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Trikeboy
Joined: 13 Nov 2009
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 Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:17 pm Post subject: Advice required re heat teacher role |
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| I work at a fairly successful hagwon and found out we are getting a fputty foreign teacher. The director told me he was happy with my work and said that he feels he can't manage all the teachers and offered me a position as head teacher over the foreign teachers. From the way he spoke it doesn't sound like I will get a pay increase with it and he said we can discuss the responsibilities after I say yes. Would anyone take that? |
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Kaypea
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:26 pm Post subject: |
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What's an 'fputty foreign teacher'?
As for the job, you'll probably be some kind of liason between the Korean staff and foreign teachers. It might suck. The staff might be mad at you if the teachers are acting up or something... I mean, it wouldn't be logical, but it happens.
If you'll do the job, try to get fewer teaching hours. Maybe it'll be ok. |
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Trikeboy
Joined: 13 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Ooops, that was supposed to be fourth. I wrote that and this on my iPod touch. Thanks for the advice. |
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iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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You know the school best, but I'd probably say no if it didn't include a hefty pay raise:
Hakwon owners sometimes try to put in place a buffer between themselves and the staff so they can turn the screws on them. I've seen and heard of this happening several times - turning a good place to work into a horrible one. The owners feel pressured when staff can take their complaint directly to them, but with a buffer, they feel they can start managing the institute the way they always wanted - which is to treat them more the way they can get away with treating Korean workers.
If you are that buffer, you could easily end up having to listen to angry co-workers about policies you don't agree with yourself and have no real authority to make changes.
The same goes if you have troublesome foreigners on the staff. Such positions in hakwons often don't come with any real authority. You are more a messenger - usually of news nobody wants to hear....
Again, without a couple hundred extra a month, I'd probably turn it down... |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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| iggyb wrote: |
You know the school best, but I'd probably say no if it didn't include a hefty pay raise:
Hakwon owners sometimes try to put in place a buffer between themselves and the staff so they can turn the screws on them. I've seen and heard of this happening several times - turning a good place to work into a horrible one. The owners feel pressured when staff can take their complaint directly to them, but with a buffer, they feel they can start managing the institute the way they always wanted - which is to treat them more the way they can get away with treating Korean workers.
If you are that buffer, you could easily end up having to listen to angry co-workers about policies you don't agree with yourself and have no real authority to make changes.
The same goes if you have troublesome foreigners on the staff. Such positions in hakwons often don't come with any real authority. You are more a messenger - usually of news nobody wants to hear....
Again, without a couple hundred extra a month, I'd probably turn it down... |
Bolded for truth -- I would bet my shoes that this is exactly what will happen. I've taken similar positions myself at a couple of different schools, and it is a lot of headaches from both sides. Personally, the troublesome foreigners on staff cause me more grief than the administration, but then, I actually had more power in my relations with admin -- they wanted to keep me.
You'll go to bat for foreign teachers behind the scenes, but when you deliver unwelcome news, those teachers you defended will act like you are the enemy. Some people are wise and mature enough to know that crap rolls downhill, and recognize the spot you are in with the position, but people with that wisdom and maturity seldom CAUSE the problems that require head teacher interaction/intervention. You'll have to deal with entitled morons, fragile egos, overblown self-images, and lots and lots of culture shock. In my first go at head teacher, in Seoul, it was common for me to get drunken, 3 am phone calls from teachers that were having a hard time coping with the change. I felt like a camp counsellor a lot of the time.
Without a decrease in class hours and/or a noticeable bump in pay, I would say to run far run fast. Even WITH those things, be aware that your stress level will at least triple -- your own stuff, stuff from the teachers' side, stuff from the administration's side, and the new stuff from your interactions with both sides. You will perpetually be in the middle, and will be a side unto yourself. |
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DaHu
Joined: 09 Feb 2011
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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Whatever you do, never go to bat for the foreign teachers. Tell them you are, but don't do it. The bosses will NOT appreciate it and you will be the one stuck in the middle.
There's no effect you could make anyway. |
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thegadfly
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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| DaHu wrote: |
Whatever you do, never go to bat for the foreign teachers. Tell them you are, but don't do it. The bosses will NOT appreciate it and you will be the one stuck in the middle.
There's no effect you could make anyway. |
I respectfully disagree -- but I must admit that what DaHu advises is certainly EASIER.
My bosses may not have "appreciated" it, but they DID respect it. The teachers themselves, however, neither appreciated nor respected it, possibly because they were unaware that it was happening. When my efforts were successful, the teachers heard nothing about it, and when they were unsuccessful, they were given news they did not want to hear, and blamed the messenger (me).
It IS possible to have an effect, but as I said, it isn't easy, and it will often be frustrating. Some effects are easier to enact than others.... |
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BigBuds
Joined: 15 Sep 2005
Location: Changwon
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:24 am Post subject: |
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At many places in Korea a pormotion is considered a change in theeir job title to show the promotion without the raise in salary the rest of the world would expect with a promotion.
I've had this crap put on me and told them sorry but no thanks. I'm not going to do a pile of extra work with out getting paid for it, nice try though. |
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