Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mytime]

So I have been here 3 years now and I met maybe 5 people who "ran away"
And all of them left like a thief in the night
It made me wonder why a teacher don't just tell his boss he's leaving, say on the weekend?

I mean if you don't have outstanding bills or anything else, why run away?
Just tell your boss you quit
Surely your boss can't prevent you from leaving the country. Even if you have a contract and it says you have to give notice, you can leave when you want.

My boss told me that the previous teacher before me ran away and he (my boss) called the police....what can the police do? It's not a crime to break a civil law contract and they definitely cant force a foreigner to stay in a country unless he broke the law.
Or does Korea have different laws?

[mateomiguel]

passive-aggressive revenge?

[ttompatz]

[archer904]

[edit]

[kangnam mafioso]

i signed a year contract and had to leave after 3 months. i gave a 30 day notice and repaid the one-way airfare back to the hogwan. everything was paid to me that was owed and my visa was cancelled in the appropriate way so if i want to return i don't have to get a release letter and all that. the owners were pretty cool about the whole thing. so -- it is posssible to leave without doing a runner and not get ripped off.

[BigBuds]

[babtangee]

Yeah... totally off the wall assumptions there, archer. "Can't leave the country without your employer's permission." What are we, imported sweat shop workers? ROFLMFAO!

[mateomiguel]

despite how you may feel, you are not in white slavery or indentured servitude. The cops will not hunt you down if you are late for class.

[twg]

[jmbran11]

I did a midnight run five years ago, so I'll answer on behalf of those in my sitution. Some of us fear that the employer will cause big problems for them, including getting the police involved. Yes, we are not slaves, but when you are young and you have an employer who has demonstrated some particular nastiness, you really don't know what he/she may be capable of. For example, I was positive that if I told my employer that I wanted to quit, I would be immediately evicted from my apartment and told to leave that night. I was afraid I would be locked out or that the police would be there to physically restrain me from leaving the country. Quitting your job may not be a crime, but your employer could report you for virtually any other (untrue) crime under the sun and cause you serious legal trouble. I was afraid I would be sued for breaking my contract and expected to return my airfare or somehow sued for something else, with no idea how the legal system worked. I was afraid that my employer would do anything and use any of his personal connections to wreak vengeance.

Now, five years older, it sounds ridiculous, but when you are scared, you just want to get away. When you see bad enough sides of someone that you honestly, truly believe they are capable of anything, and you live in a country where you don't know the law, don't speak the language, and don't know who to turn to for help - a midnight run seems the only option. Let me say that now that I work for reputable employer whom I trust, I would never, ever consider running.

On the flip side, if someone does something mean enough to you, you just want to screw them over. And, by having a popular teacher simply not show up for work one day, it's a form of getting even.

[djsmnc]

[Captain Corea]

[archer904]

[archer904]

[JongnoGuru]