Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lepid gecko]

I'm coming back to korea for another year. the first job I had my contract said 120 teaching hours a month. I got to learn later that agreeing to that was a bad idea, because there was no distinction of office hours and contact time.
My question is: who has managed to put an exact specification of contact hours and office hours per day in their contract?

[peppermint]

Contact time and office hours are standard parts of a public school or uni contract.

[jacl]

I didn't have to even think about it. My "office hours" are 2-9 and my teaching hours are 120/month. Therefore it's 6 teaching hours/day. Anymore time a day is OT. By law. You'll be teaching more than 120 hours most months when you work 6 hrs/day but the monthly salary is only based on 30 hrs/wk for 4 weeks and that's your month. The OT is daily and only weekly if your work on days that are not specified in your contract (i.e. your contract says M-F, but you work on a Saturday).

Sounds like a hagwon job so I'd have to say that you shouldn't have more than 7 hours/day at the job. Meaning 6 hours (6 50-minute classes) and an hour break. The break either being split in two half hours or given all at once. Anything outside the contract office hours is OT. So, when I teach 2-9. If I before 2 pm or after 9 pm, it's OT. If I teach 7 classes between 2 and 9 pm, I get one hour of OT. If it's a split shift, you should know what the office hours are. Let's say you have a 10 am to 7 pm contract. That's 9 hours. You should not have to be there all day. There should be at least 2 hours of your own time within that. For exampole, if your teaching hours are scheduled between 10 am and 12:30 pm and between 1:30 pm and 7 pm, you should get an hour OT. You have to be at the school 8 hours (office hours). That's one hour of OT. Even if you only have 6 teaching hours. If you get a contract where you have a split shift and work 10 to 12 and then 2-7, they've got you because those two hours between shifts is personal time.

It depends on what you agree to initially. Think about that first. I think that 7 hours a day is reasonable to spend at the school if you teach 6 hours (6 50-minute classes). You'll want one hour of unspervised lesson planning to do lesson plans, smoke cigarettes, go eat, etc. I figure that half an hour is eating and half an hour is paper work, planning, etc. Depending on how you feel any given day. More than that is too much when you teach that much.

I wouldn't do the split shift thing. Unless I got OT. I like getting paid OT for teaching more hours. If it's other than that, they'll just think they're paying you for nothing and you'll have to look bad by demanding you get paid for the extra time you have to be there. They'll just assume you accept the time you are there.

[jacl]

I think the best shift would be 6 hours with no extra time. Let's say a 1 to 7. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and bang. Bye bye. Then you could get work at another school and get it approved by your boss to make it legal. Maybe an 8 - 10. Maybe one could find that in Seoul or a big city. That would be wicked. You could make well ove 3 million doing that being in office 8 hours/day. All legal. Have to have a horseshoe up your ass to get that though.

Again, I'm talking too much.

[lepid gecko]

i see, so it is meaning 120 contact hours.
i'm not a lazy teacher, i'm just not a very good teacher by the last hour on that kind of schedule.

[Wangja]

120 hours, Jeeeez.

Last job I had outside Korea, we got overtime pay, even in February. From the 241st hour.

sheeeee, 120 hours ....

[thaitom]

Okay, so what happens when you work your 120 hours for four weeks and three more days during your month? ( 4 weeks 3 days). Am I working the extra 3 days for free? I checked the calendar for the year and added up 22 extra days outside of my 120 four week months. That is a months worth of work I give them for free?? People here have told me it all balances out with holidays ect.. but I do not see it that way.

[Demonicat]

The same thing that happens in any salaried job anywhere in the world, you suck it up and work it; knowing that you get 2 weeks vacation and about 2 weeks worth of holidays. If it really gets to you, ask if you can forgo your holidays and vacation in exchange for a bonus of 166.000 a month.

[Wangja]

[Zyzyfer]

[Alan_Partridge]

[Grotto]

We get paid the bonus because its Korean law.

Whenever you sign up for a contract you should make sure the hours are clearly stated. 2-8, 1-7, 3-9 whatever. Your contract should also state that any teaching outside of these hours will be paid overtime.