Korean Job Discussion Forums

[siwawalter]

1. Sick days, if you're sick -- are there substitute teachers? They were discussing about Japan, how in Japan if the teacher is sick, the kids just take over. They can't learn anything (well in a way they're learning how to be adults, but with materials they're not learning anything). They just sit and read or carry on with the schedule.

2. Sick days again, someone said you get 5 sick days. Are they strict about it? What if you're out for 2 weeks?

[Skippy]

Simply put sick days are offered but rarely given! This is true for Hagwons and Private institutes. Public schools are a little different, but being sick can raise some problems.

Also HAHAHA - trust some of these kids to sit and do some work. As soon as a responsible adult leaves the room. Every student is whipping out their handphone and checking messages or playing a game. If they have no phone - talk to a friend.

The problem is why they do not want to give sick days is you as a foreigner are specials you are the extra they sell as a service - Come learn English from a real live foreigner. Now if you get sick and they replace you with a Korean who does not have the special attribute they school will get in to trouble. Parents are paying good money for their kids to get a native speaker and they get a Korean. They want their waygook. Hagwons do not like refunding money.

Waygooks can not also be easily replaced at a moments notice or even for short times. There are no extra waygooks sitting around to fill your spot when needed. It can not be done legally because of immigration issues. Yes there are F-Series waygook visa holders but they will ask upwards of 40,000 won and more an hour and for a school to pay that for 6+ hours a day, can get expensive and cut a deep groove into profits. Plus most of those F2/5 have regular jobs and can not fill at a moments notice.

The above paragraph explains also why hagwons are so bloody difficult and orny about vacation days too. Vacation days are so similar to sick days. The teacher can not be replaced easily! It is either illegal or too bloody expensive or just can not be done. Once again somebody thinks they have 10 vacation days because it says so in the contract they say to the school I am going on one next month and they say NO. Because they can not fill your position. That is why most schools usually try to set up vacation days twice a year and at a certain times or even one day here and two days there. They are very reluctant to give a free reign on the time.

Koreans have some weird ass attitudes towards sickness. You come to school even if you are sick. Unless you are in a coma or on life support they will want you to come in. Actually if they could wheel you in and prop you up and turn on a tape recorder they would.

If you are sick for a long time - you will likely find yourself fired or let go! Some schools might be nice and give you thirty days notice, others will just say go and trump up some charges. Some schools might be okay she was sick used a sick day - ok, fine. We can merge classes together for a day or Mrs Kim teacher can teach today. That can do fine for a day. Want an extra second day - NO WAY. Three are joking! Five - are you dying. The school will be calling their recruiter demanding a refund because they sold them a defective foreigner. Those five sick days they offer they hope will be used here and there and hopefully never.

[Son Deureo!]

There are two places in Korea you are allowed to be if you are sick on a workday: at work or in the hospital. Taking a day off to rest at home is generally unacceptable, even if your contract allows for sick days. Some hogwons will even send someone to your house to check up on you/harass you into coming into work if you try it.

It's also pretty much inevitable that you'll get sick in your first couple of months of teaching at a hogwon. Exposure to hundreds of little children with viruses and bacteria your immune system has never encountered before pretty much clinches it.

[bombenhagen]

If you work at a larger Hagwon you might actually be able to take a sick day or two without too much of a fuss. The only issue is they will have to pay one of their other foreign staff overtime to cover you.

Best tip I can give anyone who is actually pretty sick in Korea is to show up for work and hope some of the other teacher's take pity on you and either cover your classes or tell the boss to send you home. Like someone said ahead of me, simply calling in sick isn't going to cut it.

[Skippy]

[schwa]

A Korean co-teacher of mine had tonsillitis this week, was in pain & could barely speak above a whisper. Her doctor had ordered rest but she borrowed a little microphone unit & soldiered on.

A foreign colleague came into work yesterday after a sleepless night of stomach pain & diarrhea. He didnt make an issue of it & felt better by the end of the day.

Thing is, unless you do need to be hospitalized, teaching is therapeutic. Your focus is diverted outward toward others & away from whatever ails you. Dwelling on symptoms only magnifies them.

[CPJ]

It all depends on whether there are enough teachers to cover your classes.

First you need to understand that the worst thing you could do to a school is not show up. Just think how you would feel if you don't get paid on payday and that is how your school is going to feel if you miss a day. Even if you do nothing and just sit in your classroom while the kids do worksheets, color, draw, play games or anything, the school would prefer that over you not being there.

So I always recommend that unless there are enough teachers to cover classes, show up unless you are in the hospital.

Classes are covered and the boss doesn't care. I've been in this situation before and it was always fine.

Not enough teachers to cover your classes and you're asking for some bad blood.

Why is that? Because they don't want kids going home and telling parents that there was no teacher today. Parents could get angry and change schools. This means your boss is going to lose money. As a result, the boss hates you. Just think that 1 student is worth about 3 million won a year to a school. Lose 10 students and that is 30,000,000 Won a year. That's what you make in salary. If someone was basically causing you to lose that much money, how would you feel towards them? When it came to the end of the contract and you had a chance for some payback, you would consider doing it.

[PatrickGHBusan]

The attitude towards sickness and work in Korea is pretty much what it was for my parents when they were working in Canada: people rarely took sick days, it was looked down on.

You need to be aware of this.

If you are seriously ill, then you need to take care of yourself. If you have the sniffles, using a sick day is a sure way to get in trouble.

Personally, I rarely miss work but thats just how I was raised. In the past 15 years I must have taken no more than 5 sick days. Sometimes I should have taken a day off but went to work anyway because their was just too much work to do.

So in Korea, if you have the sniffles, do yourself a favor and go to work. If you have a serious medical condition, consider the sick day.

What you cannot do is what many people back here in Canada are doing now: use sick days as days off. It works fine here, it will bomb on you big time in Korea.

[cadurling]

Okay come on now. We have sick days, they are for you to take when you are sick and they are there for a reason. People get sick, people get sick enough they're unable to work. In my 8 years here I've never worried about taking a sick day, and I've taken many. Really I could care less what my employer thinks of me taking a sick day. When I'm sick I'm not going to work and if they confront me at that time, they'll hear my displeasure when I'm well enough to talk. Guess it's been working well enough for me. Anyways if you're sick and want to please your boss go to work. If you're sick and want to get better stay home.
And really why should this be any different from anything in your contract? So next you're demanding medical, severance, pension, airfare! Forget about it. Oh I guess medical is definitely out of the question since it seems you can't get sick.

[sirius black]

[cadurling]

[some waygug-in]

Like many others here, we have discovered that it's less painful overall to "work sick" than to take a sick day or two and deal with all the repercussions that follow.

Yeah, you can get 'em, but you'll have to fight and fight and fight for them.
and have to pay for your replacement teacher etc.

Unless of course you're at a university or something. Public schools are a bit better in that regard, but it depends... I've heard of a few times NET's had to fight with either their co-teach or VP or someone else over taking even 1 sick day. *_*

One hagwon I worked at actually scolded me for not going to a staff dinner when I was in the midst of fighting off the flu. I was still teaching my classes because (as I had so frightfully discovered) if I took a sick day I had to pay my replacement double time out of my own pocket.

You call that "getting sick days", then I guess you can say you get them.

So yes, sick days are real...... a real pain in the @$%^& to get them and you have a good chance of spoiling relations with management.
(not that that's not going to happen anyway)

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

At public schools, most of us get 11 days. Last year I took 7 (I think) and was renewed. This year, I've taken 3 so far, and only have a few months to go. Take them when you need them.

My principal knows that I don't fake it. I went in to work with a serious stomachache the day before my winter holiday, and asked if I could go to the hospital after my camp classes finished. It turned out to be my appendix and I spent my time off either at the hospital or at home recovering.

Any time I'm off sick, I'm either home or at the hospital getting meds and returning home ASAP.

[Hyeon Een]

Taking sick days is WEAK. NYC girl mentioned taking *7* in her first year. I think that is insane. If you're that sick that often you should go live in a hospital or something. Seriously, there is something wrong with you if you need to take sick days that often. You're not a healthy person.

When I HAVE been sick, I've gone to work every time. Without fail. If you can get to the hospital, you can get to class. Period. Man up boys and girls. I've ended up in hospital twice due to ailments but it NEVER EVER affected me going to class.

Why not? (1) I'm not a selfrighteous 'entitled' pusssy. (2) It's bad for my students or my boss's business. I've been at a university for the last 4 years and my duty is to my students.. if I'm sick I should still go.. it'd mess up my syllabus if I didn't =)

Just because you have a cold (NO, you DON'T have 'the flu!'') doesn't mean you can't go to work. COWBOY UP.

[PatrickGHBusan]