"O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!"
Quick, which Shakespeare play is that from? Lotsa lying in Shakespeare and lotsa deception but this is actually from a work of which people who are not English majors are likely to be unaware. It's from Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field."
Say what you will about that ballroom building buffoon currently residing in the Whitehouse but methinks he doth outstrip even the likes of Iago from Othello in the prevaricative arts. Indeed he bears more than striking resemblance to the fibbing, fabricating, flatulent fatty Falstaff from the Henry plays and from the standpoint of financial stability held by Prince Hal, son of Bolingbroke, one might grow in amusement, companionship, even friendship with such a fiend. And are princes like Putin, Xi Jin Ping, and most recently Mohammed bin Salman not poking and prodding this dancing bear much like Prince Hal's sporting with his clown, then flipping him a sack of coin for his troubles? Alas, the majority of us are but plebians, serfs, and commoners who cannot abide the hypocrisy that is the foundation of the Whitehouse and all residences of the ruling classes who make us to toil and find sustenance on their scraps.
And so it is with derision that one can chuckle at Trump flailing his arms wildly like a person who has accidentally bumbled right through that gossamer of guile which has turned out not to be as sly, deceptive, or clever as its weaver had hoped.
Although I remain employed (and have reached the half-way point of my contract here in Korea) I have never felt less stability in a job since I got a part-time position as a carney in the Pacific National Exhibition in Thunder Bay. I only took the job for the t-shirt that allowed workers to ride the rides for free. When I began questioning the ethics of the position ON MY FIRST DAY, the employer realized his mistake (hiring an honest person) and fabricated some missing money that disappeared during my shift. I was allowed to use the shirt for several free rides and got what I wanted, but I was under no illusions that the employers at a travelling carnival were honest and were going to appreciate MY honesty from the beginning of my interview for the job. The details have blended into the miasma of past remembrance, but they wanted me to cheat the customers and I didn't want to and stood my ground. I have no regrets.
My current job is remarkably similar. You have seen posts about international schools in Canada and Australia on this very blog. When I got to this establishment and went out for tea with my supervisor on the second day I was here I even brought those schools up in conversation. Neither of us were under any illusions that I considered this workplace a school or even legitimate. I was here because I needed the money. That satisfied my supervisor and I think it is a good example of what is called in this link "labor control."
"...corporate interests view UBI as existential threat to labor control. Employers benefit from desperate workers who accept low wages, poor conditions, and abusive treatment because refusing means starvation and homelessness."
Now I may not have been on the verge of starvation or homelessness, but Canada was no picnic. And even the 30-dollar-an-hour job I was offered featured a considerable amount of this laboUr control. (It has the u cuz it was in Canada)
I showed up late for the Korean job because the supervisor I got when I arrived (who I may call the supe) had messed up my immigration by using the old faithful lie now and pick up the pieces later technique that is also popular in the capitalist labour control scheme. He told me what I needed for immigration. I told him I think we also need this, this, and this. He told me no we don't. I said, I think we do. Are you absolutely sure? He lied that he was absi-lutely sure. I asked if he had gone to immigration and checked because this would be something new at immigration in Korea. He assured me there was no doubt. But there was doubt. And in the end we wasted about 2 months of time until he finally admitted we were going to need this, this, and this. The things I had told him we would need. Part of these two months turned out to be in the Vancouver area which is where the nearest Korean consulate was and if not for the generosity of my nephew Dylan, I wouldn't have been able to afford that month. Thanks D-boss! It was a great visit too!
Suffice to say that without help from my Mom, my brother Rob and sister-in-law Terri, even some cheap rent from sister Jenn and brother-in-law Marty, I MIGHT have been starving and homeless. Or I would have taken that nowhere job and been at the mercy of my employer in Calgary who would have undoubtedly exploited my desperation trying to make ends meet THERE. My goal was simple: take the dead-end job in Korea because it was only 20 hours a week, finish my master's, and move up in the world. I figured that being in Korea would make it possible to land one of the better jobs here that require master's degrees. I didn't tell the interviewers (the supervisor in question and the president of the business) that I was not staying long, but I did let them know that the 20-hour week attracted me because it gave me time to finish my studies. They sold it as a 20-hour job and told me I'd have plenty of time to study. Should have recorded that interview I guess... But still I remain one credit away from the M.Ed. 8 weeks! I am SOOOO close! Well, the best laid plans of mice and men...
I took my 4th semester in a row off to make the move to Korea. At the uni where I study (not work) we are only allowed to take 5 semesters in a row off. I figured I'd get accustomed to the work here and join the next semester. It worked out well. We had the 20-hour week and I figured I'd have the time for studying next semester. Well as it turned out we had a lot of extra work added when the next semesters rolled around. I went in to talk to the supervisor and told him that not only did I need the time, but it was illegal to just add extra hours without putting them in the contract or paying workers for them. He just flatly contradicted everything I said without any factual support. Then he got angry and started yelling and I left. I had a second meeting recently with the same supe and HIS superior. This was different. There was no bickering and legalities were discussed and agreed upon. They said the extra hours DID need to be added to the contract to be in compliance with Korean laws I had cited. A meeting with the president was held and the instructors here and I received a message in our group chat WhatsApp room and here is what it said:
"Colleagues, based on the feedback we received regarding the need for a contract that clearly outlines instructors' duties and responsibilities, President Lee has approved this update. The current contract will be revised accordingly and will be applied starting from next year's renewals."
Success?
Not so fast. I DID think it was weird that the president put the contract change off for at least half a year which is when the first of us will renegotiate, but it is pretty clear that the new, non-contractual duties won't be applied until next year's renewals, right? Well a few days after the above message was received, it was the last day of the semester and grades and attendance needed to be submitted. I didn't submit any counseling reports because this was one of the extra duties that had been added without being included in our contracts. But surely the supervisor who had written very clearly that the new duties will not be applied yet will not be expecting the new duties to be applied yet, no?
No.
My opposition to the newly added rules also stemmed from their questionable legalities. You see, the teachers were just told to do counseling. I mean, lawyers are counselors, could they just tell us to be lawyers? People have to go to school for a long time and pass the bar exam to practice law. I'm sure there is a valid reason for counselors to get qualifications as well. And I'm pretty sure that if you are paid to do counseling, the scope of that counseling can definitely range past what is legal. We were not informed of any such scope. The other new rule that was added and only recently described with any clarity is that we need to make ourselves available and be on campus between 9 and 6 every weekday. If we leave campus, we need to inform the supervisor. This is WORK and it needs to be clearly defined and in the contract. Also, since our contact hours are 20 per week, our office hours are 6 per week, our "on call" hours are 40 a week, and there hasn't been an agreed upon amount of counseling that we are expected to do but it's a lot and with rising class numbers it's just increasing. Is this now more than 40 hours a week? We have a clause in the contract that says, "Extra hours will not be paid, if any.."
If any. That's a laugh now! So basically they have written IN THE CONTRACT that overtime will not be paid and I think we're all working past 40 hours a week. But challenge any of this and you just get told to shut up and do it. Try as I did, and as the head teacher before me did, diplomacy does not work with these guys.
It all came to a head on December 1. I get regular 3-month check-ups for my diabetes here. I had made an appointment for late November because I thought that's when the semester break would be but it was changed to early December because of difficulties in student transit caused by the uprising in Nepal. Both times I had informed my supervisor of the doctor's appointment and both times he had acknowledged that he understood and it would be fine. No mention of filling out any forms.
Dec. 1 was a Monday and my grades, which included the online "counseling" tab on the weekly attendance completed to a point that safely remained within the law, but the separate counseling forms I did not complete because they had to include statements of opinion on the "well-being" of each student. I steered clear of "action plans" to be taken as well. Don't get me wrong, I counsel my students. It's part of the job. For example I had one student whose spelling was horrible but I noticed it was usually inverted letters in words that looked like a classic sign of dyslexia. I asked him if he'd ever been tested and informed him that he will never get an accurate assessment of his writing skills unless accommodations for dyslexia are allowed since spelling counts on the writing portion of the IELTS tests. And I told him that IELTS DOES make accommodations for diagnosed dyslexics. I also threw in a reference to Einstein's dyslexia in the next lesson.
I was given the weekend to correct my grades submission. I strategically did nothing. Then on Monday while I was waiting at the hospital to see my doctor I got a call from my supervisor. Where are your grades and counseling forms? I told him that I had sent an email explaining what I thought our best strategy for that would be and told him that I could not submit anything now since I was in Seoul and my computer (in Sokcho) had all the information I needed on it. He said, "Why are you in Seoul? This is not a holiday." I told him that I had told him TWICE about this appointment with the doctor. He said he didn't remember, but that I was supposed to fill out a form that allowed me to leave campus. He then sent a message seconds later to all the teachers announcing this rule change he had just made up saying that it had ALWAYS been the rule in order to find me guilty of disobeying a law proactively. He also said he'd read the email and would respond. The email basically said that I really don't understand exactly what he wants me to do with these counseling reports and since he is the only one who knows what he wants, and since they are so damned important to him, why doesn't HE just fill them out? Then when I get back to town I'll read them and know better what he wants for next time.
His response to this was a formal warning and I knew it would be. My response to the formal warning was the payoff in this well-constructed plan. I said that I understood why he didn't want to do the counseling forms since it wasn't his job, he wasn't being paid for it, and it's not in his contract. However, said I, why don't you just go ahead and do them anyway? You never know... this responsibility might be in your NEXT contract. I added, "If you think really hard you might figure out what I did there.
While on the bus home the next day I received a call from the supervisor's supervisor who said we really needed to meet and get this settled. It was about the last thing I wanted to do since I had been up late the night before celebrating with a couple friends (and more than a couple beers and shots) that I had probably just quit my job. So still dusty as a dawg I got to the uni at around 6:30 PM and met my executioners. The first thing the supe said when he saw me was, "Where are your grades and counseling reports?" I said I just got off the bus, how did you want me to send them from the bus? Then the meeting started and we discussed some of the issues I had with the new rules. We also discussed a few other things that the supe had not been informing HIS supe about. He seemed pretty upset at not being in the loop. These included the shabby treatment on WhatsApp that teachers had received including the previous head teacher being told to "just do it" and ordered to give the supe a formal apology. I showed him the statement that said we did NOT have to do the new duties until our next contracts, and I showed him the statement about 5.5 band scores from Nepal and Bangladesh being enough to move into the regular program. I made it clear that all teachers are lied to and told to lie to their students and tell them that they need a LOCAL 5.5, which is not true, and that NOW we're being told NOT to tell them this truth. He seemed quite interested in the supe's shortcomings.
I was offered an addendum to MY contract which included the new duties. I said that it was obvious from the fact that no other teacher was being offered an addendum, and that no offer of payment for the extra duties was included therein, that it was not offered out of any concern about Korean laws, just to try to get me to do what I was told. I then said I would write them a letter of resignation the next day. The supervisor's supervisor politely asked him to leave. He then spoke directly to me and told me to hold off on the resignation. He was going to talk to the BIG boss about this and things were going to be done. I had briefly met the big boss and had no hope that the RIGHT things would be done but lo and behold, the next day the supe was announcing in group chat that he would no longer be in charge of our program but of some other program - a demotion he was hoping we would interpret as a promotion.
But before jumping too far ahead, I got back to my room after our meeting and there waiting for me was an email from the supe saying that I was now on DOUBLE warning for REPEATED refusal to do my duties and responsibilities. I gave him the updated grades but STILL not the counseling reports and sent the message, "Was I supposed to send you this info from the bus?" The next day I assume the supes supe met with the supe's supe's supe and then called me and said, "That letter you were going to write? Go ahead and write it." So I officially resigned... or so I thought.
On Wed. Dec. 3, the day before the next semester started, there was a meeting. At the meeting I questioned the supe further on the issues of the extra hours. He explained the 5.5 controversy too to the best of his abilities which had been limited by his former deception. The university doesn't necessarily want the students to achieve a 5.5 grade on the IELTS exam, we want the students just to improve. Well that's all well and good but these are not wealthy gadabouts whiling away their leisure time by enrolling in college to improve their English skills. They're from Nepal and Bangladesh. They're poor. They want to start working on their degrees ASAP and there are no exceptions. The way these semesters have been arranged, the kids with 5.5's from home are just going to be WASTING 20 weeks of time and money in the EAP program "improving" when they could be getting their diplomas. At the meeting I expressed my outrage at being told to tell the students lies for the entire time I'd been there and although the other teachers were in the same boats, most kept silent. One of them asked if a student had a 6 from his/her country then scored a 6 here would that mean they couldn't continue to the main program? That was never answered but her point was made. It was then stated by the supe that obviously teachers were expected to keep this information from the students effectively adding another extra duty to the list and this one was deception of our students. We'd already unknowingly all misinformed them, now we were being required to DISinform them. But on the meeting went...
Next I brought up the check mark students in the main program can check if they are in need of counseling and asked the supe why EAP program students did not have that. He said it would be too expensive to set up letting us all know that we had been ordered to do counseling to save the money it would cost to hire professionals. I then asked for clarification of the scope of counsel and we were told to use our judgment. I said that in Canada anyone paid for counseling must have official qualifications or it's illegal. Aren't the members of management concerned about legalities or liability issues that could arise from teachers crossing into counseling grey areas? No, we trust our teachers was the gist of the answer to that.
Then I brought up the 9-6 hours and when letters were supposed to be written or when a person needed to just inform management they would be off campus. We also got into the number of hours and how many hours 20 contact hours plus 40 on-call hours plus 6 office hours plus all the counseling hours would be on a weekly basis. I can't remember if the word "overtime" was mentioned but I think I did mention the clause in the contract that said no extra hours would be paid. IF ANY lol.
I did not mention my resignation at the meeting but it wasn't long before all the teachers knew and because of the meeting they were much clearer on why I had been fighting to get these mysterious extra hours in our contracts and work out some legal remuneration for them.
There was one more thing that I found out on this day and this is just the perfect cherry on top of the dogshit sundae that working at this school had become. All the teachers had been asked if there were any problem students in their classes - students they wanted to get rid of. I too was asked and I said I had none even though there was one who wasn't so great. But what kind of teacher gives his worst student to another teacher? I said I was happy with my students and they were happy with me as their teacher. That day I found out that regardless of level (we have lower and upper level classes) all the rejected students had been put into one class: mine. I taught this class for two days until December 5th when I received a notice of dismissal.
That's right, despite quitting, they chose to fire me and included in the message with the dismissal letter was that they wanted me gone immediately because they were concerned about disruption of the students' schedules and lives that my teaching might cause. They didn't mind disrupting the schedules of every member of my class by moving them. Several of them complained to the supe and to me but I told them there was nothing I could do. The most vocal of the complainers was that one bad student literally BEGGING me to take me back into my class. The former head teacher had also tried to resign and gave enough notice to finish the semester and not disrupt schedules. He was promptly fired and convinced to waive his notice or pay in lieu of notice. I am not willing to make that arrangement.
So after being told on Friday Dec. 5 to vacate the dorms, my room as part of my contract, by the 7th, I responded that I rejected their letter of dismissal on grounds shakier than a shitting dog and it is my right to do so and since that means the contract is still in place until a settlement can be arranged to sever our employment agreement, I was going to stay in the dorm room. The grounds? Oh, "repeated failures to carry out required duties." "Repeated" because, remember, I was on "double-dog warning." Laughable, isn't it? Anyway, I was told, by phone that the university still wants me to leave. I probably should have gotten that in writing but I didn't want to be arrested. They had already sent two guys to my door to check if I was gone, I didn't want the next guys to be policemen. So I left on the Monday packing three bags and throwing/giving away a couple thousand bucks worth of food, furniture, bedding, appliances, and household items, etc. I had bought while living there. The former head teacher gave me a lift to the bus station and I took a bus to Incheon where I have friends and am currently residing in a hotel.
I have been in contact with 2 lawyers and both tell me that the university has fractured some laws and that I can get my entire contract bought out by them if I take them to court. Even possibly more... At this time we are testing the out-of-court settlement waters but they don't seem inviting.
I think this is going to court. As we all know, sometimes the only winners in court are the lawyers and this could very well be one of those cases. I am hoping for a settlement, but knowing what I know of my former employers, I think I will soon be placing this matter in the hands of the Korean legal system.
Wish me luck with that!
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