Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JaquanQuentinJackson]

I arrived in town Tuesday for my new job and when my boss took me to my apartment and opened the door, I couldn't believe the mess. Despite being what would be considered a small apartment even by Korean ESL standards, there were a lot of chairs and tables. There were even tables stacked on top of tables. There was clothing hanging up and tons of empty bottles and cans all over the place. Plus, the place was just straight up filthy. I asked my boss, "Do I have a roommate?" I don't have a roommate. It just ends up some Canadian named Duncan left the place in squalid condition and the hagwon didn't make any effort to clean it up. I slept on the floor that night since the bed looked unsanitary, and I continue to sleep on the floor.

I really think most teachers would've pulled a runner, but more than anything in the world, I wanted to visit my Korean girlfriend (in another town) on Saturday, so I went ahead and worked through the week. The foreign and Korean teachers at the hagwon are surprisingly extremely friendly and cool, which I didn't expect given the conduct of the departed Duncan.

There was a bug problem and an odor problem when I slept Tuesday night and when I opened the refrigerator door, gnats flew out and the odor made me vomit except no food came up. I asked my boss what to do about all of the chairs, tables, fridge, and so on. She said I could set the chairs out, but said that I would want to keep the fridge. I explained the problem in detail, about the bugs and odor, and I'm assuming she wanted me to keep the fridge so she wouldn't have to buy a new one.

When I got off from work, I immediately started moving junk out. I moved the loveseat into the breezeway of the apartment building, then most of the chairs and tables and one of the shelving units. I was so glad to get the fridge out of there too. At that point, I was tired and went to the store to get some cold juice and while I was there I also bought some cleaning supplies. When I went back to my apartment building, about 20 minutes later, there was still a lot of gnats in the elevator from when I had used it to move the fridge from my floor to the bottom floor. The next item to go was the bed. The upper mattress wasn't so bad, but the lower one smelled of urine.

Now, the apartment is mostly empty, except for a chest of drawers, two chairs, a table that I use for my laptop, and the TV and its stand. The apartment is still very, very filthy though. Where the fridge sat and where the adjacent shelving unit stood, there's so much gunk, dirt, tar, and debris it's unbelievable. There's even some money down in the filth, but it's too filthy even for me to fish the money out.

Given how filthy the linoleum is, I'm wanting to rip it out and put down a new layer. When I told my boss, she sounded like she wasn't too keen on the idea. Another teacher even went to bat for me and told her it wasn't all that expensive.

I went out of town to visit my girlfriend on Saturday and it was one of the best days of my life. This girl and her sister put forth an unbelievable amount of hospitality. When I was at their pristine apartment, one thought that entered my mind was how utterly embarrassed I would be for them to see my apartment.

So now I'm trying to figure out what to do and say tomorrow when I arrive at work. I'm definitely going to cut out the really nasty portion of linoleum and take it to work so all of the teachers, foreign and Korean alike, can see that I'm not some princessy bitchboy afraid of a single speck of dust, but that there are genuinely serious problems at my place.

I'm thinking about going to work with my packed up suitcase and carry on, along with the linoleum sample, and giving the boss a won figure such as 3,300,000 won that has to be paid before I teach another class. The 3.3 being a payment that has to be made for it to be worth it for me to live in such filth and squalor. An ultimatum pretty much. I really feel like I deserve some compensation for all of the labor I've put into cleaning the apartment so far in addition to the money I've spent on cleaning supplies. But the bottom line, it actually would take 3.3 million won for me to stay. Otherwise, it's just not worth it. Another thing I'm going to demand is to not pay the 500,000 won apartment deposit that's in the contract since it's apparently meaningless anyway. The hagwon doesn't pay pension, so I might factor that into the overall ultimatum price tag too, since I find it repulsive that she's embezzling that money but still can't pay a janitor to clean the apartment between teachers.

I'll let you know how it goes. If anyone has any advice, I'm interested in reading it.

[HarryMorgan]

Wowsers.

Unless you are South African, from what I've read, your hagwon HAS to pay pension. It's not an option for them not to do so. You have seemingly walked into a situation where you are going to be screwed at every turn. Do you have back up documents or is the hagwon holding your passport? I think the terms "pension office" and "labor board" should be things to bring up to your boss before this goes any further. You're probably getting the run around in more ways than one.

What a great introduction to Korea, sheesh. Hope you're able to sort this mess out.

[pkang0202]

You could've saved yourself a lot of trouble and hired a professional "steam cleaning" service to come to your place and sanitize the whole thing.


Good luck getting 3.3 million from your job. I give you a 0.000000000001% chance that you will actually get it.


What I would've done in your situation is had the employer pay for a professional cleaning service to steam clean the entire place. Probably would've cost a couple hundred bucks. They would've done it while you were at your gf's place.


Instead of asking for 3.3 mil, I would go to your boss and ask for them to hire a professional steam cleaning crew to clean your place. But, if you insist, go ahead. Demand 3.3 million from your hagwon boss. Because that will go over real well.

The first thing a business owner likes to see is a new employee demanding an extra month's pay right off the bat as incentive to stay.

[jrwhite82]

First, I hope Duncan is a member of this forum. Because I would love to hear what he has to say about his disgusting living habits.

Second, you are being a bit of a...how did you put it? Princess bitchboy? Sorry, but dirt never killed anyone. Except for landslides of course.

I'm not saying that you are wrong in not wanting to live in such a condition, but you are going about it in totally the wrong way. The school and coworkers seem nice enough, so instead of throwing a hissy fit and demanding money, why don't you just demand a cleaning lady.

3,300,000W for cleaning an apartment? Where did you come to that laughable figure. Instead of cutting up the floor, why don't you just take a picture?

Hiring a team of ajumma's to come clean your place should run the school no more than 100,000W and they will do a remarkable job.

Also, did you throw out the fridge after your director specifically told you not to? You should be paying for that. I'm sure it's nothing a little elbow grease and cleaning spray could have cleaned up.

So you signed a contract and now are going to demand not to follow the rules of the contract you signed. Ok....

The director has to pay pension and insurance, regardless if it's in a contract or not.

You have to be trolling.

[minos]

It's normal to leave an apartment dirty for the next person...some old superstition.

You wanna talk bad, I bought a place being renovated.....good rent, but the owner is an old, senile man who did the crappiest renovation possible...himself....can't even argue myself out of that one....

[JaquanQuentinJackson]

The boss was definitely aware of the filthy apartment Tuesday evening because she was the one who was with me when I first entered the apartment. How long does it take for a school to line up a janitorial service? Because it has been five days now. If you factor in the time since Duncan left, it has been over a month.

I don't have a camera and I'm not going to buy one just to take a photo of filth. Besides, I'll be doing the next teacher a favor by getting that section of linoleum out of here.

I slept one night with gnats and other insects coming out of their nest (the fridge) and flying around the apartment and even onto my body. I didn't throw away the fridge that night. I informed my boss on Wednesday about the issue with the insects and odor coming from the fridge. If she would've replied, "Oh, that's just awful. I'm sorry and will get it taken care of," then maybe it could've ended differently. But to reply, "You want to keep the fridge," and then changing the subject was the wrong answer.

I have to say I'm surprised that teachers would've kept the fridge and urine soaked mattress, expecting a team of ajummas to eliminate the odors. I've read a lot of posts on Dave's where teachers have complained about "racist" Koreans moving away from them on the subway, but after seeing and smelling this apartment and reading some of these replies, I can only conclude that the Koreans are moving away from some of you guys for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with racism. Urine and insects may be acceptable to you, but they're not acceptable to me, and they're not acceptable to most Koreans either.

I agree the 3.3 million won ultimatum has virtually no chance of success, but when your bags are already packed and you have nothing to lose, it's worth a shot. I'll let the next unfortunate teacher move into this filthy, but improved apartment.

[hogwonguy1979]

If I was your director I'd laugh in your face when it comes to your demand of 3.3 mil won to keep you there, there are 100 other people who will take the job right now.

now that doesnt mean you have to live in filth, get a hotel for a few nights (40k/night maybe bet there are some love hotels in the area), hire a cleaning service (maybe 100-200k) they will scrub the place so good you'll be able to do surgery on the floor, get rid of the fridge, go to a used store and get one for under 100k, same with other furniture. i'd give him the bill for that so you are looking at 600-800k, mill tops to get the place in excellent shape

now the not paying pension is a whole other story, he has to enroll you in pension and nhic and if he doesnt tell him you will report him to pension and nhic, they will tell him to do it. of course in this job market and based on what i've seen from posters here, he still may laugh in your face and get some newbie who wont mind that for a job

[JaquanQuentinJackson]

If I do all of that and hand her the bill, she's going to laugh in my face anyway. After five days, it is very obvious she is not going to lift a finger or spend one won to do anything for this apartment. The only money and effort up to this point has come from me and only me. I was foolish to spend any money, but I don't regret it since I'm still living here and will be sleeping here tonight, and have managed to reduce the odors by 85% or so and 100% of the insects.

I don't care if she has a replacement or 100 of them. There was actually over a month between the previous teacher and myself, but the bottom line is that I've worked hard to get the apartment shaped up to where it currently is and would just like for her to meet me halfway, which obviously is not going to happen. I've spent many hours and around 30,000 won so far on cleaning supplies, but I've done all I'm going to do. She can laugh tomorrow and I won't be laughing, but at the end of the day, I'll be at my girlfriend's clean apartment and she'll be shelling out a million won to Korean Air for a replacement teacher for the second time in less than a week.

[Evanzinho]

Where are you getting this 3.3 million won from? Is three a lucky number for you or something?

To those of you recommending a steam cleaning service, can you give more info about this service? I would be interested in something like this for my apartment, to just clean the place from top to bottom. Thanks.

[JaquanQuentinJackson]

After talking with my girlfriend, it's looking like I'll be living with her and commuting to my current job until I get a different job lined up. Since it's a long commute, I'll still probably sack out here a couple of nights a week, but at least I won't have to "live" here, thank God and her.

[JaquanQuentinJackson]

[pkang0202]

I would've gotten someone to clean the apartment on day 1, no later than day 2. The fact you sat on your behind and did nothing shows you are lazy.

The only thing I am reading in your post is excuses and finger pointing. It seems like you are doing all the wrong things and refusing to find a solution that would be agreeable to everyone. You are just thinking about yourself and expect else (your boss, gf, coworkers) to bend over backwards for your sake.


If your place was so filthy and uninhabitable, then why don't you get professional cleaners to clean it? A brand new super-single bed with frame can be bought on GMarket, DELIVERED, for like $80.

The total cost for making your apartment clean with a new bed would've been like $300. That amount, your hagwon boss would pay. But no, you want to be Mr. Badass and demand 3.3 million while trying to get everyone's sympathies on here.

[koreatimes]

"Hey, this is Duncan. Why you messing around with my stuff and my roommates in the fridge? I told the school I would be back in 2 weeks, I don't want to come back home to some pigsty. Put everything back or else I am demanding 2.3 million in damages and 1.0 million in pain and suffering."

[Gorf]

Why didn't you just tell your employers to bring in some cleaning people?

[matthews_world]

Get some Swiffer Jets for the floor, some paper towels and some cleaner you are gold.