::A Geek in Korea::

This will be the only vacation I get this year. As surprising as it is to say that I get only a week’s vacation in a year, it’s even more surprising I get any non-holiday time off at all. Short of finishing a contract and moving to another job, I have no paid vacation at all. This isn’t like teaching at a public school in the United States.

My school isn’t exactly equipped to cover people when they are sick or want some time off. If you ask for a sick day, you’d better be in the hospital, or stuck on a toilet. It’s only because I told my boss TWO months ahead of time, and can demand a few things due to my longevity and experience that I get such a favor and am allowed to go on a vacation. The next contract I have, I’ll be pushing for a week’s paid vacation as a bonus. I’d be surprised if I got it. It’s just not done for part-time foreign teachers.

There is a lot of burn out in the ESL industry because of the lack of holidays. When you are used to hiring people for a year then exchanging them for the younger less experienced employee that is easier to exploit, you don’t really care if the people you are hiring are happy most of the time. There is always someone willing to work for less that knows less.

I’d like to think my school values my contribution to their program, but I am an expensive person to keep around. It’s probably a good thing my friends were only able to take a week off this year for their vacation to come visit me. They used up all their vacation days, and I don’t have any to begin with, so if their trip was longer, we’d all be in trouble.