Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IPayInCash]

I'll say this: In all my years here I've YET to meet another foreigner that got EVERYTHING owed to them over the duration of a contract other than myself. I'm talking paid on time, NHIC, pension, severance, PREPAID flight and other amounts owed in the contract (housing deposit, et al.).

I still to this day think I must have hit the jackpot with first job in Korea, at a hagwon. You're basically rolling the dice by going with a hagwon, and the odds aren't good.

[Who's Your Daddy?]

I've worked at several hogwons and was always given everything contracted. I think bad hogwons are actually a small loud minority.

[Juregen]

[Beeyee]

[dg7104]

My hogwan was good, but typically you should expect the same format:

Long hours.
No intention of honoring your 10 days of yearly vacation.
Flip-flopping hogwan owners to change the rules daily to appease parents.
No sick days ever.
No ability to alter or complain about working conditions.
Instability of the school.
Possibility of them threatening not to pay you.

I would suggest Taiwan. A friend of mine left Korea after 1 year, and has stayed in Taiwan for 6 years now. He will never come back to Korea, and regrets even spending a year there.

[augustine]

I have no doubt that there are good hagwons out there, but the only real positive hagwon experiences I've ever heard about personally were coming from pretty delusional individuals. The cake after school jobs I got after that put all of those stories to shame. I did the hagwon monkey job for a few months, and I'm of the opinion that it's not worth the risk, generally speaking. I only stayed in Korea because I kept getting handed ridiculously easy jobs with no supervision. Paid to be lazy. When I tried to go legal, the company went under, and I got stuck with the payments. I've resorted to blackmail twice here and it has allotted me over a month of cumulative paid vacation; part of which I've been enjoying since finding out this Monday. If these pancake faces are dicking you over, a threat can go a long way. From my experience, they get worried about saving face and start throwing out concessions. Fortunately, a lot of these shady companies/hagwons know that they can get pimp slapped by the labor board and will concede if you push them hard enough. I threatened the last two companies I worked for like a beast and they basically just handed me free money and paid vacation to keep my mouth shut about their shady business dealings. It caused me some inconvenience but I couldn't believe how fast they caved and catered to me. As one person I knew put it, they're the "Jews of Asia" and, I like Jews, but I'm pleasantly awaiting my exit. This is a ridiculous country, a corrupt borg collective. Happy that I only bent slightly over momentarily at the beginning but never spread the cheeks.

[kingkong9]