Korean Job Discussion Forums

[depth]

hi all,

if any of the forum experts could please advise,

my work has asked if I can 'do them a favor" and occasionally do 1-2 classes on the weekend.

I am looking for an effective reason to turn them down gently without impacting the work relationship. if anyone can advise reasons that i can give, that would be appreciated. i prefer not to say that its not in my contract and so im not interested. im wanting to give some sort of understandable reason...

the real reason is that im too busy with an internet business, but my contract says no outside work (of any kind) no allowed, and i just got off the phone to immigration who confirmed the same thing. so im not gonna take the risk of telling work the real reason.

my contract says work is from mon-fri, which helps...also my filipina wife will be arriving to live with me in november. so im thinking i can say that i will spend time with my wife on the weekends to help her feel comfortable and happy cause she's alone during the week when im at work.

thanks for any answers

[Nadia_M]

Definitely use your wife as an excuse! Other possible excuses: church, calling relatives, you promised friends you'd help them with something, etc.

Just be really apologetic, making it seem like you want to help them out, but you can't.

[InDaGu]

Tell them you came to Korea to explore and travel on the weekends, to experience the culture, and that you wouldn't have accepted the job if you'd known weekend work was involved.

[northway]

Ask for overtime. They'll quickly drop the issue.

[RMNC]

[Ramen]

Tell them "NO" unless they're willing to pay a lot of money.

[Richard Krainium]

If you don't want to do it, JUST SAY NO.

Otherwise, suck it up.

It's a hagwon for christsake's. Dime a dozen, no matter what anybody says.

[InDaGu]

[jrwhite82]

I agree you should give a realistic reason. It will help keep your relationship with your boss in good health. Just flat out saying, "No, my contract says I don't have to, so I'm not gonna!" That would make you look like a jerk and a child. Even though your contract does say it, they aren't demanding it, they only asked you to help out, so why go there? Just politely refuse and give a good reason. It is wise of you to take the correct approach.

You should tell your boss that a recruiter tried to get you to take a 3.0million job a month with Saturday work but you refused because you really wanted your weekends off to relax and explore the country and then each Friday or Monday for the next few weeks tell him where you went or plan on going. (just to sell it)

Or, tell him you could help out in the month of October if he pays you the OT rate. And make it clear that it can only be for one month because your wife will be here in November and you will not work on the weekends when she gets here. So that will give him enough time to find an F2/F4 to sub on Saturdays. I know you have other stuff going on but an hour or two probably won't kill you and could give you some extra scratch to buy your wife a nice gift for when she arrives.

[RMNC]

I dunno, for some reason I feel like telling the boss that you want to explore Korea and live in it's culture is a little bit of a hollow reason for not working on a weekend.

And saying to their face that you wouldn't have accepted the job if weekend work was involved might hurt their Korean ego, essentially saying that the job is terrible if one has to work weekends, meaning that the difference between the job being even decent versus unbearable is the fact that he doesn't have to help them out. At least, that's how a hagwon owner might take it. I still agree with you, I just think that particular "reason" is gonna make the hagwon boss have to save face and piss him off.

"What? Explore Korea? You work Saturday, explore Sunday. Please help and understand, it Korean culture. You not accept job if have to help?? THEN GET NEW JOB!!"

[tophatcat]

[jrwhite82]

I think RMNC is a little jaded about hagwon owners!

They're not all bad. The guy only asked the OP if he could help. He is probably half expecting him to say no anyway.

Just tell him he's been working you too hard and you really need that Saturdays off to rest. That will go over real well!

I've never had this problem before. One of the many advantages to being a Seventh Day Adventist...that, and I don't miss any NFL games on Sunday!

[Louis VI]

[jammo]

take advantage of them phrasing it as a question. as the previous posters said


just say no.

[Troglodyte]

You can also say that you just joined a Taekwondo class (or something else with weekly meetings/practice/training) and the classes are all day, saturday and sunday (in particular the hours that your hogwan is open on the weekend). I've done martial arts here, and some of the adult classes really are all day, saturday and sunday. They are either that or 3 hours a day, every evening Monday to Friday.

If you just say something like "I want to relax" or "I want to go out of town on the weekends." then your boss might not understand your logic and it will be the same as if you outright say "no". But if you have a previous commitment that can't be rescheduled, then there's nothing really to do. It's hard for him to argue that "it's just a few hours a month" when you have a commitment already, especially if you are on a team or have paid for a course.

If you do cave in and do it, make sure that you get the boss to agree in advance, and to be very clear about it, that you'll get overtime pay for the weekend - even if you don't do your monthly quota of hours. Everything in your free time is overtime, regardless of whether or not you're teaching a full course load during your regular hours. At most office jobs (in the West, at least), you get paid time and a half for working weekends and double time for working a national holiday. So be very clear with the boss that this weekend work (if you choose to do it) will be counted separately from your normal monthly hours.