Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chronicpride]

HE DID IT!!!

Textin started 4 threads on M and M!!!

(earth rumbles...rocks begin to fall from the ceiling...Indiana Jones grabs the idol from the pedestal and turns to run...)

[prosodic]

Chronic,

we both lost count. Look at the thread titled "Labour Board Location??" That makes 5. Count them, 5 threads about the same incident.

[chronicpride]

5? oh..ok..I think 5 posts on the same related issue by the same guy...means...(flips thru dusty old book)...the Necronomicon resurrects the Deadites. I'll solve this. Klatoo...Veratah...cough-cough-cough

[prairieboy]

Labour board or Small Claims court. Get moving now, don't wait any longer. Line up a new job.

Good luck.

[howie2424]

Prosodic's point should be well taken. There are ways to say things and then there are ways to say things. Gord needs to consider that.

Having said that it seems to me that he makes a very good point. Faced with this situation it seems to me the OP had 3 choices.

1. Sit down with the owner and say 'ok, you want me to work here PT, fine, as long as you agree to give me written permission to work at another school when I'm not working here. Why would the owner say no? Result? OP makes 800K at his original job and picks up another PT gig, 10 hours a week at 35K an hour. Total mothly income? 2.2 mil for 20 hours a week, free apartment and plane ticket. Not bad anywhere.

If Owner says no, proceed to option '2"

2. Tell his hagwon owner he is in breach of the contract, demand a release letter, which he's clearly entitled to and if one is not forthcoming pursue the matter with immigration. Result? OP gets his release letter finds another FT job at 1.9 - 2.0 mill, free apartment and plane ticket. Result? Exactly what he came here looking for, less a couple weeks pounding the pavement. Not as good as option (1) but not bad for getting f'd in Korea.

3. Go immediately to Dave's ESL cafe, post 5 threads whining about how Korean ESL recruiters are spineless and put his fate in the hands of the Korean government, who, as we all know, are infamous for their undying commitment to assisting foreigners. Result? Labour Board cannot, I repeat, cannot force his hagwon owner to give him 30 hours a week so the result is nil.

The OP chose option 3. Hmmmmm.

There are times when this board is an appropriate place to vent about various things. This was not one of them. If the OP was thinking, his single thread on this board should have been 2 weeks ago and along the lines of 'here's what happened? What should I do about it?' He could have gotten some helpful advice. Instead of utilizing the wisdom available here, he pursued his own course of action and when that failed he chose to post multiple self therapeutic threads about how hard done by he's been. Gord's advice may be harsh at times and there have been plenty of occasions when you could have taken him to task for it, but this is the wrong one. Threads like this and the four related others are a complete waste of bandwidth.


prairieboy said

[rapier]

[prosodic]

[Demophobe]

Seems like people don't understand what a recruiter's job is, and where it ends. Once you are in the school and working, their job is done.

I think people come here and either need a scapegoat when things go wrong or are just very immature and need to hold onto someone's hand through the hard times.

Recruiters are not adoptive parents.

Take responsibility for your own life textin.

[dull artist]

[Demophobe]

[dull artist]

[quote="Demophobe"]

[Dalton]

I must be missing something here. Why all the hostility towards the OP?

He signed on to a job through a recruiter that probably made wild promises. His 1.9 job turned into an 800,000 job. Now he has to work illegally or go home for a year. They are refusing to pay his airfare. This guy got screwed no if's ands or buts. The volume of his posting is a reflection of his justifiable anger not his maturity or resourcefulness.

IMHO the recruiter should have paid for his airfare home or secured his release and immediately sent him to an equitable position. But what do I know? I only ran a $6 million service department with 20 employees in Canada's largest city for a couple of years before starting my own humble business with 6 employees and running it for 13 years.

I would have been shot and pissed on if I handled the situation the way M&M did with the OP.

The OP is just doing what any outraged customer would do. M&M is obviously playing for suckers. Unfortunately humans have minds of their own and dissatisfied customers fight back.

Here's a link to an expose about a head hunter (expensive recruiter)- Bernard Haldane and Associates. If anyone has any doubts about how people who recruit people to work in foreign countries can really screw up someone's life.

CTV's W5- Help Wanted

Unfortunately people are all too quick to accept this kind of activity just because we're in Korea. That just helps keep the sucker hunters in business.

Why use a recruiter at all?

The OP's behaviour is just human nature in my experience. I know I devoted a considerable amount of my business planning time towards preventing these kinds of disasters. It's called customer service by the way. Some say it's putting your money were your mouth is depending on the advertised service.

On a constructive note here's some links for you:

Here are useful links about Korea generally and teaching English.
Koreabridge Has links to websites for some cities in Korea including Pusanweb with job links in Pusan.
EFL Law Has contract advice but remember that Koreans respect verbal agreements way more than written contracts. Other links.
Hogwon.com has a page with a huge number of links to job boards.
Korea Links
Korea.com

I think the following blacklist links are useful in an unobvious way. They can help you gain some insight and hopefully get some perspective about jobs here. If they make you paranoid stop reading them because you're getting the wrong message.

Here are three links to blacklists. The last one isn't updated any more.
The Hogwon Blacklist
Jon's ESL Page
The Greylist

These links are for Seoul people who don't have them.
And two great links to maps for Seoul:
Map of Seoul including subway stations:
Seoul Map
Seoul Subway Map

Make life miserable for M&M and get a new job if you have a release from your visa. If M&M advertises in your home country you may be able to sue them there. But I'm not an expert at that. I am an expert at running a business competently with customer service and fighting for myself.

Of course you could just strip down, bend over and spread'em at any major intersection because you're a foreignor and this is Corea.

Good luck and seek a positive outcome for yourself. Fighting back is not a crime. It's a time honoured activity. It's also human nature that so many seem to disdain you for it BTW. I know that from experience too. You may be surprised (or not, considering) to see how fast you learn who your real friends are when you put your neck on the line for the obviously common good. Ignore them and follow your gut. You will never regret it. I've been there. It may be that the same people who say your fight is petty don't realize how petty they are to spend so much time trying to criticize you. They could just choose to read another thread and ignore yours.

[Thumperaven]

I've been away for awhile but returned to find this thread as an acquaintance tipped me off to it..
In my two years in Korea I have been placed at my school both times by Matthew at M&M and in both instances have been treated fairly, courteously and employed at decent hagwans where I have had no serious problems with the management.
Further, I will say that Matthew keeps in touch with his placements and maintains an interest in their welfare throughout the term of stay at the school which he placed them - I have talked with him 3 times this year and each time it was him contacting me and inquiring of my welfare and contentment at the job and if there was anything he could do to be of assistance. Earlier this year when I made a visa jump to Osaka my employer made some errors which resulted in my being delayed there and Matthew was immediately there for me as a go-between for myself and my no-english employer, at times that were on occasion outside of his business hours.

I do not take kindly to this individual referring to Michael and Matthew as "slappers", and I'd be willing to bet there is more to this situation than the OP leads us to believe. Situations that transpire in the workplace can very easily fall out of the sphere in which a recruiter has the ability to affect change or inject influence - WHO DOESNT KNOW THIS? M&M recruitment is as legitimate as any other recruiter in or for Korean ESL and you can take that from someone WHO IS IN THE KNOW - HONESTLY. Mr. Textin is not in the know

[J.B. Clamence]

[chronicpride]