Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Captain Corea]

[12ax7]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[shifty]

[Paddycakes]

[itistime]

[Steelrails]

You know given that it's an election year in the U.S. and how political everyone on this board is, I'm surprised I've seen nothing in my 3 years about 'public vs. private' and how the private market (hagwons) is as much like a socialist kleptocracy as anything. You'd figure the leftists on here would be ramming it down people's throat.

Sorry, but as an employee and even as a consumer if I'm looking at public vs. private, I have to lean public. Granted, elite private is best, but McHagwon private is more likely to be trash than public.

And what in the world is Troy Media or whatever it was...? Sounds like the Canadian news version of Bleacher Report.

And look at the people working for them....It's like Elaine's bad boyfriends from Seinfeld...Either that or a bunch of diddler mugshots from the cop shop's books...I wouldn't give directions if they asked me to any of those people..."Hey can you tell me where Glenview Elementary School is?" I kid I kid, I'm sure they're fine folks...but man...

http://www.troymedia.com/about-2/about/

[Stout]

[cfile2]

[Unposter]

If I may be serious for a momment...

Let's cut to the heart of the matter: this is not about quitting (a human right), it is about not giving notice.

Now, why are some people not giving notice? As an academic, I don't know. But, I can take a guess or make a hypothesis: it is because the person for whatever reason does not believe that he or she will be treated fairly if they do, doesn't feel confident that they can resolve a dispute and he or she feels an even larger sense of "lack of control" because they are in a foreign country without their normal safety net that they are used to.

Now, what is the saying - I forget - something like - the repetition of a mistake is insanity.

Midnight runs are nothing new in the Hakwon business. It has probably gone on since there have been native English speakers in hakwons. Either you change your management style or you accept it as a potential business loss.

Now, this has nothing to do with crednetials but it does have to do with hiring and training. Now, you can hire fresh off the boat or the first person with a white face you see and just throw the person in a classroom and say here is a book (if you are lucky), your an English teacher now teach or you can do something sane.

If you have had problems with people leaving - the writer of the "blog" reports - what? - 3 people have done a midnight run in less than a year - I mean what is the other side of that? - you can either keep doing what you are doing or you can change.

You can itnerview the person. You can talk to the person about the difficulties of living in another country. You can quiz them and see if they are really up to it or if they are just saying yes to what you say. While doing research is all fine and dandy, how can I say it is wrong, but if your employer is not preparing you for what their previous employees difficulties, then they are just not doing their jobs or they are trying to scam you and milk you for whatever they can get out of you until leave on the next midnight run.

If that employer is not interviewing the next person they want to hire and say listen the last person here had difficulties with A, B and C and if you don't think you can do that than you are not the right fit for this position.

Again, I don't know what the numbers are - one of the biggest problems with this field is that these sort of things aren't researched - is I bet between 0% and 10% of any hakwon, public school or university interviews and trains their employees in this manner.

This "blog" was terribly written - not because of its nouns and verbs - but because its content was severely lacking. There are so many open questions there such as: 1) why did the previous people leave without notice? 2) How often does this happen? 3) What is the company (hakwon) doing about it? 4) What policies are in place to help the employees adjust to another country and culture? The list could go on...that I as an editor would have sent the writer back to find out and address before I let such a stinker be published. Its disgraceful IMHO.

Anyway, good luck with it all...

[Steelrails]

As for runners and whatnot- Young people are stupid.

Anyone with half a brain knows to research things fully before you jump in and not to believe some pamphlet schpiel hook, line, and sinker.

Seriously, who in the world hops half way around the world to some place without any clue of the language, culture, food, customs, practices, etc. etc. and with little to no background in education, to work in a place they've never even heard of or talk to anyone who works there?

Now that doesn't excuse evil Hagwon bosses, but I seriously wonder about these people and what went through their heads.

To paraphrase Dark Helmut: Evil will always triumph if good is dumb.

[maximmm]

[repeatpete]

The one strength which labour has always had is to withdraw it.
Saying this is 'wrong' or 'immoral' is daft.