Korean Job Discussion Forums

[calicoe]

I have an idea of what is going on here, but I'd like other's feedback.

I have had a mostly good relationship with my school and Ko-teachers, with a few ups and downs that we've resolved; same thing with the students. For the most part, I am liked, and I am effective, but one Ko-teacher has complained that I am "too strict," because I don't tolerate disrespect or incessant talking from my students, as if they are out at a cafe instead of class. That is my one rule.

Anyway, here is the current enigma. The end of contract is up in two months, and renewal paperwork has been sent a few weeks ago. I have always been transparent with them and told them that I would renew, months ago, with no word from them. Recently, I reminded them that the time is upon us for them to start taking care of the process. Again, I gave them the benefit of full transparency, by saying I would stay with them if they so choose, but if not, there will be no hard feelings on my part but I will need a recommendation to look for another job.

Fine. They have their meeting with the VP and principal two weeks ago. The Ko-teachers are all sweet and smiley toward me, the principal and VP are mostly normal. Still, no word on renewal. I know many people who have known for weeks if they are getting renewed, but not me.

Days later, I ask one of the Ko-teachers directly. She tries to change the subject. I bring her back to the topic. She vaguely points to some time in January, and says I will know then. How am I supposed to plan my vacation? Anyway, I let it slide. But, I start quietly going about my business, ordering transcripts, printing my research, and sending out my CV. I'm in a small town, and had to use their fax machine, as there was no other alternative. A fax comes in from grad school, a letter of verification.

One of the Ko-teachers asks me why I am ordering and printing all this stuff. I calmly tell her that since I have no word yet on renewal, it is equal to not knowing if I will have a job or not, so I am looking for alternatives - graduate school and jobs.

All of a sudden, she tells me that the VP and principal want me next year, but we must follow the process of Korean culture. The other Ko-teacher tells me that they want me, but it is not yet 100% "fixed" with the VP and principal. The principal has walked into my classroom unannounced in the past, and has always left with a smile on his face, because he saw that my classes were always well organized, managed, and interactive. We have always been on good terms.

Today the principal walks by me, and ignores me after I nod hello to him (my fax from grad school came in this morning, and I know they must've told him).

My question: What exactly is there to "fix" after my 1+ year at that school through the EPIK program? Why is it that I don't know, but many people in my position do? Do you think they are trying to string me along, so that they are assured that I will work their camps in Feb., free of charge? (Which, I would do anyway, to fully honor my contract).

What say you? I appreciate your feedback and opinions.

[DosEquisXX]

Some people just want a fresh face in their school. I don't think it's anything personal against you. Similar stuff was happening to me and I just cut them off before they could string me along any further and said that I was gone.

This whole vagueness and BS stuff they're throwing at you doesn't seem to be worth it. It's classless and unprofessional. Unless the job you have is mega-*beep* awesome, I'd operate under the assumption that you are not coming back.

[Olivencia]

They're stringing you along big time.

[Cerberus]

find a better school with without being surrounded by these ignorant boobs.

No one would dare check what I was printing or faxing in my school, much less have the temerity to directly ask me what I am doing and what for.

I'd tell them it's none of their business. (provided I was using the most minimial of school supplies to do this)

renewal is easy if you have an English speaking dept head or VP.

find a better school, preferably with an english speaking vp or principal or at least dept head, and this way you cut out your co-teachers from interfering with your life and employment, etc forever.

[Raeddie]

My guess is that they will wait until you have already made other plans and then ask you to stay at the school. That was the situation I was in last year. It seems to be the way things are done here.

[The Gipkik]

Will you be getting a 2 week extra holiday in February to visit home if you renew? If so, the details and confirmation should be in the final stages. I am about to book a ticket home for two weeks, and SMOE wants me to do it by Dec 21st as they are paying for the ticket.

Your school doesn't sound like it's fighting for you to stay. I would question whether a second year at the school is what you really want. Working in an environment where you aren't respected and liked, especially by the bigwigs, may not be a very attractive option.

[calicoe]

Thanks for all the good feedback. For the most part, I have been respected here. However, this double-talking was starting to get me.

Here is an update:

Right after I read a few responses to this post, like clockwork, my Ko-teacher follows me into the lab during free time, and hands me the preliminary paperwork for renewal. I guess that fax from grad school helped move things along, lol.

I am to look it over and send it in. You know the one: do you want to stay, or be reposted, etc. However, the VP and principal have to send in their evaluations to the POE, and "you will receive a new contract provided your renewal request is approved."

Now, maybe I'm too cynical, but it appears that nothing is really decided yet, except for me offically declaring my interest to the POE. It seems like they can still deep-six me.

Or am I just jaded? Problem is, there's no trust, so I will continue to send out CVs in the meantime.

What say you?

[lookingforworkinasia]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you, and handling it pretty much the same way. The way I see it, granting me job security isn't really a high priority for anyone, so it's not something they move quickly on. I was told things will be decided and taken care of by the end of the month, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened much later.

The way it works for me is that the POE decides everything based on recommendations from the principal, vp, etc.

[Cerberus]

[I'm no Picasso]

Keep sending out your CV. I was asked in July to re-sign for October, and my contract was all signed and submitted by the beginning of August. No one, as far as I know, had to wait for the POE. It could be your school is just dragging its feet or it could be they are still undecided. Something is strange.

[whome?]

As others have said, yes they are stringing you along. Someone, somewhere does not want you to come back. This is Korea, so disorganization is the name of the game. But when disorganization is the game being played, rather than saying they don't know they will say they will do it ASAP and it just doesn't get done.

For them to say they don't know means they do know, but that it's not favourable.

The letter to renew has gotten their ass in gear. There's essentially two and a half months to go, so they do need to get moving. My bet was they were hoping you might change your mind and/or things would be moving alone faster through whatever program you happen to be under.

That said, don't treat this letter of intent as any show of promise. They can actually print the contract off right now for next year and you can sign it. I might ask for that instead of just accepting the renewal intent form. That way you will definitely know where you stand.

[jvalmer]

EPIK is notorious for signing people late. My first 3 years I was signed at the end of July, and my contract ended at the end of August. Although the last couple of years they gave me the papers in May.

[SSA]

I was also in a similar position with my PS. In June they eventually gave the form "do you want to renew and stay at same school/move within province?" I had to ask for the form 3 times because other NTs already had it and I think I should have taken their reluctance to give it to me as a hint.

After that was submitted to the co-ordinator it goes to the POE and then the schools are requested to fill the evaluation forms. I was planning to resign with EPIK but wanted to move to a bigger town/city in the same province.

As it turned out I was denied another EPIK contract because of this evaluation. I was really upset by the whole situation and had no idea that they all disliked me so much but more annoyed with EPIK for not saying anything sooner. I mean it was mid-July by this time and my contract was ending in August. Had they told me earlier after the eval was submitted I could have started making alternative plans in Korea or elsewhere for after my contract.


I had a meeting with my school principal, coteacher and coordinator after this went down and asked for reasons why they gave me a poor evaluation.
The reasons were as follows:
- you spent too much time on your computer in the teachers office
- one student said he didn't like your classes
- you didn't eat Korean food in the school canteen/cafeteria
- the teachers wanted you to learn Korean

They went on to say that they didn't know it would cause EPIK to not resign me but I think thats BS. Of course the last month of my contract I was very aloof with all of them and made my point that I was angry and offended and let me teaching standards slip completely during the summer camps. I hadn't taken a single sick day during the year and was tempted to use them all within that month but I am a decent hard working person and I just didn't want to lower my own standards.

After this meeting I realised it was nothing to do with my teaching skills or anything else and I was better off not working in that system anyway. I now have a job in a good hagwon and Im truly having a much better time without the drama of public schools. I still have friends in that area and the new NT that replaced me has already quit (within 3 months) because the principal is so horrible and rude. So I look back with pride that I lasted a year and saw out my contract.

At this time I would like to warn others thinking of renewing that you keep your options open as much as possible. I genuinely had no idea that they were going to give me a poor evaluation and would have begun thinking about my next move had I known. In the current job market I think schools are more willing to replace teachers that, like me, just aren't liked by the staff. It is worth the risk to find a new, fresh face teacher who might be the 'perfect' foreign teacher they are eternally searching for.

OP - good luck. I wish you all the best in your evaluation.

[nautilus]

[calicoe]

Yeah, a lot of good advice here. Thank you all for your comments. It has confirmed a lot of what my instincts have been tellling me. But, it is also true that EPIK is notorious for renewing late.

However, there is no doubt that my situation is strange. My Ko-teachers and I have been on good terms, but there has also been tension, over the "strict" thing, and the idea that I am not supposed to discipline students in any way. I have had my clashes with them over this in the past and thought it was done. It took a turn for the worse after I returned from summer vacation. The Ko-teacher with the "strict" complaint, intervened in one of my verbal reprimands to one of the more disrespectful students at the time, and turned almost the entire 1st grade middle school against me for awhile with "talks" she was having about me with them. The Ko-teacher and I didn't talk for a few days. They decided to hand out student evaluations of me at this time. Of course, now, students are magically upbeat towards me again.

All of the compromise has always been on my end, and that is the only reason why our relationship has ever been restored back to good terms. Tonight I took them out to dinner as a way to repay them for collecting 100,000 won for me before I went on vacation last summer. I think they felt bad that they had to come back from a POE meeting and tell me to change my travel plans DAYS before I was to take off; I refused.

One of them chose an expensive beef place tonight, but in a way I feel relieved, because I have "paid" back that debt from back in the summer.

I am trying to play this thing right. Of course, I am still looking for the best job possible. But, I am keenly aware of how hard it is to get a letter of release and reference. I was thinking that if I let them make the decision to not renew me, they don't lose face, and we can chalk it up to a bad fit and they can give me the paperwork I need to move on. So, in a way, I can try and use their reluctance to work in my favor while I look for a job and let them think they are the decisive ones.

Don't know if that will make any difference, though.

edit again: And tonight at dinner, they both complained and gave me sob stories about how the principal and head teachers hate the English Korean teachers, and they are outcasts. This has always been the case, but this could also be a convenient way of setting the scene to come, no?

Also, magically, my demo was cancelled 4 times, to end up not occurring at all. I WANTED the demo, because I wanted a contrast to whatever bad evaluation they were going to write about me. Now I don't even have open proof or contrast to whatever theys say.