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openning
Joined: 03 Jul 2012
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 Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:56 am Post subject: |
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| YTMND wrote: |
I understand the situation. You don't need to keep rewording it. You have one day allotted for vacation time.
I am saying if the other teachers agree, you might be able to change the schedule to the way you want.
Your contract should have stated something to indicate you wouldn't have blocks of vacation time. Overtime during the holidays is usually the indicator you won't be able to go anywhere.
If the school is closed one day a week, then it seems like you need to find work on the other days. There are adult classes that can be taught in the morning and at night. There are kindergarten classes that can be taught in the morning and early afternoon. Elementary school children can be taught in the afternoon, and middle school/high school students can be taught from the afternoon through the evening.
This is common sense stuff and has nothing to do with the schools or number of schools I have taught at. Every school I have worked at operates like this. One farmed teachers out to public schools, but the point is we all taught at various times.
You say you did research, but the one thing you need is a sample schedule. You apparently didn't ask them for a copy of their current schedule.
I would have been wary about the job after seeing a copy. The school is only open for 5 or so hours a day? That is not good for business.
Surely, you got better offers. They must charge twice the cost for classes in order to afford paying for the business. I would question the owner on why they want to operate this way, and it is something you should have asked upfront during the interview. Not knowing the schedule is not knowing about the job. Plain and simple. |
I really don't think you do understand the situation... I'm not sure where you got the idea of 5 hours a day... the hagwan is open from 9:30 to 6:30... pretty standard, and the teachers all have the same schedule more or less. We get a few breaks during the week, but for the most part we are all teaching classes at the same time.
And the other teachers agreeing to change the schedule wouldn't make a difference because we don't make the schedule.
And I did ask for a sample of the schedule, I knew the basic outline of the schedule before I came. You keep assuming I didn't do research, I did... I asked all the questions I should have asked, except for one, which I didn't know I needed to ask because it didn't ever occur to me that anyone would decide to break up anyone's vacation time like this. |
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openning
Joined: 03 Jul 2012
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| Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:05 am Post subject: |
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| YTMND wrote: |
We may not have the full story also because the original poster did state that they would want to leave immediately, but Christmas is not till 3.5 months from now. Wouldn't you rather collect on about 7 million first? I would. Something else is brewing I suspect. |
The only reason I would want to leave immediately is because I would want my contract to end in August of 2013... I timed my arrival in Korea with that in mind.
When I was here last time, every hagwan I knew of (the one I worked at, of course, and the others that friends of mine worked at) closed for a week in the winter and a week in the summer so that their teachers could have a holiday. My hagwan, and most of the others (but not all) timed their winter holiday to coincide with Christmas (which actually ended up being a bit of a rip off because they included Christmas day in our 10 days), but the summer holiday was timed specifically to avoid the school holidays so we could have intensive classes at the hagwan. This is what I expected. The school I am at does do winter and summer intensives, and I was aware of that and anticipated it, but it appears that they never close down, except for one day at a time. This just well... upsets me, because it seems designed to make sure that their foreign teachers (the Korean staff get a seperate contract, I'm sure) can't really ever do anything interesting with their holiday. |
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YTMND
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Location: You're the man now dog!!
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| Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| can't really ever do anything interesting with their holiday |
I up your ante and I raise you September, October, and November.
1. Why are you bitching and moaning about September?
2. Why are you bitching and moaning about October?
3. Why are you bitching and moaning about November?
Work those three months, earn your 6.0 million AT LEAST and then leave.
If Christmas matters so much to you, leave.
We really don't need ya. |
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openning
Joined: 03 Jul 2012
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| YTMND wrote: |
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| can't really ever do anything interesting with their holiday |
I up your ante and I raise you September, October, and November.
1. Why are you bitching and moaning about September?
2. Why are you bitching and moaning about October?
3. Why are you bitching and moaning about November?
Work those three months, earn your 6.0 million AT LEAST and then leave.
If Christmas matters so much to you, leave.
We really don't need ya. |
Okay, it's like you're being deliberatly obtuse.
I don't care if it's a Christmas holiday or not... that doesn't matter one iota to me. What I care about is that I don't get a holiday of any substance. At all. One day in the middle of the week is not a holiday. That is what is bothering me. I don't know how I could possibly be more clear in my complaint. I don't care when I get my week, I just care that I get a week off to do something with. It would be nice if it was Christmas, but that is not the important part to me.
I like Korea, I like teaching here, I came back after 6 years because I wanted to be here. I want to be here for a year. I don't want to teach for 3 months and leave the country. To teach at my current hagwan for 3 months and leave and sign another year long contract would leave me probably having to leave another job early. I timed my arrival so I could be here for a year and easily transition back to my life back home. |
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YTMND
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Location: You're the man now dog!!
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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| What I care about is that I don't get a holiday of any substance. |
You expect them to give you one right off the plane? Normally, you have to work a few months first. Christmas wasn't the only time I thought of either but it fits. You work a few months, you take your time off you need, you come back with a new school.
Are you saying you want an immediate vacation now?
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| One day in the middle of the week is not a holiday. |
If you leave in December, then you get your long vacation and these Wednesdays off? Doesn't that sound better? Think it out.
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| I don't want to teach for 3 months and leave the country. |
Then you really shouldn't be getting a job teaching ESL in Korea then.
You stated earlier, "I had already been planning to use one of my holidays to go and visit some of my family"
That would mean you would have to leave the country (assuming your relatives are not of Korean descent).
It's set up so that if you are going back home, you work a few months BEFORE taking a long holiday (if the school provides one).
What difference does it make if you go home in December and come back with another school? If you must, quit in August next year. I really don't see the problem.
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| I timed my arrival so I could be here for a year and easily transition back to my life back home. |
If you are not willing to bend, then stop whining and leave. It's a done deal, this job. Move on or do as I suggested.
You seem to be acting like a cry baby who didn't get their way. I am sorry it didn't work out for you the way you wanted. I am sorry you don't have the vacation days all aligned the way you want, but this is a job. The point is to work, not to look forward to your "week" off.
Maybe you just aren't ready yet. |
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PRagic
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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"...I assumed that that would mean..." As soon as I saw this, I figured things were going south.
Truth be told, a LOT of hakwons structure vacation time like yours. Still, you'll also be getting Chusok and Solnal dates off. I agree with a previous poster that you should stick this contract out. They've acted in good faith from what you've described. Do the year, take vacation with everyone else at your hakwon, and then have yourself a helluva time at the end of your contract. Take a month to travel around if you want.
You're old enough to know that you made the mistake, not them, so just suck it up and do the year. The hours look ammenable to a decent life style, and you'll get some time off over the course of the year. No biggie. Next time around, don't assume anything! |
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Gorf
Joined: 25 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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I'm amazed people actually expect to get their vacation set up in blocs these days. Some do, but I'd like to think that most don't. I would fully expect that most schools don't do it, as a matter of business.
I still don't quite understand why you really, really need to have vacation blocks. Do you have some kind of NEED to travel to another country and that's the only way to make time? Or you HAVE to go home? I'm just curious as to what the motivation behind this need is. |
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