Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

WARNING: There are lots of " "s in this post.


I worked at REI in a nice city in the middle of Korea called Andong. If you ever get a chance, go visit it; it's beautiful.



But never never NEVER work for REI in Andong.

Why?

- You will never be paid on time

- You will be lied to

- Immigration will be lied to by the boss

- The boss (his English name is "Monster") will cheat you

- He will "borrow" money for hookers from you and not pay you back



Specifically in regards to the cheating, I recieved my phone bill which came to almost 200,000 Won.

Well I asked to have a look at it, and right in front of my face told me that my bill was 197,000 Won when in fact he didn't pay the previous month's bill in time for the new billing period with the money I gave him last month!

Luckily for me, my Korean girlfriend worked at KTF and looked into the whole affiar.

Suffice to say I got my evidence on paper that he ripped me off.

The first teacher who worked at this school had his apartment broken into with his money stolen. Too bad for him, right?

The second teacher who worked for him also had the same thing happen, only this time it was during the 11th month of the contract. Well, the teacher confronted the boss, and the boss fired him!

No need to pay return ticket. No need to pay 2 million won end of contract bonus. NO need to pay last month's wage.

Saving for the boss?

About 5 million won.

The next teacher that came worked only 5 days before being fired for "not working out" (actually the intention was to use this guy as a temp until I got their from Canada).

As his replacement (it probably doesn't need to be said that the guy never got paid) I was to live in the boss' house until an apartment could be arranged. My room was full of the previous teacher's belonging, as he was in Seoul looking for work.

The boss went through his clothes, and stole (yes, STOLE) shirts, pants and a dinner jacket right in front of my eyes! HE even encouraged me to take something! "If you take something don't worry, I protect you" was his words of reasoning as he motioned towards the teacher's digital camera. What a scary guy! His name suited him well!

He always threw this "I protect you" line at me. It turns out he was connected with gangs and room salons (expensive *beep* houses) in Andong. Almost daily there would be men in suits visiting him in his office. And as always, he was giving them money.

When I came to the school, during the next seven months there not ONCE TIME in which I was ever paid in full or on time.

My girlfriend always pushed me to stick it out because "that's what Koreans would do".

Also, my boss told me if I quit the job, he will see to it I will never work in Korea again. Frightened at that, I kept working for the SOB.

During all this, a new teacher came to our school. He is an older fellow in his 50's, but a genuinely nice guy.

Buy guess what? He too was not getting paid on time or in full either! Not only that, but he had to pay for his entire visa run to Japan (he had to go twice believe it or not!).

After 2 months of that, the new teacher just said screw it and started packing his bags to leave shortly before work.

I asked him to stick around and wait and see what happens come payday. He said he was sticking to his guns, so we shook hands and parted.

I asked him what should I say if I'm questioned about his absence and his response was "Tell Mr. Monster I'm packing my bags".

I was asked, and I was answered, and of course, I was blamed for "encouraging" him to run away.

My boss told us in no uncertain terms that night "If you try to run awya again, I will call the police! And don't think you can change jobs! If you leave, you will NEVER work in Korea again!"

Having a Korean girlfriend I loved so dearly, this hit home hard. I did not want to be seperate from her at all costs.

I held my nose and put up with his crap for a while longer.

Finally after 7 months of living in HIS HOUSE (he promised me my own apartment which he kept stalling on) I told my girlfriend I had to make a stand, and she agreed.

I told him he MUST give me an apartment and pay me in full and on time as he has promised continuously for the last seven months or I will not be around come this time next week.

Well, the VERY next day, he phones me while I am out of town on the weekend and says I mollested one of the students (in class with all the other students there) and don't I dare show my face around him again!

That took the cake! I demanded to know which student, demanded to speak to the parents, and demanded he call the police. Of course he wouldn't tell me right away who it was because he wanted to "protect me".



Well, if I really did do as you claim I did, wouldn't you (or at least any SENSIBLE boss) would call the police to protect all the other 140 students from me??

Then he hangs up, and 20 minutes later calls me again and tells me which student I had been "molesting". It was no other than the boss' best friend's daughter (who was only at the school for a week prior to this situation).

I immediately went to Andong (I was in Seoul as it was during the weekend) to confront the son of a *BEEP*.

He said "I believe you. I believe you didn't do anything. But you must do everything I say or I cannot protect you."

Then he said "You cannot have your own apartment. You must wait some more time for your pay. And you cannot talk to other foreigners in Andong. Not even the new American teacher. Never talk about your pay."

Luckily, the other teacher was present when this conversation took place.

I told him I wanted to meet the student's parents. He said it was out of the question because they were too angry with me and would kill me if they saw me.

I smelled BS before, but that really stunk!

So for the next two weeks, everything seems normal in the school, and all the teachers do not have a clue what is going on (except of couse for the American teacher). All this time I am wondering the best way to approach the situation.

As chance would have it, the father of the student came to our school and my boss went out of his way to ensure we did not meet up.

Well we did, and I said hello to him and "How are you?".

His response? "Fine, how are you?" I thought to myself "You're fine after I just molested your child?"

That sealed it; I had to do something, and fast!

I wrote a lengthy letter to the Canadian and British embassies (I hold duel citizenship), but decided to e-mail it to myself and my friend to leave an electronic record because my friend suggested that being thrown in jail was the least of my worries based on the past history of my boss.

So, I decided to have one final talk with the boss. I wanted to get this accusation on the table, and out in the open. He wanted to keep it closed, and avoided me at all costs. I tried for the next week to meet with him but he was always "busy".

Then rumours started circulating that I had done something "terrible". The boss' lie had spread father than he would have liked. Now it was threatening his school. He let it slip to the American teacher that come January 1st, I was to be fired and he had found a new Canadian teacher.

Being able to read Korean, I took a look around his office desk when nobody was in sight. Sure enough, there was a new schedule written up with only the one teacher scheduled to work. I took the schedule and my phone bill and photocopied them. I knew I would need SOME evidence if I was to fight him at a later date.

On the day of my pay (a Friday) I asked for my pay. He said "Please Monday we talk about new contract and then if you accept, then I pay you."

That was the straw that broke the camels' back. The fear I had of this man disappeared into pure rage. Just one lie after another. And he owes me more than 6 million won in back pay and from all the scamming he pulled on me!

I decided to cut my losses, and called my father who got me a flight back home on the Sunday that weekend.

Now, safely back at home, I do not even know where to begin. I had a Korean friend check the local authorities in Andong and as of the 10th of January Korean time no foreigner had been reported to the police of any such crime.

So, my plan is just simply to go back to Korea on a tourist entry and fight him on his own ground.

My former recruiter said I could sue him for slander. That's not what I want.

I want only to get the money he owes me and to let others know to STAY CLEAR of his school.

Out of five foreign teachers who have graced the halls of his school, all five have been screwed one way or the other.

Now that everyone knows the whole story (Well, those of you whom I told when this first came out already know) it gives a better understanding of my entire situation and why I have been so quite lately.

It's going to be messy, but rest assured it's one fight I have to get into.

The safer thing would be to stay away. I can't tell you how many people think I'm nuts to go back.

I thought about going to Japan, Taiwan, or somewhere else. But you know what?

I'm not running away from this BS. I like Korea too much and have invested too much time to have some A-hole ruin my future in Korea just to save money.

[Juggertha]

good on ya man. Come here, get yourself into a good place.. and take him to the labor board (pay stubs in hand) and pull that 6 mill outta him!

[osangrl]

omigod, after reading that, everyone else's complaining looks so trivial.

I wouldn't exactly say you are "nuts" for returning.....I mean that would bother me for a long time too, its just that if what you said is legit, that he has certain "ties" then you really have to watch your back.

My korean american friend here says she knows one person in the mafia here.....and she just got trampled on by a guy, so her friend said he could help...that him and his buddies, would take him up to a mountain, strip him naked, rape him, and make him dig his own grave......... not sure how much truth there is to that..............


Im just saying, be careful, but don't let this SOB, scare you away from Korea if you like it, cause that just sucks.

good luck.

[crazylemongirl]

I think it's good that you want to come back GWOW. I think that when things suck at work as much as they do it's easy to think

bad director= bad country

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Keep the GF post; that's fair comment.


But just don't attack my credentials or make misleading allegations that I never worked in a certain field when in fact I did.

Tiberius aka Sparkles wrote:

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

I never said you weren't a P.I.; I just thought that as someone who is supposed to be trained to be keen of mind and eye, you have confessed to a lot of Derreck-like idiocy on this board as of late.

You are a masochist, my friend. It's time to stop hurtin' and start healin'.

Sparkles*_*

[Mr. Pink]

I have to say man,

You should have just quit. That story was just horrible. I think you are crazy to come back, but crazier for staying in that situation. I mean living in the guy's house? You should have robbed him blind before you left. If he owed you 6mil there are a lot of ways you could get that.

You posted in another thread you will be going to Uijongbu. I'd be careful up there too. Hope you did some VAST research on your next place of employment. Like do the teachers actually stick out their contracts?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

TheUrbanMyth wrote:

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Mr. Pink]

[Bulsajo]

"Foreign Teacher Arrested at Airport with W6,000,000 of Employer's Possessions."

It would certainly be a catchy headline.

[Kwangjuchicken]

YES

[Austin]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?p=5673&highlight=#5673