Korean Job Discussion Forums

[desultude]

Sak-
I have taught for ten years at a major pac 10 university in the United States, and ran my own business for six. It wasn't IBM, so does that mean it doesn't qualify? What qualifies as adequate experience to speak on Dave's? Please let us know, we do want to be up on the regs.

You are on a rampage. Tone it down or turn it off. If you have valid points, they get lost in the rage.

[makushi]

[chronicpride]

[whatthefunk]

[Squid]

I will try to be a little more constructive here than my first post and with that in mind the most useful advice I can offer is to take out a pen at the first sign of trouble in communication with workplace seniors, check your watch, write down the time and date- even on the desk blotter, and listen attentively to what they say. I realise this is very difficult in cases of extreme aggression, esp. a male hagwon director onto a female staff, but the first time you retain the presence of mind to do it, the harassment stops...dead.

In cases where you're "called in" to see a senior, where you think somethings up, for f*cks sake take at least a pencil and paper.

To those whom doubt this method, please at least try it once- I'm not being condescending- it works. To the poor sod with the 2am phone call- once and unexpectedly in case of an emergency I'll stand, and then tell (Him) not to do it again- pencil and paper in hand.

Hope this is more helpful.

Hey Captain knuckles, knuckle ain't bone

Squid

[rapier]

Fonzy: - actually everyone did know about her being the bosses daughter, but it was still an official secret- thats the stupidity of it all....everyone was like- don't tell anyone, but ".. Of course Miss Park, the woman in question, thought nobody knew and was amazed when I told her.....

[Zyzyfer]

[whatthefunk]

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

[mithridates]

At my company we have the same thing with people getting moved around with just a few days notice and so on, but it doesn't seem to be secretive so much as they just don't bother to tell everyone. I can find out just about everything by asking around and nobody has held anything back from me that they've known, or tried to hide it. The admin just doesn't seem to feel responsible for informing everybody whenever something happens, and it usually gets around anyway.
My company seems to be one of the better ones though when it comes to secrecy.

[rapier]

Well well, I go away for a day or so and this thread gets locked and unlocked! Well i won't speculate on what happened, so back to the topic:

Re secrecy, I've come to the conclusion that many Koreans are paranoid about being derreked/ talked about and so secrecy becomes a watchword...
I visited a korean girl/ friend of mine for a few hours in her house, her busybody neighbour knocked out of the blue (never before) and asked her how she was....sounds friendly doesn't it?
After that she said I must keep very low profile when calling at her house as the neighbors talk and can destroy someones reputation with their gossip. Even though I only visit her as a friend, she says it should be top secret now because of the nosey neighbours...Whatever next!!!! I may as well be living in North korea...

[desultude]

I was told today that everything at our university that happens has to be signed off on by the university president. Its politics all of the way up to him, and all of the way down. And "transparency" is an absolutely unheard of concept.

There are efforts to change this, but change is hard and slow- it won't happen in my time here. But it does remind me of one of the virtues of Korean/Asian society- acceptance. I can't control the situation as the westerner in my wants to do, so I am working on patience. I don't need to know everything, so long as I know that millions of won will magically appear in my account monthly.