Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

Pretty routine, really, but score one for me in the having to get screechy to keep from being abused rally match.
I start at a school which pays every 10th of the month. Actually beginning before the pay 'cut off date' results in two weeks overlap, which the school witholds (witheld pay as a deterrent to runners).
I asked about this policy and the boss put his head down and looked really sneaky-squirrelly and said in a believe you me in fairytales kind of voice that the witheld pay would be returned at severance time after 12 months. As if to say, relax, it's money in the bank when, after 12 months, you hit the jackpot with severance AND the witheld two weeks pay! Pffut....
Like really, I'm supposed to believe that.
So I walk in the day before my first payday, which is to be without the witheld two weeks pay, apparently. And say I have a bad feeling about this, it's not proper or even legal. Well he got all sudden onset of migrainey looking and stood up and turned it all around like I'm a problem. And what if I were to wake up one day and decide to run, putting the accent on the word run to make it sound weak, and cowardly, despicable, and possibly very much within the repertoire of the average foreigner.
So I said look, phone immigration. Ask them about me because I've had seven years of nothing but legal jobs here. And with the way immigration is tight like a drum I have to ask him for a letter of reference to get out, anyway.
Well, we grimaced like angry dogs then and on payday, the next day, I got the witheld pay so nothing is oweing anymore or witheld. Very good.
I sense the boss is cool with this appreciating the gumption to assert one's rights. But his cohorts scowl as if they disapprove, and I'm a foreign barbarian. The other foreign teachers, who allow their two weeks pay to be witheld, think it isn't a problem.
The usual tempest in a teapot over asserting one's basic rights, I figure. Disappointing it has to be that way sometimes. But sure gives a quick look at the 'real stuff' beneath the veneer of politeness. A flash glance. I seeeeee you, creepy boss.

[Real Reality]

Foreigners Experience Difficulties in Living in Korea
by Jae-Dong Yu and Soo-Jung Shin, Donga.com (July 4, 2004)
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2004070522448

[captain kirk]

Just saying (not sure what you're on about here Real Reality. You quote how foreigners have difficulties in Korea as a result of discriminatory practices. Then quote again re; , it seems, 'if you don't like it, leave') the practice of witholding two weeks pay at a haggie is not usual practice or legal. And it's up, from my understanding, to the teacher to accept or refuse to allow pay to be witheld.
Considering how authoritiarian haggie managment has a reputation for being it's, in my opinion and experience, plain silly to allow them to hold two weeks pay in the hopes you'll see it again.
My intention posting this mundane episode of staving off being financial abused to the tune of a thousand bucks somewhere down the road is to say it's possible to say no. The first thing the boss said was, 'none of (all the) other foreign teachers had a problem with this. Why are you so special?'. Apparently a lot of young teachers have allowed the boss to hold two weeks of their pay. This practice wasn't mentioned in the contract but is apparently 'standard procedure', despite it's acceptance as being self-abuse it slips by those foolish enough to follow corrupt directives.

[captain kirk]

Hey, I'm not the mutinous sort that thrives on creating an adversarial relationship with the boss, no sir. That low level bollucks is for bottom feeders. I want the real stuff, like mutual respect, seeing eye to eye, comradeship, who doesn't? It's interest that makes the world go round, not ambivalence or hate.
That said, for your information and morbid amusement, I'd like to relate the absurd repercussions of my refusing the two weeks pay being witheld, and being paid in full from the start, to get the year off honestly.
The boss set the bell three minutes early. What was a ten minute break, becomes seven minutes.
I've seen it before. It's a typical, clever, bit of boss psychology. If someone pisses off the boss, the boss 'strikes back' with something that hurts everybody. Then everybody can be angry with the guy who pissed off the boss.
From a westerner's perspective the boss appears to be an indulged, spoilt, temper tantrum prone despot. Best not to piss him off.

[just because]

This has happened at my first two places here.....but the previous teachers there had backed it up that you would get the big payout at the end.

I got a 6 week payment for my last pay plus severance so I was one happy man come final payday, each of my first 3 years here.

This happened to me last Friday so I'm going to have a good holiday.

Just ask the previous foreign teachers at the school if they had any problems, if they didn't then it is a good scheme as the payout at the end is about 5 million plus.

[eamo]

Ths boss was just trying to get a minor advantage over you Captain. He thought he might get away with it so he tried. You were absolutely right to stand up to him. I know contracts in Korea don't mean much but it's all we have to stop the more unscrupulous boss's from shafting us every way they can.

That happens a lot though. Boss's trying something on, which gains them little, yet creates a sour atmosphere in the workplace. It works against them in the long run. Many Wonjeongnims can't seem to grasp that the basis of a good company is a happy workforce.

[JacktheCat]