One of the things that irks me at my school is how "hands off" they are with foreigners and planning. The last guy that worked here was having a good day if he showed up sober, let alone if he knew where he was going or doing most of the day. I think this lead the Korean teachers to think that it was best of they handled everything concerning the school right away. Here I come into the equations, part time, experienced, somewhat able understand what is going on in both languages, and they still keep me out of the loop.
When requests are made of me, like "The other teacher doesn’t have a book for the new class yet, can you develop a lesson plan in five minutes before he goes to class!? It should last an hour! Go!" I try my best to handle them. Hell, I did that two TIMES today and everyone thought it was magic. Since we are between books series and won’t have our books until the schedule is finalized. This is not a cause for concern. Ladies, this is what I do for a living. Stand back and watch me work.
Anyway, you’d think that since I’ve proven myself capable of teaching, when they go and develop a new schedule they’d at least consult me. I’m the only person working there with strict time guidelines written into his contract. I’ve got the maximum hours per week, as well as "does not work later than this" written in my contract. That was the entire point of my contract negotiations. "No later than this. No more than this."
When they were developing the schedule last week, I asked to see it. I asked two or three people. I told them I wanted to see it. I was told it wasn’t ready yet, so I didn’t need to see. I thought at the time, "If they wanted to keep me from seeing it, they better get it all right the first time."
Lo and behold, today, my schedule was waiting for me on my desk. Not only had they given me too many hours on one day, forcing me to stay late, but they also had another day spaced out with breaks that doubled my time at the school. I’m getting paid by hour. I’m not going to be sitting around the office. When the teacher came in, I broke the news to her. The schedule wasn’t acceptable, I wasn’t going to do it.
This meant they had to completely redo everything they had worked on over the weekend. Today’s schedule remained in tact, even though it was beyond what I had negotiated for in my contract. My dog went and extra long evening without food, and I missed dinner plans with friends as a result. No ounce of sympathy was given by me for all the work I caused to the head teacher. I was doing a big favor when I took over other teacher’s classes to work full time last month, there is no way I’m going to give them another inch because I saw how many miles it took me as a result. Deal with it.
The nice thing about my visa is the fact that if people don’t play nice, I can threaten to take my ball and go home. That is, if they don’t like my demands, I don’t have to keep working there. While someone employed full time would have no choice other than to rot in the office when given a bad schedule, i can basically call them out and tell them what I want.
Why I wasn’t listened to at the beginning to spare people all the effort of trying to fix a broken schedule I’ll never understand. If the other teachers resent the fact that I’m using my contract as a way to get what I want, they need to understand that someone with my teaching experience is an asset that helps the school in more ways than just teaching. That’s why I don’t mind helping make impromptu lessons or develop speaking tests without much prior notice. I’m showing them I’m worth the hassle. If they don’t like it, we’ll see what needs to happen so we can both be happy. What won’t happen is me getting stuck in a bad schedule. My time is too valuable for that.
