The Ongoing Problem with my Job in Korea & Why I'm Leaving
I'd heard of it happening to others who are teachers in Korea, but I never actually thought it would happen to me. When I arrived here, I was coming to a place that was recommended by another debate instructor from the USA. Things started okay during the first few months, and then the job started to go downhill. My job was mainly to teach debate on the weekends and then a few English classes during the week. Being a hagwon job (a private school rather than a public school) one of the advantages is that you don't really have a 9 to 5 type of job where you have to stay at the school when you're not teaching, and everything was generally okay. The kids were cool, and on some days it was a lot of fun.
Fast-forward into about the fourth month and that's when things started to go downhill. First off, the school started making a lot of bad decisions business-wise, and students started dropping off. Then more bad decisions. Then some really bad decisions. And then about the fourth month in, we weren't paid. Then a month or so went by, and we still weren't paid. Then a tiny bit of pay was made up, but we were still far behind. Some good teachers quit (the Korean ones). I was the only foreign teacher, which means I don't have the luxury of quitting because my visa is controlled by the school itself. So I couldn't quit. So I watched as everyone else quit.
Into the sixth month, the boss sold the school to someone else. Pay still hasn't been up to date. Some of us receive a bit of it, but generally we don't receive all of it. Into the seventh month, I didn't get paid at all. As it is, my pay is now 1 and a half months behind, or actually I'm paid up minus 1.5 of my monthly salary, if that makes any sense.
What makes it worse is that the boss is constantly promising to pay on one day, that day arrives, and then nothing happens. Then you can't get a hold of him. And then when you finally do, he acts like nothing happened and then makes promises of when he might be able to pay, often changing the date by the end of the conversation. Two days ago, he promised to pay me (by some bizarre formula he had calculated) on Friday (today). No pay. Then he was called by the new boss who realized I was pissed, and he promised to pay 1 million won (about 1/3 of the amount he owes me). My account received 500,000 won. In other words, he paid me 1/6 of the amount of money he owed me. There's no word when I'll actually get paid.
The new boss decided out of the blue that she doesn't like paying on the 10th, so she's going to be paying on the 20th, but not THIS 20th because she thinks the last month is owed by the previous boss, so she says she'll pay me my next check NEXT month on the 20th. In other words, I will have gone about 3 months without being paid, and then I'll get paid a tiny percentage of the amount I'm supposed to be paid.
So, if anyone wants to know why I've decided to just cut and run, that's why. Unless something drastic happens here, I'm going to take the few dollars I have and just come home to the United States and pretend that Korea never happened. I'm so sick and tired of dealing with this crap on a nonstop basis. It would be one thing if I was in love with some Korean girl here, or I loved the food, or something like that. But none of those factors exist.
And the new boss has hired a manager who seems to like speaking to me like a child. Now, in some contexts that might actually be kind of cool, but right now, I'm not into having a mommy as a supervisor. Remember the one advantage about working only when you have classes to teach? She doesn't like that, and she wants me there every hour that the school is open. You know, if things were a lot better in all sorts of other areas with this school, I might be amicable to something like this. But things suck here right now.
The funny thing is that the mothers of a lot of these students keep requesting that their kids have more classes with me. I'm a pretty good teacher and the kids like me. I make classes informative and interesting. But I'm afraid they're going to lose me because of all of this garbage. And if this keeps working as it has, I have all intentions of jumping ship sometime next week, realizing that I'm never going to get paid anyway. Sure, I'll have to suffer when I get home, and I don't know how I'll actually survive it, but I can't take this anymore. At least if I decide to do something stupid and drastic to my life, I'd at least like to be around people who at least understand me when I decide to do it. Yes, Golden Gate Bridge, I'm thinking of you right now in your big red beauty. Okay, I'm not there yet, but at least I'd like the option of going out someplace close to where I can buy a Wendy's cheeseburger first.
Stumble It!
Fast-forward into about the fourth month and that's when things started to go downhill. First off, the school started making a lot of bad decisions business-wise, and students started dropping off. Then more bad decisions. Then some really bad decisions. And then about the fourth month in, we weren't paid. Then a month or so went by, and we still weren't paid. Then a tiny bit of pay was made up, but we were still far behind. Some good teachers quit (the Korean ones). I was the only foreign teacher, which means I don't have the luxury of quitting because my visa is controlled by the school itself. So I couldn't quit. So I watched as everyone else quit.
Into the sixth month, the boss sold the school to someone else. Pay still hasn't been up to date. Some of us receive a bit of it, but generally we don't receive all of it. Into the seventh month, I didn't get paid at all. As it is, my pay is now 1 and a half months behind, or actually I'm paid up minus 1.5 of my monthly salary, if that makes any sense.
What makes it worse is that the boss is constantly promising to pay on one day, that day arrives, and then nothing happens. Then you can't get a hold of him. And then when you finally do, he acts like nothing happened and then makes promises of when he might be able to pay, often changing the date by the end of the conversation. Two days ago, he promised to pay me (by some bizarre formula he had calculated) on Friday (today). No pay. Then he was called by the new boss who realized I was pissed, and he promised to pay 1 million won (about 1/3 of the amount he owes me). My account received 500,000 won. In other words, he paid me 1/6 of the amount of money he owed me. There's no word when I'll actually get paid.
The new boss decided out of the blue that she doesn't like paying on the 10th, so she's going to be paying on the 20th, but not THIS 20th because she thinks the last month is owed by the previous boss, so she says she'll pay me my next check NEXT month on the 20th. In other words, I will have gone about 3 months without being paid, and then I'll get paid a tiny percentage of the amount I'm supposed to be paid.
So, if anyone wants to know why I've decided to just cut and run, that's why. Unless something drastic happens here, I'm going to take the few dollars I have and just come home to the United States and pretend that Korea never happened. I'm so sick and tired of dealing with this crap on a nonstop basis. It would be one thing if I was in love with some Korean girl here, or I loved the food, or something like that. But none of those factors exist.
And the new boss has hired a manager who seems to like speaking to me like a child. Now, in some contexts that might actually be kind of cool, but right now, I'm not into having a mommy as a supervisor. Remember the one advantage about working only when you have classes to teach? She doesn't like that, and she wants me there every hour that the school is open. You know, if things were a lot better in all sorts of other areas with this school, I might be amicable to something like this. But things suck here right now.
The funny thing is that the mothers of a lot of these students keep requesting that their kids have more classes with me. I'm a pretty good teacher and the kids like me. I make classes informative and interesting. But I'm afraid they're going to lose me because of all of this garbage. And if this keeps working as it has, I have all intentions of jumping ship sometime next week, realizing that I'm never going to get paid anyway. Sure, I'll have to suffer when I get home, and I don't know how I'll actually survive it, but I can't take this anymore. At least if I decide to do something stupid and drastic to my life, I'd at least like to be around people who at least understand me when I decide to do it. Yes, Golden Gate Bridge, I'm thinking of you right now in your big red beauty. Okay, I'm not there yet, but at least I'd like the option of going out someplace close to where I can buy a Wendy's cheeseburger first.
Labels: Employment, Korea
Stumble It!
posted by Duane @ 8:42 AM
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