The Day I Left the Nut House

Way back in March, I was forced into an early resignation from my job at ILS.  I was working a lot of overtime, and not getting paid for it.  I checked out my contract, which stated that any time I spend at the school, whether it's for classroom teaching, marking, administrative, it all counted toward the calculation of hours worked.  The only thing that didn't was one hour of preparation daily.  The contract stated that if I worked more that 30 hours a week, that I would be paid overtime.  At the time I had read this, I was working about 10 hours a week overtime, 40 hours a month, but wasn't seeing a nickel for that extra work.

The director at the school was quite crazy, as was her husband, the owner.  I brought up my situation with them, and they told me that I had misinterpreted the contract.  Once I brought the contract out, with the Employee Duties and Hours Worked section highlighted, they were blown away.  They informed me that they had not read the contract yet (5 months into my employment) and they would get back to me later.  I also pointed out in the contract, that since Kristin and I are a couple, that we are entitled to a two bedroom apartment, and that at no time should two people share a bachelor apartment.  I dont have any problems with living with Kristin, but a bachelor apartment isn't meant for two people. 

The next day, they get back to me.  First they ask which matter I think is most important.  Obviously, I stated that the overtime was of more importance than the apartment. At this point, I'm thinking I have a chance of getting one or the other.  Just when you think things are starting to look much brighter, I get their cliche phrase.... I'm sorry, but you don't understand the contract, it's your misinterpretation. Clearly, since I am a native english speaker, and both my director and her husband, who need a translator for every discussion we have since they're english is so weak, I am the one that doesn't understand the English version of the contract. So, we have some words, and I'm told that there is no way that they will pay me for the overtime, because that is just asking too much out of them.  After discussing the matter with my recruiter, he is informed that the school is planning on firing both Kristin and I, because we are asking for way too much from the school. We would have to leave within a couple of weeks.

I decide I'll ask the director about their plans to fire us, and am told that they have no such plans. However, I get an ultimatum.  I get the choice to stay at the school, where nothing will change.  I will still work 9-7, not receive any overtime, and can't discuss the matter any further, OR, I can quit.  Kristin and I talk about this, not for long though. We've hated the school for quite some time, so we decided that we would leave the school.  We were hoping on being able to leave within two weeks because obviously there would be an incredible amount of tension in the air having to work around these lunatics.  Just as we get our hopes up though, we are told that we must stay at the school for another two months while they search for replacement teachers.  If we don't stay for that long, they will not release us from our work visa, and we will be unable to legally work anywhere else in Korea.  Greasy, just greasy. We stick around for the next two months. Meanwhile, they beg us to stay for another few weeks because they're having difficulty finding new workers.  Oh, it was just so sad. Really broke my heart.  Since I'm such an emotional guy, and had so much sympathy for the school, I agreed to help them out...Hahahahah, No, I'm full of shit, I wouldn't do that. We left, and never returned.

We left near the end of March, and since that time, our replacements at the school arrived, decided within two weeks of working there that the school was ass backwards, and there was something clearly wrong with the directors head, so they decided to quit as well.  They had to stay at the school for two months, and then were informed that they wouldn't get released from their visa.  Within a year of opening the school, I believe there have been 6 foreign teachers leave, and probably about 10 or more Korean teachers leave.  The school only employs 5 to 6 teachers at a time.  With an employee turnover  around 300%, they rival the likes of McDonalds.  Probably not the company you want to mimic though if your running a school.