Korean Job Discussion Forums

[waterbaby]

I ran from a job in China. No regrets. It was awful. I hated it. They lied. I couldn't hack it. Wasn't prepared to stick it out. So I left... hung out in Hong Kong, Thailand and Australia for about 3 months then came back to Korea

[A.I.]

On the flip side- I work for a hagwon that had not one but three midnight runners. Each one made sure they got a months pay in advance before they shot through. I guess the hagwon must have been a real winners-R-us set-up back then.
...........the flipside being they treat me like a princess.
I caught some bugs from the 4 foot germinators when I was new in town and had teachers and staff popping round to check on me every half hour.......or were they making sure I wasn't growing wings too?
I still have to put my foot down now and then but generally find that if I am reasonable they are too.
Maybe you midnight runners are doing the rest of us a favour after all?
Still, having said that, I am far too opinionated to leave quietly.

[camel96]

[Homer]

As far as consequences of a MR go, just because there are no consequences to YOU does not mean there are none because of YOU.
For example: At a hagwon I worked at for 2 years there were 2 runaways in the span of a summer. The two teachers who ran both did so because of culture shock and for some not very tenable reasons.
One of the teachers ran because she missed home too much and didn't like kids. We had talked about her "problems" before she left and some of us teachers that had been there (at this school and in Korea) for a while tried to help her out. To no avail. She was shocked at actually having to work while here and didn't like teaching kids. She was also afraid of everything and of all these foreigners (not us of course but the Koreans).
This begs the question: what the heck did she expect? She was a good example of a common problem: people that come here with idiotic expectations or totally unprepared. The fault for this lies in her but also in the person responsible for her recruitment.
She did end up running.
The other runner was another story. He had been teaching for a while. He was my roomate for a bit (the 2 months he lasted). He was not a bad guy but he did run for a no good reason. He simply planned it and used th school to save some cash to do some travelling. A real responsible fella that one. One day, just after pay day of course, he left without warning.

Now, to my knowledge neither of these people suffered consequences on themselves but thats simply because runners leave the consequences of their acts for others to deal with.
Jusragirl mentionned one of those in an earlier post in this thread. When they ran, who do you think got stuck covering classes and explaining to the students why their teachers were not there? Us, the teachers who were left holding the bag.
who got stuck with the unpaid bills? The school.
The runners also make good directors more wary and bad directors get off without much problem. Better to go to the labor board if you have problems and want to quit. This is harder but at least it might in the long run help improve the system. However, this would require a sense of responsibility and a willingness to put effort in, both qualities that are quite lacking in people who run as a first resort.
The consequences are many but not for the irresponsible person who runs for no good reason.
That school teated its teachers fairly. The director expected his teachers to work hard but was fair with them. He honored every point in the contracts.
We always got paid on time and there was plenty of support for teachers.
Not exactly a bad situation. In this case, there is no way a run can be justified.
Its easy to get away with a run. Its easy to cheat others all your life too. There probably wont be any consequences to you but the trail of consequences you leave to others will be there. The fact that a person is happy with this kind of situation speaks volumes about their character.

[gomurr]

I worked at one of those Kid Herald schools a year and a half ago in Seoul kangnam-gu. Man it was terrible. I would have did a run but my wife was already 8 months pregnant. So I couldn't run and ended up being sold against my will to the most boring place in Korea.

[Skarp]

The fault does lie with recruiters as often as not...and with the schools for taking on staff without looking into their background.

Many recruiter web-sites paint such a rosy picture....

.......we give you all this and you only work # hours per day, Korean children are well behaved....

Teaching is a hard job if done right, and can be even harder if you cut corners....

I'm surprised the schools still use these recruiters - haven't they caught on yet?

Maybe if the teachers left behind after a 'runner' refused to carry the can for the directors bad decision things would change?

Skarp

[William Beckerson]

I'm working for a Kids Herald and it's the best hagwon I've been at.

THEY PAY ME.

Anyway, recently we had a runner. It was some dope of a girl who was told by the recruiter that she'd be getting a two bedroom and that it's a good idea to bring her boyfriend with her. Fresh out of university, form the looks of her, she never had a job in her life, came off the plane scared.

Once it became clear that the recruiter lied to everyone,and this wasnt a couples position, things started getting bad.

They both come to the school for the first day on the job, and she sits there like a lump. All of us bent over backwards to help her, but she just froze up like a clam. I the classrooms, the kids had her cowed in the corner, but her boyfriend was working the room like he's been teaching kindy all his life.

Meanwhile, my boss bent over backwards to try and find them the accomidation they wanted. He didnt have to do it, he lived up to his end of the bargain, but he did it anyway. AND he was also looking for a second job for the boyfriend.

A position opens up down the tracks. Women only. The boss offers her the job and having her boyfriend work at the school. She basically falls into a swoon and stays at home on her second day in Korea, and sends her boyfriend in to substitute for her.

Did I mention that he took to the job like a duck to water? He was good.

Little did we know that she had been spending the day packing and getting ready to go.

It was a Friday night when they made their get away. I had previously asked them if they had enough money to make it through the month together, and they told me they had loads of money.

Turns out it was the bosses money. He had reimbursed their airfare the day after they arrived.

They never signed the contract, they never got their E2, so my boss had no legal way to stop them from leaving.

I was looking at some serious overtime until Wombat swept in like Wonder Woman and took the empty job.

Last I heard, they're stuck in Korea somewhere. It's very expensive to go to Toronto.

I have no pity for them. I also sucked ass when I got here, but I never thought of running away. (I did at the last job, but he never paid me.)

And thats the story of Selfish Ho and Whipped Idiot.

[Mr. Literal]

In that case, I feel sorry for the school.

[lesza]

Hi, Miss Naive here... there have been comments on this thread about Airport police and Immigration hunting down teachers-on-the-lam. Is it illegal to split the country... I mean I understand that you are breaching a contract, but wouldn't a school have to get some kind of court order against a teacher before releasing the hounds? And I find it very hard to believe that the 'authorities' have nothing better to do than cuff teachers as they sprint through the gates on the final leg of their escape from ROK (insert image of Logan's Run here, but update the leotard uniforms).

Safe in the knowledge that there is no bounty on midnight runners... or is there??

[camel96]

No I wrote about the airport police in reply to Rawiri's post about punching out your boss on the way to the airport. If you've done something that is illegal (i.e destroyed property or assaulted your boss) then they may make an effort to stop you but if your only crime is fleeing a crappy job no one's going to waste their time. Maybe some people have had different experiences but realistically if no one gives immigration a heads up they're not going to interrogate you beyond the standard "Are you coming back...? Where's you ARC..?" There are some rumors about people's bosses being in bed with immigration and having them detain you until the boss can come and collect you but I don't know how prevalent or even true this is. To be on the safe side though that is the main reason why people ideally like to flee on a weekend to get a couple of days headstart before their director realises they've bailed.

[eamo]

Yep, I did a runner on a school in Japan in May 2002.

The only reason I did it was 'cuz I really missed Korea. The job in Japan was fine and dandy.

So, yes, I did feel a little bad about it but, at the end of the day, it's my life and I make the decisions. Working out a year in an unhappy situation just because you signed a contract is insane. A year of your life is too precious to throw away for the sake of some strangers.

[wildBillLee]

I quit a job in Andong after six months. But I told the director before I left that I'd had enough. Last job, they fired me, because I expect to be paid on time, and I have a low tolerance for lies and manipulation.

When I think about it, I'm amazed that Westerners tolerate the abuse and the nonsence that they're subject to by the Hagwon industry. The entire industry, with a few notable exceptions, is systemically corrupt. It's about making money not education. It's so sad that many Westerners are driven to Korea by lack of opportunities in their home countries.

I think it's time that all Westerners working for Hagwons quit and came home. Leave Korea to the Koreans. The Korean war hasn't ended, either.

[some waygug-in]

When I think about it, I'm amazed that Westerners tolerate the abuse and the nonsence that they're subject to by the Hagwon industry. The entire industry, with a few notable exceptions, is systemically corrupt. It's about making money not education. It's so sad that many Westerners are driven to Korea by lack of opportunities in their home countries.
(quote)


The reasons Westerners tolerate so much abuse here is that often, (usually because of the language barrier) we feel powerless to do anything about it. The feeling is similar to being in a prison camp (not that I have been there ) you just feel like, "well, if I keep my head down and do my job, things will work out". Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Hagwan bosses, (at least some of them) take advantage of the naivete of us waegooks, and some of us play right into their hands. When I tell my Korean friends about the things that happen to English teachers in this country, they are horrified. There is a common mis-peception that Koreans think that we as Westerners are getting too much for our trouble. While some hagwan owners may feel that way, average citizens do not. When I explain to someone about the costs I have to bear, they agree that I deserve all the money that is legally coming to me.

Just as an example, my first year here, I worked for a quite famous hagwan in Busan. The school is well established and has a good reputation. 11 months into my contract, they tried to fire me so that they could save the bonus/airfare etc. When my students found out what was going on, they were shocked and very disappointed with the school. One of my classes even went to the director as a group and demanded that he honor the contract.

The director relented, and I was allowed to finish. I am not sure if it was the students actions that changed his mind or perhaps he just couldn't get anyone to replace me. But it just goes to show that there are things that can be done.

Cheers

[wildBillLee]

I'm so annoyed with the Korean english situation, that I'm attempting to bring it to the attention of Canadian Immigration and External Affairs. Forget the Consulate--it's just an arm of the Canadian business communty. I want to enusre that specific Korean hagwon owners and directors are never allowed entry into Canada.

Like I said, I want to see the entire expat community in Korea abandon that country. Shut down the entire industry until the Korean govt acts to regulate it.

[Son Deureo!]

One thing that I am very surprised that no one has bothered to bring up is the number one reason that I would pull a runner. Can you trust your director to give you your final month's pay if you give notice?

A friend of mine just pulled a runner, because she decided that she wanted to leave early for personal reasons. Her actual reason for leaving had nothing to do with the school, she just decided to make plans other than finishing her contract. An opportunity came up for her in her home country that she didn't want to pass up. I think she had about two months left to go. Instead of finishing her contract, she booked a ticket and left the weekend after payday.

Before you crucify her for her selfish behavior, listen up. She had been teaching overtime classes without being paid for them for months. In addition, a co-worker of hers was denied airfare, last month's pay, and severance when he completed his contract. He got paid, but he had to get a lawyer and threaten them with the Labor Board and tax office to do it.

If you need to leave early, whether or not you do the honorable thing depends on how honorably you and your co-workers have been treated.

Hogwon owners reap what they sow.