Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tate]

Please for the love of God do not work for one of the chain schools that have been warned against so many times. I bought into all the rhetoric about "well it really just depends on the particular director" ect ect, and am now regreting it.

These people who blacklisted these schools were doing so to warn you. Please heed their advice. Look elsewhere. There are plenty of jobs so there is no need for you to sign with a chain that has a bad reputation.

Chain hogwan's have standardized contracts. Take that into consideration. If tons of teachers have been shafted by the fine print of that chain's contract before do not think it won't happen to you as well. Do not sign the orignal version of a contract offered to you by a chain school.

The contract can look fine in every way and have a clause like "attendence at speacial events is mandatory and will not be considered as overtime". Boom that fast you are working 50 hours a week including Saturday's. All that "break time" in the middle of your split shift just became unpaid work time.

Just don't do it. Work for a public school or a Hogwan with a good reputation.

[bellum99]

Yup. Saying something nice about most of the large franchise schools is like putting a silk hat on a pig.

[Homer]

[doctor bacon]

[Aussiekimchi]

In the cases of some franchises, I agree with the OP. Some are just horrible...
But I have probably met more bosses and have been to more schools than the average joe in Korea and my experience has told me
Good boss - good school still rings true.

Just because School X in Busan is horrible, a school from the same chain in Bucheon can be great.
Some schools have good repuations, some have bad.

The Head Offices of these franchises actually have little to do with the running of the schools in most cases. Every boss I have ever spoken to complains about Head Office doing nothing for them.
Each school can change their own contracts and usually will when push comes to shove. Point out all the changes you want made to your recruiter and and have him do it for you....hahahaha yeah right! but you never know..some will do that for you.
Kids club schools can be a bit iffy, but there are some that are great.
SLP have some terrible troubles in some cities, but others they are thriving.
Swaton is closing everywhere, but some are staying open.
Some hagwans can be great to work for as they have good bosses and great staff. To say all schools from one franchise are bad is not always true....well Wonderland may prove me wrong there.

[wylies99]

The OP is correct. It's better to believe the blacklist. If anything, the blacklist isn't big enough. There are many other schools doing the same things- no one has reported them, YET.

[Qinella]

I worked for a chain school my first contract and the only complaint I had was the restrictiveness over my classroom decisions. I couldn't choose the text, had to use only specific notebooks that sucked but had the school name, stuff like that.

Everything else was the bees knees. As far as management is concerned, anyway.

[sheba]

I work for a franchise school. Its an awesome job. Im in my second year now.

[farmboy]

etc. thank you

[Yu_Bum_suk]

If I owned a good franchise hogwan I'd sure be upset by the other 95% of them for dragging the business' name through the dirt. I can't believe that chains like Wonderland can even sell franchises anymore.

[wylies99]

Wonderland, eh? I've had contact with a Wonderland Director- before I came to Korea and Saturday morning (from a post I made on the jobs board). See why those blacklists are important? I do.

[Hollywoodaction]

A short overview of the type of experience (good and bad) that you can expect to have at a hagwon:

1) You get a relatively good boss, except for 2 months out of the year in which attendance is down (the same two months that all hagwons have fewer students). The truly good bosses recognize that this is a yearly thing and chose to wait it out. They usually put a little bit of pressure on the teachers because they think it's crucial to create good word-of-mouth for the hagwon, but nothing too serious. After the month is over, things go back to normal. You may get a few extra students that recently quit other hagwons (see number 2 for explanation). If you're simply not made for teaching, they'll try to stear you in the right direction. If it becomes evident that you are hopeless as a teacher, your boss will give you proper notice and maybe a small bonus for breaking the contract early. Everything is dealt in a civil matter. If you're a good teacher, or the hagwon doesn't care that you can't teach because you keep the students coming, you complete your year, maybe signing on for a second one. You were always paid on time. The boss might have been late once or twice, but was very apologetic.

2) You get an inexperienced boss, or one that is not particularly intelligent or honest. Everything seems okay for a couple of months until a few students begin to quit. The boss, not having the experience or the intelligence to recognize that this is part of the yearly cycle, simply flakes out. He or she begins to believe it's the your fault. As a result, he or she will resort to pressure tactics to manipulate you (such as telling you mothers are complaining, yet never giving you specifics). If you have an ounce of self-respect, you lose all respect that you had for your boss. You probably get rarely paid on time. After this charade goes on for a couple of months, you end up being fired or quitting, and, more likely than not, being ripped off by your boss who will use your money to pay a recruiter to find your replacement. {The yearly cycle will continue until word gets out to the parents that the boss doesn't treat his or her teachers well (it sometimes takes years for this to happen). From there, it's a downward spiral. Attendance will go down, the boss will begin to behave erratically, which will cause friction with the parents. Attendance will fall until running the hagwon is no longer profitable.}

[enns]

Schools within big chains can be fine, it absolutely depends on the individual director and whether or not he is trying to screw you. Take the blacklist sites with a grain of salt, some teachers will have bad experiences regardless of the institution and will unfairly take it out on the school on these sites. Use blacklist sites and the advice of posters in this forum as starting points. If you really want to know if a school is good or not, email as many past teachers as possible. They can tell you with great accuracy whether a school is worthwhile.

[bellum99]

The simple truth is that everyone's advice here is useless. A good school can go from good to bad in seconds. You never know what will happen over a year. The chain schools are bad because they will have experienced people who know how to screw you over and call it "school policy". Some schools like BCM or ECC have a school policy book that clearly shows the screw over policy and in your contract it will say that you agree to follow school policy. That is why franchise schools are bad...they have a lot of experience cheating teachers and they can get new teachers quickly and easily.

[big_blue_21]

i think chains are usually pretty good because they have a name to uphold . . . it's the small private I would deter a friend from working at . . . they're pretty much a box of chocolates . . .