Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kwokman]

Are there other teachers in the Nambu District that have been told to do an open class on a Saturday? I am contracted through SMOE and it specifically states that I do not have to work on Saturdays however it seems like the Nambu District has overruled that area. According to my co-t, the principal of my school was told that all teachers including the NEST would have to come out on the Saturday to do an open class for the students' parents. Is anybody else going through this?

I know that based on our contract, it specifically states that we do not work on Saturdays. I hate how contracts mean very little in Korea and I wish that my co-t actually put up a fight on my behalf. I guess you can say that I'm not too happy with this situation. My biggest concern is that I feel like my co-t is just saying a lot of nonsense. I hate being lied to and if this Saturday open class is actually just happening in our school, then things are going to get ugly. Basically what my co-t told me was that the Nambu district's word overrules the SMOE contract that I made. It just makes no sense to me and I feel that I should get paid overtime for that one hour at the minimum. I know that I can just suck it up and do that one hour(which isn't a lot of time anyways) but I just feel like a pushover if I don't even get paid for it. If I let this slide, my school might want to take more advantage of me. Tell me your thoughts as it's driving me crazy.

One last note...in my school, my co-t is also the coordinator and supervisor of the English department. Apparently, the administration at my school is messed up and only assigned one person to do all those jobs. This in return makes my job a lot harder since I have to do so much more. I also don't want to call my co-t out on lying as that might ruin the work environment.

[jonpurdy]

Your school can't override your contract, regardless of what your co- or your school says. Either get paid for it (which they won't do since they don't budget for it) or don't work. Tell your co- to call SMOE and sort it out. SMOE will tell them to respect your contract.

(Theoretically anyway. Ulsan MOE, where I work, is quite good with stuff like this. I assume SMOE would be the same, though I've heard some not great things about it.)

Let us know how it goes!

[DrugstoreCowgirl]

This happened to me as well (in EPIK). My school told me I must do it since it's a school function and it's my duty and I couldn't get overtime. I said that my contract says I don't work Saturdays and if I do I'm entited to OT. I said I had no problem doing it if I'm getting paid. They ended up saying I didn't have to do it, although it caused quite a strain with my school and co-teacher and the next Monday she was like "I heard other foreigners had to work on Saturday for free because it's their duty". Right.

[kwokman]

Apparently my co-t said that she'll talk to the vp and try to get me paid...but it seems like a lost cause. It's so frustrating how the school feels that they can just completely ignore the contract and force this upon the teachers. I wish that there was someone at SMOE where their only job was to look up on complaints that the foreign teachers had and follow up on them to make sure that it's legal or not.
Like DrugstoreCowgirl mentioned, I just don't want to cause office tension amongst my co-t since she happens to also be the coordinator and supervisor of the English department. I just can't help but feel like it's some jealous conspiracy to make the "foreigner" work on a Saturday since the korean teachers have to work themselves.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[jonpurdy]

[kwokman]

Thanks all for the help. I told my co-t about the contract and that if they want me to come out on the Saturday, they will have to pay me for it. She told me that she will speak with the VP and then get back to me. Seems like she wasn't too happy because she left without even saying goodbye. Haha. Oh well...that's what she gets for trying to walk all over me.

[Seoulio]

They need to get it in their heads. Chances are if they come to you and say "we know you don't have to work Saturday's but Saturday works best to have this open class, and youd really help us out if you could do it"

Then you are an ass if you say no, and chnaces are you will not say no and you will not ask for extra pay unless you are a total monger.

But this whole " you are doing open classes on Saturday" is just rude, and as stated, we do not have to do them ever at all, for pay or otherwise, if we do not wish to.

[balzor]

[kwokman]

I completely agree that being in Korea, working on a Saturday to do an open class for the students' parents to earn some brown nosing points is fine as long as they pay me. The only thing is that the initial approach by my co-t was that the school was doing an open class on a Saturday and by Nambu guidelines, I would have to come out and not get paid for it. Basically, I have no other choice but to come out on a Saturday and not even think about getting paid for it since it was mandatory. I actually got in contact with someone at the Nambu district and found out that they did send this memo out, however, they made it clear that the NSETs would have to get paid overtime for this.

Apparently my co-t seems to have some ill feelings towards me but she sure concealed it well during the previous semester. Either that or she wants to save face in front of the VP when she said that she would take care of the task of getting me to come out on the Saturday without pay(my school really likes to try and take advantage of me...so far they have failed every try).

[CentralCali]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Cali is right in that you can very well say no if it is not in your contract.

I would advise saying no politely because you are still working for the school.

Or, you could do it if you have a good relationship with your employer and think this would be beneficial to the school.

Up to you really.

[sigmundsmith]

What you could do is contact Nambu district office yourself and ask about coming to do an open a class on Saturday and if you do will you be compensated. You can also call your native teacher district representative (is that still going?). Being the ex-nambu district rep I always tried to keep in contact with nset's of the district.

My advice would be to look at your stituation with your school. do and have you had a good relationship with them? have they been strict with the letter of the contract or have they sometimes been flexible to your needs?

I always thought that it is important to maintain a good working relationship with the school. if the above answers to the questions are yes I would say that to go in on a saturday without extra pay for an hour or two would be no big deal. but if you are sure that you dont want to do it then that is your choice.

if the school has not been flexible and asked you to do things for nothing in the past then maybe you should stick your ground.

there was a situation a couple of years ago where schools were asking the nset to come to their sports day on saturday (no pay). not all schools were asking this but those who did, the nset contacted me. and i gave them the same advice. i personally went to mine as i had a great relationship with my school. only went for a couple of hours and got to meet some of the parents and participate in some of the activities so it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours on a nice saturday morning.

now, some may say that if you let them get away with doing something like this once then they will try it more often (expecting something for nothing). well, my advice is this is where your negotiation skills come into play. my school had an increase of one extra class for me taking the total of 23 classes a week instead of 22 but they didn't want to pay me for the extra class. I said that is ok with me but I get to leave 40 minutes early on friday. they agreed no problems with that. but as classes were canceled on many occassions i think in one year i only left early on 4 occassions.

if your school are tight and strict and not reciprocal then stand your ground and refuse. if you have a good working relationship and they are flexible and understanding of your needs i would say go in for the hour or two and do it. and look at it this way you will probably get to go out for a free lunch afterwards

[PatrickGHBusan]

[Goon-Yang]

Tell them you'll help them out if they will help you out. Say vacation time...a few extra days of not desk warming would be nice;)