::A Geek in Korea::

The school franchise that is buying the place I work sent down people to survey the school, measure it up, and plan out how it was going to be remodeled. I found it humorous that people with tape measures and diagrams were walking around the school planning to carve it up as students were studying in the same room. There is no word when the school is getting ripped apart and redesigned, but it has to happen before February. There will be three or four days at the end of January where we’re supposed to have holidays, so perhaps that’s when they’ll do the complete remodeling.

Remodeling in Korea tends to be really freaking thorough. Our apartment was remodeled in the “tear it all out first” style of remodeling. They ripped out EVERYTHING you’d think of, left a hulking slab of concrete, then came in and did everything over. Whenever a business fails in Korea, the very next day they are ripping everything down to the bare walls. 90% of the time the store that moves in will be of the same type or design, and will have nearly the same layout and function. I guess SOMETHING has to keep people employed.

I’m just wondering if they are planning to remodel the school during the class session. I’ve had to deal with that twice before, with students weaving in and out of power tools and high on paint fumes while people work in rooms where I teach. Considering they were measuring walls to knock out, I don’t think they’ll make me work when someone has a sledgehammer poking through a wall,  but I wouldn’t put it past them.

Speaking of ripping things apart and starting over, my wife had a brilliant idea about trying to squeeze some early concessions out of my boss. My director, who went through her training for the franchise last week, has been very tight lipped about her promises of new contracts. We tracked down the starting offers the school’s recruiter stated was their “standard contract.” I’m still in the “show me” phase of this transition between this school and the new franchise. There has been a lot of talk about the new school, but not to the teachers. We tracked down the starting offers the school’s recruiter stated was their “standard contract.”

Of the eight or so clauses in the contract, I had issues with about six of them. Only two, full free medical coverage and two set weeks of vacation were better for me. I printed off their “offer” for employment and went into my director’s office. I showed her what they said was their “First Year Contract”.  They might as well have written “Contract for First Year Suckers” on the top. The contract’s stated hours were way too long. No way anyone should be teaching elementary school children until 10pm. The pay was meager considering the downturn in South Korean won this year too. The severance and airfare, as well as housing are non-issues for me as well. I even think they were charging illegal amounts of tax beyond what was required by the government (6% tax rate vs. the required 4.45%).

Without going into too many details, there were…issues. I wanted answers. She sat down to look at it and claimed it was the first time she had seen this information. She and I had worked out what we had considered a fair compromise the last two years, and she needed to look over this franchises contract. I put her on the spot and said that if she handed this to me, I wouldn’t be signing it because of the list of problems I had noted.

The director looked at the contract clauses with me and said, “Yeah, I don’t think…no, not for you….no, that’s not going to happen….no, you don’t need that….no, that’s not in your contract now…I don’t think that is the contract you and I need to sign. I can make my own contract as the director. I’ll give to you then.”

As of now, we have an understanding that I’ll not be given that crap contract at the new school. It seems she thinks she’ll get a hand in hiring and managing her employees, which is a good sign. The last franchise I dealt with tried to push everything up to Seoul and couldn’t get back to me on anything less than a week after I had asked. As long as it’s my current director planning everything, I don’t think they’ll draft up something with any evil clauses.