Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jay-shi]

I know it's an unusual question but I don't recall anyone having asked it here.

But do you have the keys to your hagwon? I am in my fourth year at the same hagwon, (yes you may think I'm crazy, but there are some really great gigs out there that no one complains about, so you don't hear about them... by the way we are hiring).

Today I had to ask my boss to have a key for work related reasons, my first question was: "Do you trust me?", as I suspected he said he did. Then I asked him if I could have a key. He immediately asked my Korean counterpart to have a set of keys ready for me tomorrow.

I was always a bit reluctant to ask for one before, because I didn't really need one, and if anything ever happened, I didn't want to be on the suspect list. I do need one now though to come in on weekends to do some voluntary overtime, paperwork and whatnot. I am comforted by the fact that the police has busted the shady noraebang in the basement while I was on vacation and installed CCTV at the building entrance today. If anything happens it'll be recorded and it sure as hell isn't going to be me doing anything bad.

I've only known one foreigner hagwon guy, out of eight, in my little town, that had the keys to his hagwon.

So my question to all of you is : Do you have the keys to your hagwon?

[shifdog]

I know of a teacher who has the keys to his hagwon. He collects housing allowance, and he crashes at the hagwon when the staff are gone. It's been going on for about 4 months now.

[goodgood]

Got em... but try to use them as rarely as possible. Though it is nice being there with no whining kids and no whining teachers bothering me. Completely different place.

[oneofthesarahs]

I've got keys, but I've never used them, and I probably never will. It's nice to have them anyway.

[Zyzyfer]

Keys? Keys! What kind of newfangled hellhole works with keys in the 21st century?

[wylies99]

At my first hogwan, one foreign teacher had keys. He was a rat/snake anyway.

BTW- Because he had keys, he ended doing a lot of stupid crap for no pay. He would complain about it to the rest of us, but then he would tell the director and owner he didn't mind doing the stupid crap.

[captain kirk]

I was given keys twice and didn't ask for them.

Lived on the roof of a country hagwon with two classrooms. Boss lived twenty minutes away. I could get to work early w/out having to wait for him. And watch the place.

Second time the boss and his wife, two daughters lived in a small apt. at the back of the school, which was on the fourth floor on a downtownish street. Only three people teaching there; boss, K-teacher, me. City of half a million.

[Hollywoodaction]

My jerk of an ex-boss set up a 6:30 am class for me. After about a week he realized how difficult it was to get up to open up the door at that time--especially when he was always still drunk from the night before--so he gave me a set of the keys.

[some waygug-in]

I had that situation as well, but after I slept in a couple of times, the boss realized that he would have to be up to check on me regardless. The students were none too keen about attending such an early class either, so after a couple of weeks....class was cancelled.



Broke my heart.....that one.

[pavement burns]

Back in the day we had the keys because two or three days a week Mr. Burns was the first one there for early morning adult classes. Mr. Burns once needed to deposit huge fees for even just getting a telephone. So Mr. Burns used the hagwon as an international calling booth when there were no calling cards or cell-phones just annoying little beepers and long line ups at any pay phone from early in the morning to long into the night.

Mr. Burns slept on the stone cold floor a few nights once to avoid crazy lady with missing kitchen knife and furry boots until the bus driver took him in for the rest of the week until those boots got walking. On weekends Mr. Burns was free to disconnect the VCR and take it back to Mr Burns' place with him to entertain the mouse in the house. The hagwon was a metal walled hell but home was a cagey dong-geum apt. with a rattling washing machine running on three, not four bearings.

It was the kind of place a boney tiger would hole up in waiting for the master to throw a chicken in there once a day. I relish the fact that my office is bigger than my first abode and that my pass key swipes every door in the place.

[Raeddie]

My last school had a hidden key outside the hagwon. On most days I would be the person that unlocked the school since I arrived first.

[rawiri]

Think of the ramifications!, Cazy foreigner go's nuts and steals all the lets go series 1-5 work and activity books, then go's apo in the teachers room flinging the supersized bowl of gimchi everywhere!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I think that keys are about the last thing I'd want if I worked at a hagwon. Thankfully my HS is almost always open. I've come in on a Sunday, got the staff room key from the caretaker, found a student whose mother made her come in to study to help me translate some stuff, and got a lot of work done in quiet.

[sadsac]

Had keys to every hogwan I've worked at. Just for convenience.

[mexican-american-in-korea]

I asked my director for keys to the hagwon and he showed me the old credit card in the door trick.

Problem solved. haha.