Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Captain Corea]

Maybe insist that the 5-10 minutes is YOUR time. Lock the teacher's room door or something.

My schedule was similar for 3 years and all the student knew, you ventured into the room with head bowed, quiet, and expecting to smell peanut butter on teachers breath.

[jacl]

1.9 after what deductions? What's your salary for teaching 7 hours/day? You should be getting at least 400,000/month on top of your contracted salary for teaching this many hours.

[just because]

I would rather the block shift for sure.....

Also what jacl said above...

Any day you work over 6 hours(classes) it should be overtime...

So even if your overtime rate is only 15 000(which all is all too sadly common) you should be collecting at least an extra 300 000 a month....

[chinook]

I worked 3-9 with only 5 mins between each class, except for one 10 min dinner break. the school provided us with pizza one night a week, and by the end of the year, some of the guys could eat 7 or 8 pieces of pizza in the ten minutes.

it isn't long for dinner, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it isn't difficult to eat a lunch sized meal in the ten minutes, or munch over a couple of breaks.

[Zack_in_Korea]

Ok here is the deal:

Van Islander and other dude who just responded.. our working time is even longer than your 6 hours.

We work at a POLY School.

We have to come in at about 2.. though we usually don't until 2:20pm... nevertheless, we are still responsible for getting our things done. So we teach for 320 minutes a day... then there is prep time, and the unpaid breaks we have to work through since they aren't really breaks when you have to do all this stuff.. So maybe ten minutes, that's not a civilized way to eat. And our boss is too cheap to buy us anything.. he is practically bankrupt lol.

Tomorrow we have to start our 65 report cards which we do every month, then make the TOEFL tests and grade all the tests.. on top of regular work like reading two novels (200 pages each) to teach for my writing class.. all on our own time... The school closes right at 9:30 when we leave so we have to come in either extra early (TO WORK) or take it home after what is already a long day. Some teachers somehow manage to get things done a bit quicker, but this means non stop work for 7 or 8 hours, which it usually is anyways.

As for deductions: (base pay: 2.1 million WON to start with.. for me anyways.. another teacher gets 1.9 million WON before deductions!)

--5% for tax.. it should be 3.5% I think.. anyways 105,000 WON

--another 10% of that 5% is taxed too called "general tax"! whatever that is... so that's 10,500 WON more

--30,000 WON housing fee

--4.5% pension.. 93,500 WON
It used to be 9% 187,000 WON but we called the labour board and he got in big trouble for making us pay what should be his own 4.5% contribution as well.. so its now fixed apparently and we will be getting our back pay too.. for those teachers smart enough to demand it..

--things we have bought, me especially.. this is optional of course, though sumtimes you need to,.,. I since stopped buying almost anything for my job when he griped for having to give me back 1,000 WON for buying a school supply.

[jacl]

So, you're teaching 8 40-minute classes/day. Basically, you're teaching 20 minutes of OT/day. That's 8000 Won. That's at least 160,000 Won/month if you count OT as 20,000/hr.

I can't believe all the extra work you have to do. I was doing reports and giving tests, etc., but then I just stopped. No time. My shift is 2 to 9 (or 2:30 to 9:30). There's no time to do all that when you're teaching that many hours in a day. That's just slave work.

You're getting majorly ripped off on taxes. Majorly.

[fusionbarnone]

You teachers who love those types of hours, must have energy to burn. Hogwon owners are only too eager to assist you there.

In my opinion, that's a recipe for burnout thus, one-year contract teachers fall-out are considered the norm for this industry is obviously well-aware(in with the new/out with the old). In order to counter this gross exploitation, tough negotiation prior to contract signing(failing that)or sharp vigilance of work conditions are paramount if conditions are to improve.

You guys will all become millionaires once you channel that seismic-energy into self-profit endeavours.

[tony602]

Errrrrr.....some crappy contracts out there too apparently.....I do splits, and dont mind them at all.....sometimes 2 hours between.....time for laundry, eating, life necessity crap....but I got 2.1 right off the bat, contracted raise to 2.2 within 6 months, the other couple I work with got theirs in three......just have to be more selective with contracts I suppose.....Im a newbie and loving it so far.....but I did extensive homework, lots of reading threads on here.....and turned down 5 contracts and 4 recruiters before saying yes.....Hagwons are a crap shoot sure enough but there are much better contracts out there if you look long enough. Guess I just got lucky!!

But those hours, I guess unless you like working later than 7, and more than 6 classes a day...go with it, work with it, and again...its only a year of your life....but, be more selective on the next one since you will have valuable experience.

[SPINOZA]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Zack_in_Korea]

by the way... Overtime pay? Get a load of this.

Since at times some of us were lucky enough to teach 7 classes a day and have a 40 minute spare period, they kept track of "the hours not worked" on a list and tried to deduct money from the severance pay of a couple that was leaving our hagwon a few weeks ago.

And also since we don't actually teach (as in actual time spent in the classroom) for 120 hours a month (i.e. 30 hours a week) but just under that, they tried to get some of us to teach a winter programme in January 3 times a week for FREE.

Needless to say we put a block on that shit immediately on both counts.

[Mr. BlackCat]

I'm confused. Your schedule sounds pretty good to me. My first six months I was at work 12-8:30 with HUGE breaks, a class here a class there. But never big enough breaks to actually do anything fun. Just sitting in the staffroom for an hour listening to my MP3. Then one class, then another hour off. And so on. And because I was just sitting there I had extra work thrust upon me.

Now I have 7 or 8 40 mins classes in a row, 11:20-5 or 6 depending on the day. Its freaking fantastic. Breaks are over-rated. Sure a half hour here or there is nice (and sometimes I get them). But one guy here thought he had it hard on a schedule like I have now (but much better and compact) and now he has breaks and he's not liking it. On the other hand, my days seem to be half as long when in actuality I have more classes and get some overtime to boot.

I have to bring reports home now (I have about 100) but I'd rather do it at home with a beer and some music than at work with kids screaming and co-workers complaining.

I've worked many different kinds of jobs back home and the hours we work here are pretty sweet, although not perfect. I guess there's some nice contracts out there, but we really shouldn't expect to work 5 hours a day and get paid 2 grand a month. I've met some lazy teachers here. That's not to say that we shouldn't try to get the best deal possible, but some people have unrealistic expectations. Yeah, I put in 8 hour days 5 days a week. When my boss tells me to do more I tell her what I think of it.

But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. I make less than you, too, by the way. Maybe I can get a job at your hagwon next year

[Mr. BlackCat]

I'm confused. Your schedule sounds pretty good to me. My first six months I was at work 12-8:30 with HUGE breaks, a class here a class there. But never big enough breaks to actually do anything fun. Just sitting in the staffroom for an hour listening to my MP3. Then one class, then another hour off. And so on. And because I was just sitting there I had extra work thrust upon me.

Now I have 7 or 8 40 mins classes in a row, 11:20-5 or 6 depending on the day. Its freaking fantastic. Breaks are over-rated. Sure a half hour here or there is nice (and sometimes I get them). But one guy here thought he had it hard on a schedule like I have now (but much better and compact) and now he has breaks and he's not liking it. On the other hand, my days seem to be half as long when in actuality I have more classes and get some overtime to boot.

I have to bring reports home now (I have about 100) but I'd rather do it at home with a beer and some music than at work with kids screaming and co-workers complaining.

I've worked many different kinds of jobs back home and the hours we work here are pretty sweet, although not perfect. I guess there's some nice contracts out there, but we really shouldn't expect to work 5 hours a day and get paid 2 grand a month. I've met some lazy teachers here. That's not to say that we shouldn't try to get the best deal possible, but some people have unrealistic expectations. Yeah, I put in 8 hour days 5 days a week. When my boss tells me to do more I tell her what I think of it.

But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. I make less than you, too, by the way. Maybe I can get a job at your hogwon next year

[screw_driver]

this is my first week in korea and the director makes me come in at 3 till 11. is this normal? i havent got my schedule yet so for the past 3 days just been sitting around, feeling restless and doing a lot of scribbling. Do u think i should have a word to the director?

[jacl]