::A Geek in Korea::

Since my debut at the rotating “Magic the Gathering casual group” a few months back, I got word that I’d be invited back  whenever they had another set of games. One of the other players hosted a series of games at his house today. I got invited to play. Seeing as I usually do a whole lot of nothing on Sundays, I was happy to play again.

I showed up, borrowed some cards, and got playing. Since one of the other players didn’t come, we had an odd number of players. We played a few free for all matches so that someone was always playing. My deck seemed pretty strong, so unless the other players teamed up, or I made a mistake, I usually was doing heavy damage. Some of the other players had more advanced “theory” style decks that killed you in elaborately planned ways, but those are more suited for 1 on 1 brawls, which I didn’t participate in. I still would rather use a constructed deck than go out and make one for myself, but it was pretty fun. I’ll have to figure out a way to bring the cards I had in the States over when I have a chance.

It was once again an all foreigner, no woman zone. I think I like the chance to hang out with some guys once a month and get out some stress. I’m offering to host the next get together post Brawl acquire, which should mean late March or any time in April.

A few friends invited us to go bowling with them. Seeing as the only bowling I normally do is on the Wii, having the chance to throw a real ball down the alley was a nice change. We met up with two other couples and had a good time. I bowled a 106, and was off to a fast start in my second game only to collapse and end up with a 109. One person had never bowled before, but liked it a lot and wanted to do try again in a few weeks. Semi-regular bowling? Sure!

After our bowling, we went to eat at a restaurant they knew. After a few beers, we went to a Korean franchise bar. This bar’s theme was to look like an old style Korean bar, with corrugated metal walls, old Korean posters, and dented cups. It looks folksy and charming, yet calculated at the same time. We ate some pajeon (squid and green onion pancakes), with some makgeoli.

I haven’t had makgeoli since my first or second year in Korea. This is because I avoid going to mountains with drunken old Korean men. Also, the few times I did drink it, I had unkind hang overs of the “WHY ARE THE EARTHWORMS SO LOUD THIS MORNING?” sort. Makgeoli has a weird side effect of making my face feel numb, and I dislike it’s sometimes fizzy texture.

The makgeoli we had was flat and not nearly as pungent as the stuff served on mountains I try to avoid. I had drank enough beer before we ever ordered that the flavor of the makgeoli didn’t bother me after the first bowl. Of course I had a second, because we had to finish off the dented tea pot they served it in. There never seems to be moderation when I’m wasted enough to start drinking in the first place.

Just like any other evening with a few drinks down, and a few bars under our belts, we ended up at a singing room. My wife and I hadn’t been to a singing room in over a year (she thinks it was our first wedding anniversary!). This room was AWESOME, and I set the tone with Electric Six’s “Gay Bar” once again.  My wife and I even did a version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” that sounded pretty good. All the foreigners have been here long enough to have “stock” songs we know we can do well. We all were having a good time, and our time ran down right before taxi midnight fare kicked in. Perfect.

After my call for some consideration in the planning of my schedule, I got some notice today that all of my requests were denied. I was kind of annoyed with the changes until I heard what my coworkers were going to have to deal with in the next term.

I had made some requests to change around my schedule. If I was allowed to pick up a class for a time I had a break, or drop a class earlier in the day, my schedule would be pretty good. I’m still contractually obligated to come in an hour before class starts, but that’s fine as long as I have some podcasts, some copies to run off, and some material to prepare.

Looking at the schedule, everyone has an hour one day or another that would be better shared with another teacher. If we could manage our own class schedules, we could make optimized times that would let us do more without working our fingers to the bone. Instead our director has scheduled us without any regard to time. Only I have a “late hour” clause in my contract that keeps me from being forced to stick around all day when I’m finished with classes.

The problem has been compounded by the change in times of our classes. They’ve been moved back by a half hour. For me this just means I go to work 30 minutes later and come home 30 minutes later than I used to. It’s not great, but it’s nothing that serious. I’m the only part timer left. My coworkers used to arrive an hour early for work like I did, but my director informed them today that they would be back to the full time schedule this next term.

Full time employees, like my foreign coworker, are given a set of hours they must be present at the school, regardless of class times. With these changes of later classes, the teachers will be arriving a full two hours before the first class starts. No one needs to be there that early. There is nothing to do with the hour beyond some light typing. Keeping someone there a full two hours to honor a contract is beyond annoying and stupidly petty. Is anyone going to work hard while being forced to waste excessive amounts of their time?

The really aggravating part is that the parts of the contract that benefit the employee, like a mandatory break time during a day over seven hours, aren’t being honored for full time employees. The part time employee that doesn’t want a break has a two hour break, and the full time employee that would like a break to ease the pain of staying all day gets none. That’s MORONIC.

It would be so easy to change this situation to make it suit everyone better, but instead the director is being stubborn about it. Why would you piss off all your employees in this manner?

Today, when the director offered to smooth things over by with a cheap delivery dinner, I turned her down. I told her I’m leaving to eat with my wife, as I’m finished with my teaching time and get to go home. I’m not going to stick around and feel some camaraderie that only exists because you try to keep people there far longer than you should. The only time I would have had to eat would have been the five minutes she gives me between classes to get ready for my next hour. When would I be able to eat? While I was running off copies?

These are the warning signs. I can see the boat is sinking. The school has a high turn over rate. Judging by my coworkers faces when they got the news today, it’s pretty obvious as to why. No one wants to work at a job where you feel unappreciated and treated so callously when the fixes are trivial and in most cases free to the employer. It’s time to start thinking about new pastures and figuring out if this is the right time to look for other opportunities.

Korean directors all need SERIOUS personnel management reeducation.