Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mika_21]

Hi guys,
I am working with this guy who is disturbed.
He refused to talk to foreigners, keeps going on and on about the evils of Western women and labelling them all "feminazis" in their presence, keeps obsessing about an ex-Western woman coworker, calls all foreigners "white eyes."
This may seem like a joke, in light of recent threads, but it's not. I can tell that he's seriously making some of the Western women feel uncomfortable going to work.
He also keeps hitting on the Korean girls, but they are also wanting him to back off because of his overall bad attitude and unfriendliness. If he treats people from his own country so badly we are scared to date him and want nothing to do with him. But this is at work so we remain civil.
If he has his preferences, that's his business, but he seems to be quite vocal about them and is offending the other workers. Especially the women by talking bad in front of them
I like to work in a professional environment and am kinda disturbed by this.
I have discussed this with the other teachers and nobody knows what to do.
We all know that everybody should feel comfortable coming to work.
This is not a joke, please help but I cannot post in any more details.

[BTM]

white eyes?

There are more freaks and geeks here in Korea amongst the expat community than any other place I've lived. You're pretty much stuck with it, generally, sad to say.

This may sound kinda dumb, but sometimes the best thing is just to take Freaky McWackpants aside, with a small group, and give him a talking-to. (No, no, I mean the kind of talking-to where you don't use baseball bats!) Sometimes that's enough - depending on how far gone the nutball is, the threat of excommunication and public shaming might just make him hew closer to common standards of behaviour, if only in the workplace.

Failing that, give him the other kind of talking-to, the one involving senseless violence.

[mika_21]

Yes, white eyes. I am not joking he has gone off the deep end.
I am Korean and grew up in a different country off and on.
I have never seen Koreans act like this in another country so I am kind of confused. I am sure that maybe they act this way sometimes but I have never seen it.
I mean we have the term "banana" but not to the point of avoiding other Koreans and going out of one's way to do emotional harm to them. At least not that I have seen. (I don't know?)

[ulsanchris]

tthere are a few things you can do.
the first is nothing.
the second is to tell your boss about how this guy makes everyone uncomfortable. See if your boss won't have a talk with the guy to tell him watch his mouth and behaviour around the work place.
third come up with various, humourous, yet implausable plots to either get this guy fired or deported. Later you can sell the story to hollywood and it came be made into a bad comedy.

[captain kirk]

i side with the 'freaky waygook'. find out what the guy needs; he's obviously burned up. so he says such and such. so what. it's just hot air. if you, or the supposedly offended western women teachers had a little more mojo you could make a joke of it and not at his expense. stand up to his 'affronts' and challenge him on it in a friendly way. why is he such a mysterious, ominous threat. he's just a guy, in korea, who has a few issues. every westerner teaching in korea goes through a lot. as a korean you might want to take the female, western teachers being 'affronted' by this guy with a grain of salt. he's going around at work mouthing off and you're taking it too seriously. and this is another original post (like hankukin's re; the illegal foreign teacher he wants fired) where the details are skimpy and elaboration impossible/not forthcoming. as a korean you have less of a notion what is 'normal' or 'not normal' for westerners, and i would not listen to the foreign female teachers. you can give him the benefit of the doubt and set him straight, like a teacher would a rowdy student. he respects you and you respect him and you get an 'eye to eye' understanding. DON'T approach this in a way that you resemble 'feminazis' to him. every foreign teacher feels like a freaky waygook. 'the only real thing is an open hand;all the rest is bullsh*t'.

[CanEducator]

Hi Mika,
I agree with the other posters who suggest that your boss talk to this co-worker. The boss can highlight to the fellow that all of you are there to teach, that's what is important, and to just concentrate on his teaching.

This co-worker is not entitled to making people uncomfortable in their place of work. He needs to have it emphasized to him that his language teaching work is valued but his other inappropriate behaviours need to stop.

Kudos to you for the clarity of your post and your initiative in trying to address this situation. Good luck and post again if you need to.

[William Beckerson]

[BTM]

What's this 'complain to the boss' advice, folks?

You have a problem with someone, you speak directly to that person, I reckon. It's cowardly to do anything else. Be an adult about it!

If that doesn't work, then sure, try and escalate, but your first point of call, in all seriousness, should be to speak to the wackjob directly, first.

[CanEducator]

In the case of a co-worker who is psychologically unwell, and who acts out behaviours which are upsetting or scaring a number of staff members, it is best that a supervisor deal with the situation. There is no onus on individual teaching staff members to put themselves at risk by trying to deal with an unwell person one-on-one. Leave it to the supervisor.

[BTM]

Are you actually in Korea, Caneducator? What is some hagwon owner with (presumably) limited English skills going to be able to do that the other teachers can't? It's a different world here than in a Real Business back home, I'm afraid.

....

Actually, I just had a lightbulb go on... are we talking about an ethnic Korean, or a western type here? It's actually unclear from the OP's lament.

[Derrek]

[rapier]

Does the freak have any visa issues? maybe you could get him deported...

[William Beckerson]

[BTM]

[captain kirk]

don't risk 'consulting' the boss. considering the reputation of korean hagwon owners, and the apparent power this freaky deaky has over you gals with his fearsome attitude, the wonjonim might just see an advantage and make him 'head teacher'.