Korean Job Discussion Forums

endofthewor1d · Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Location: the end of the wor1d.

i was told today, nine and a half months into my contract, that i'm being considered for termination.
my day went sort of like this... i get into work, and i see a foreigner being interviewed in the conference room. 'hmm..,' i think, 'i'm the next teacher who will need to be replaced, and i've still got two and a half months to go.'
the day proceeds as usual, until my break, during which my supervisor tells me she wants to talk to me tomorrow after my kindergarten classes are over. (mind you, tomorrow is parents' day for the kindies).
i told her i wasn't busy right now, and so why not have the talk now? so we did. apparrently, for the past few months, she and the owner have been dissatisfied with my performance, and the amount of time i put into the preparation of my classes. granted, i don't spend heaps of time preparing, as anyone who has ever worked at an ECC will tell you, it's not all that terribly complicated. particularly at gangbuk ECC where i work. the curriculum is already set up, and the amount of lesson they try to pack into one forty minute class is more than enough to keep the kids busy. and my preparation isn't any more or less than any other teacher at my school. anyway, i would personally evaluate myself as a well above-average hakwon teacher. i've been around almost three years, and i've seen the gamut.
so they more or less decided they were going to let me go, and they've got a replacement already.
however... yesterday was also parents' day for the kindies, so i put in some extra effort, and made some really elaborate visuals for the class to impress the parents. so the super tells me that because she was so impressed by yesterday's kindergarten lessons, they have decided to give me another chance.
now, i'm willing to work extra hard to keep my job and get all of my goodies at the end of november, but my concern is that what she might have been saying between the lines was "i don't want to tell you that you're being fired the day before parents' day."

i've been told that i can't be legally fired after nine months without a really good and verifiable reason, as it's such common practice for hakwons to do that in order to avoid paying severance and airfare and whatnot. can anyone out there verify or discredit that information with a link? thanks.

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

They sound fundamentally bad. Its a screw around. I'd bail ASAP. The next pasture is greener. Any pasture.

Rather_Dashing · Joined: 07 Sep 2004

Don't sweat it or be insulted. Even the almighty Gord got fired from a job for no reason. Making good relationships with the parents of your students is the best way to stick around, trust me.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:14 am Post subject:

That's pretty harsh. Being told that you don't prepare enough for an ECC? The prep hour for the last few months at my ECC (the same one Chip worked for back in the day) consisted of me coming in, looking at the lessons that I had taught some 20 times for 10 minutes, and then going into the computer room for the other 50. ECC prep is a fucking joke.

Unfortunately, I don't have any advice, except that you may want to contact the labor board. Do you know if the replacement lives in Korea, or just got off the plane? If it's the latter, I doubt the kindy show will do much.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Hey, ECC hasn't the best reputation for being fair square. As a big chain they've maybe provided their bosses with a routine on how to process foreign teachers, with early dismissal to save money on severance part of the handling. It must be infuriating. Particularly the way it's delivered all so cooly and objectively, the assessment from on high. It's just business. They don't see you, though you've probably put your heart and attention into making a tremendous effort all along. That's the kicker, one's heart was in it. A tesol workshop instructor once said 'teaching is done with heart'.
I mean you're with these kids who don't really, of course, want to be there, but they're making do in buoyant kid fashion. And together, reliably, it's been a buoyant fifty fifty effort teacher and kids with the understanding that if you do your best you'll get a fair deal. You've been fair with the kids and they with you.
Try to look at it 'you and the kids' first', and delete the part where the ghoulish, interested in dead things (money) management behaves in a black-hearted, reprehensible manner.
Hey, I know, you've felt foolish and slightly paranoid for nine months. Join the club, teachers at haggies. Foolish because you're an adult faced with kids who don't want to be there and, sometimes, direct their frustration towards you with muttered insults. Slightly paranoid because you're in 'foreigner friendly' Korea.
Then some boss who's outlook toward you is that you are a fuedal serf takes it upon him or herself to 'out the fool'. You've been a great fool. I'm a great fool with the kids. It's between me and the kids. Horsing around and enjoying the melee with buoyant kids is a hoot.
Just because the boss is functioning on money acquisition mode and seems more adult in comparison to horsing around with kids mode doesn't mean diddly re; who you are. So don't take it personally. The boss misses out on a lot of easygoing enjoyment. Maybe the boss has developed a taste for sado-masochism and the moment of letting you know 'your performance hasn't been satisfactory' was the peak of his twisted life.
Release letter and good recommendation. I'd be frank enough, personally, to spell it out to him. I know you know what you're doing is wrong, but look at it from my point of view, I need a recommendation. You know I deserve one.
Go to Thailand, then come back with the release letter and good recommendation promise. Immigration might be a problem and you'll have to spend 2.5 months in sunny Thailand. Laughing

Zyzyfer · Posted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:23 am Post subject:

A couple of links with info on here:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=3327

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=8023

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

Rather_Dashing · Joined: 07 Sep 2004

Phoenix · Joined: 03 Jun 2003

pecan · Joined: 01 Jul 2004

Your situation is unfortunate all the way around.

Most people like to avoid confrontations, and Koreans are no different in that regard.

Obviously, your opinion of yourself is different from your employer's. The fact that they are finding a replacement should indicate to you that they may believe you are incapable of changing and might even take offense to constructive criticism. Regardless, since you feel you are better than average, I am sure you will not have any trouble finding a new position.

We all know that some people tend to enter the "coast out" mode around the ten month mark (as evidenced by the numerous comments on this site). It may or may not be your case, but you obviously felt the heat from your employer's comments about your teaching to make a change for the better by making visuals.

I doubt any person really feels this type of work is "complicated," as you mentioned, but one should at least give the impression that he/she is busting their hump by doing more than the next person. "Keeping kids busy" is far from doing a great job, right?

If people believe they can not be fired after nine months, they have a tremendous incentive to coast, do not you think?

Should not employers have the right to fire teachers, based on their performance?

Do you really think that they want to fire you to avoid paying severance? It sounds like you could be in denial. Do you believe they want to do it just to you, but not the previous employees or the six others that are currently doing a good job.

Again, this is unfortunate all the way around, and I hope it works out for all involved.

Take a look,
Nut

Zyzyfer · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:12 am Post subject: Re: Consideration

SarcasmKills · Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

Note to the OP: You should've stayed in Uijeongbu.

endofthewor1d · Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Location: the end of the wor1d.

sarcasmkills...
you live in uijeongbu now, don't you? do you really think i should have stayed there?

HamuHamu · Joined: 01 May 2003 Location: Seoul

From my experiences at the hagwans I've worked in, both of my seupervisors/managers were ALWAYS on the look-out for new teachers, even when we didn't have a vacancy...

Finding a teacher with a teaching degree or a TESOL, someone whose resume may have come in from a parent, or whatever - all of these things will lead to my hagwan trying to hire them. Means someone else goes on the chopping block ... they will find a reason to "fire" a teacher if they need to, but the couple that I have seen fired in this way may not have been the *BEST* teacher but was more than acceptable and had no reason to be fired -- and WOULDN'T have been fired if it hadn't been for random Joe that showed up out of the blue and the school wanted.

If they're saving money by getting rid of someone at 9 months....all the better for them.

Mind you, the first hagwan I worked at fired a totally incompetent arse of a "teacher" after 3 months -- they gave him a full month's notice he was being terminated, and offered to pay his RETURN airfare home if he didn't find another job in the city. Pretty freaking fair if you ask me . . .

If your employer is firing you after 9 months, I think they shoudl cough-up some of the compensation....half of your flight home, or 9/12s of a severance (I know that's not req'd by law, but ... )