Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lifeinkorea]

wow, people are getting wound up over just one day. Too funny.

[shifty]

[lifeinkorea]

I think if you are trying to get 1 day off in addition to the weekend, you aren't doing that badly.

Of course other teachers will have to teach for you. Then, when they aren't around you teach their classes.

Why is this such a bad thing?

The only places in the past 8 years (Japan, Korea, and China now) that the teachers objected to taking time off were the ones who were brainwashed slaves working for peanuts at a language factory. Call it eikaiwa for Japan, hagwon/academy for Korea, or training school in China. It's all the same.

If you can't find sensible teachers who take time off to enjoy life, then most likely you need to find another school.

Here's a funny example. In February, I quit a school in China because my hours rose from 20-25 to 35 without overtime pay. The only other teacher at the school didn't understand the difference between 40 hours back in the US and 40 hours here in ESL teaching world. So, she had no problem with teaching 40 classes. When I left though, this bumped her hours up. Eventually, she learned (after I left) and quit also. The school is nice but the owner has no concept of scheduling and managing. He thinks if he works for his business 60 hours, so should everyone else.

When I went to get my stuff from the school last week, I saw the schedule and noticed the new teacher had less hours scheduled. Maybe this was a result of us quitting and the owner realizing he can't use teachers like he did. Last year he managed things better. A third teacher took a month off to take his son back to the US. Then the teacher who quit after me went to the US for Thanksgiving (1 week at least). We were happier and worked more hours when we were around. A 4th teacher was there as well, so the workload wasn't as bad. But then the third and fourth left, and the school did nothing to hire other teachers.

Flexibility among the teachers is what brought us to 2011, lack of it made all of us quit. Now, he only has 1 other teacher at the moment who has no other place to work at because she is in a wheelchair now. I had to give her my apartment because she needed a place real close to the school.

If he does the same to her he did with us, she'll be leaving too when she can walk. I can't believe it's gotten to that stage, but that is what school owners will do when teachers work, work, work. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it."