to go home and go to sleep. He has a 9 hour break between the time he leaves school and the time he needs to be at school. Add in an hour or travel and 30 minutes to go to bed and he can get at most 7.5 hours of sleep on a good day. He gets a break but has stated that he doesn't have enough time to do anything meaningful, another common complaint. |
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