::A Geek in Korea::

Let me tell you right now, this story ends anti-climatically. I wish this story would end with a raid on some fortified position. Someone with a telephone in one hand, gun pressed to the head of a hostage, shouting demands until the SWAT team kicks down the door and there is some glorious gunfight that will be discussed on the International News as that “Great Tragedy” or “Something we hope is never repeated”.

Alas, this is not that kind of story. This story ends more with a whimper than a gunfight. But it’s still a story with industrial spying, so it’s not all dull. Try to keep your interest as I retell it.

So, a few months ago, our revolving weekly “New Secretary” routine ended. I was introduced to a secretary one week, and the next week, the SAME woman was at the job. Not only that, she stayed the next week as well. After setting an endurance record by lasting at our school for a few weeks, the new secretary had a new assistant that became the “Revolving secretary that quit every other week”.

Having a permanent secretary was decent enough, except she wasn’t exactly top quality. She made frequent mistakes on the vocabulary tests, and couldn’t speak any English. She didn’t do anything to endear herself to any of the teachers either. She lasted about six months on the job, and I don’t remember having a single conversation other than work.

I wasn’t surprised to see her gone, replaced by a new secretary. This woman could speak English, and was much better at socializing and the other duties of the job. New secretary, moving on.

Dear reader, if you were wondering where the promised industrial espionage starts, I will now deliver. Students files and records are the domain of the secretary. They have their own computer that does all the work of tracking who the students are, who owe money, who has quit, and how to contact everyone.

For every student, the file contains contact information. Anyone that had access to the computers could have made a copy of those files. For example, a disgruntled employee that ended up working for a new school might have a reason for holding onto those kinds of files.

I’ve got a relative that used to attend my school. They had quit a few months ago when I was negotiating my contract. They were cold called by the ex-secretary. She asked if they remembered her, and if they wanted to change schools. She could get them into a different school nearby if they wanted since she now worked there.

Hmmmm. That’s awfully coincidental.

So, my relatives give us the word about how this woman had called them and what she had been up to asking. Our relative wasn’t very happy that the security on documents that had their information had been stolen by an ex-employee. The relative suggested we alert the director as soon as possible about this privacy problem before we got a slew of angry mothers calling us.

I did just that. It seems my director was aware that the secretary had ample access to the information before she quit, but had no idea that she was in contact with old students. My director called around and found out that not only had old students been called, but implied to me that current students were also getting called as well.

Stealing students or teachers is very frowned upon in the industry. Things are so intensely competitive people will go to great lengths to find new potential students. I’ve heard of schools calling people at random from yearbooks to see if students have younger siblings that would be looking for a discount to study at a school. When I was in contract negotiations with other schools, they said I wasn’t allowed to “bring” students with me, because if word got out that people were switching schools, all the other schools in the neighborhood would be unhappy.

So, while I don’t know if it was an actual crime, it’s certainly not something which people approve of doing. There have been no arrests, no hostages, or inadvisable tragedies yet. But one can hope.