Korean Job Discussion Forums

[angsta]

Has anyone worked for or left this company recently?

They run after school classes in the Bucheon area.

My buddy left 2 months ago and they have yet to refund his flight money or his severence pay. His contract stated it would be paid within 10 days of leaving the company. I have also heard rumours that a Korea teacher has also left recently and is still owed money.

Any info greatly appreciated.

[koreatimes]

Yes, they were probably my replacement if they moved in mid-March 2010.

Here is the history of what happened with me:

1. Manager 1 and I made a deal for me to earn a higher salary, but this wasn't in the contract.

2. After signing the contract and waiting for an appointment to see immigration for a visa transfer, manager 1 informs me she was leaving Okey Dokey in 2 months. I thought this might just be a test to see if I would do something like it. So, I pretended to not care and showed commitment to staying a full year. She noted she didn't like working for the company and wanted to do something else.

3. She actually did leave and was replaced by 2 part-time managers. One got married to a Canadian and I think has moved to Canada. The other was going to be the real replacement. To my surprise she also left. I text messaged asking her if the reason was that she was going to America (she expressed interest in America before). She messaged back no, and that she couldn't stand it any longer.

4. Up until manager 4, everyone upheld the agreements I made with the 1st manager. The 4th manager decided to make her own rules and told me I had to go into training sessions, which would be outside my working hours. In addition to this expectation, I had to pay for transportation, and I had to cover my co-teacher's classes when she went in for training.

I refused to do this and then it escalated to me coming into their office to work out leaving the school.

5. They also had an office worker who did most of the communication between the school and me when the co-teacher wasn't available. This person used my emails against me to make it look like I wanted to leave the school. However, I explicitly told managers 2 and 3 I DID NOT want to leave. They were trying to make it look like I resigned, so that I would have to leave immediately.

In the meeting, they drafted a letter with all the agreements I was going to do for them, but they put NOTHING in the letter that they would agree to do. Luckily, I had a friend who spoke Korean and I called her to talk with the owner. He told them to add the information regarding what they would do for me in exchange for me leaving.

6. My co-teacher also didn't like working there. She expressed interest in leaving and noted at least one other line of work. So, this could be argued that she didn't really like the kind of job.

7. When I emailed other teachers asking about the transportation situation and if they had to pay for it, I only got one reply from someone who appeared to be a teacher. I have no way to confirm this though. Basically, they saw no problem. However, they probably worked in Seoul and didn't have to travel as far. I taught near the airport and would have had to commute 1-2 hours extra. I felt I should be compensated for this.

It wasn't like a one off weekend training session. It was to be added to our regular schedule.

If I can help in any way, please let me know. The Okey Dokey group is not a good bunch of people.

[KingMomo]

Sounds like you got your answer.

Why would one want to work for a place
called 'Okey Dokey'?

Good work for holding the manager responsible.

[koreatimes]

[angsta]

AYKEC is the company name yet all the students and schools know it as Okey Dokey. I guess AYKEC is not that catchy?

The job itself is easy. You rarely see any management, the training days are now maybe every 4 months if at all and its not a hogwon so the kids are great. Sadly the managers are idiots and liars.

Hmmm maybe i'll see out my contract and leave them with a 2million won utility bill if they won't pay my severence.

[sing81]

I started work at an afterschool program also around the same time in the Budang area.

The children were obnoxious, unruly, and impolite. Most students didn't bring their books or show up to class on time. They would curse in English and get into fights. They never did homework. Many of them would just make noise in class and not pay attention, even when I played games with them. The program was stupid. They kept changing the schedule and never paid for supplies or gave the students rewards. I rewarded the students using my own money. Rarely did I get a thank you.

The school couldn't even afford heat, and one winter the lights didn't work. It was like being in a 3rd world country, where the people are poor but have no desire to improve themselves. They had broken chairs that the students had to sit on. Neither management nor the staff took pride in their jobs, as educators or Koreans. One of the Korean teachers was really stupid, rude, and couldn't speak English for sh@*! She acted like a racist caricature of an Asian woman. She never did any work. Another one had no clue of what was going on and occassionally had an attitude and talked sh@*. She was always talking about China and asking personal questions. Quite unprofessional. One day she was screaming on the phone to her mother really loudly. Also, both of their teaching sucked.

Management was so dumb and I got the feeling that the business was losing money, because towards the end everyone was in a panic. I think that they had a 3rd business partner who took advantage of the them and stopped paying them without notice. They were acting really weird, so I just quit. They didn't seem stable. My last day was on a Friday. They told me I had until Sunday to leave the apartment, but on Saturday night some strange man was in my place telling me to give him the key. When I said no, management called me and told me I needed to pay for staying there. I said fine because they hadn't given me my severance yet, but I had gotten paid. The man still kept telling me to give him the key. I think they wanted to lock me in the apartment. Suffice it to say I never did. But at the time it freaked me out, because management was really creepy and once talked about me marrying a Korean man and staying there to work for them for forever. Anyway, I left Korea without my severance, but I went back home. My dad has since helped me out financially, so the money isn't really important now. I am really lucky to have my family's support. Now, I am just glad I left safely. Those people were really trashy!

[sing81]

This wasn't even the worst of it.

[sing81]

The crap went so far. It was almost as if someone was paying for them to harass me, especially since it was at it's worst from September to March, the main part of any American university's academic school year. Perhaps an Asian history professor from my university; because I graduated with a 3.8 in 2.5 years but was never shown any interest as a grad student. If they were paid, it was for that reason. But of course all money is finite.

[The Floating World]

Please tell me this is a joke. No sane person would work for a place called 'okey dokey.'

ha ha ha ha ha

[Skipperoo]

It's not the worst name in the world. A place near me is named 'Toss English', I'm not sure if my transatlantic cousins use that word in the same way, but as a Brit I found it to be quite the thigh slapper.

[koreatimes]

[angsta]

AYKEC is the company name however it seems that they are making a habit of not paying severence and flight money.

I know my contract is directly with the school and AYKEC pay the balance of my wages seperately. Therefore they must be taking money from the school/EPIK and just not forwarding it to the teachers. A letter to the principle/EPIK would seem the way forward.