Korean Job Discussion Forums

[docmoxie]

My fiance and I signed a contract with an elementary school Hagwon with a start date in June. Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside anyone's control, we had to push back our start date to late July.

The school is now asking that we book and purchase our flight. They say they will pay us back once we arrive. Prior to this schedule change, they were going to pay for everything themselves, up front.

For obvious reasons, this worries us. Is this a legitimate red flag? It would suck to have to redo all our paperwork, but it's better than getting roped into a scam.

Thanks.

[AnsanAnswers]

It's standard operating procedure for schools to reimburse you after you purchase the flight. So normally, I would say no. However, did they give you a reason why they now want you to pay for the flights? Did you speak to them on the phone or just via e-mail. It may be indicative of how they handle issues in the future.

I recently found myself in a bad hagwon situation and here are the pieces of advice I can give and may help you make your final decision:
- make sure you're working hours are listed in the contract. If they say you are going to work 9am - 6pm it should be listed in your contract, otherwise they can change it to whatever they want, whenever they want.

- make sure there isn't any ambiguous language in the contract. My current school's contract consistently negates itself with terms like, 'the contract shall be upheld unless the school changes (hours, class schedule, duties, etc.) offering us no protection.

- teaching hours should be specified in minutes. We were told a 'teaching hour' was 40 minutes, but it wasn't specified in our contract. When they wanted us to teach more classes without paying overtime, guess how long a teaching hour became; 60 minutes!

Feel free to ask any more specific questions. But overall, if you have any doubts, play it on the safe side and wait for something better to come along; I wish I had.

[Otherside]

For a Hagwon job, I would usually say that you should never pay upfront for the airfare. However, in this case, you have proven yourself to be a bit unreliable, as you changed the starting date. It's easy to see why the Hagwon may be a bit hesitant to pay upfront.

If the school has a good reputation, and this is the only blip on an otherwise decent job, I wouldn't let it hold you back. Perhaps you could negotiate with the school, and ask them to buy 1 ticket up front, and the other be reimbursed.

[Weigookin74]

Normal for a public school. Not so much for a hakwon. Maybe would consider for a large scale reliable chain that was offereing really great above average work conditions and more than your typical 2.0 million wage.

[Daelim]

If I was a hagwon owner, I would have done the exact same thing. You are lucky they even want to still hire you actually.

I would pay for my own in this case as a gesture of goodwill and then get it back once I arrived.

[ttompatz]

I have mixed feelings about this one.

They were going to prepay (as they should - reimbursement is NOT that common for hagwon jobs and I wouldn't usually even consider one that required it)

BUT

you changed the particulars of employment by a month .... I can understand their trepidation at buying tickets for someone who may not get on the plane.

Not a red flag to me for this one.

.