Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Being bitten by the snake

Summer is still very much underway here in the big K. The humidity just broke for the first time in months, although anything I leave out for even the shortest amounts of time stills molds, including laundry, fruit, or bread.

And then there's the work stuff. So on Monday night, I had a difficult time sleeping and I realized that I hadn't gotten my contract for my extension worked out yet and it's kind of coming down to the wire. Several months ago (methinks April?) I approached my boss about extending for a couple months. I really wanted to because it would work out in a carefully-timed scheme so that I could potentially work at a public school in February without resubmitting my very expensive, very time consuming documents. That was problem numero uno--framing this extension as a need of mine, when really, I should have framed it as a need of hers, the dragon lady aka my boss.

Well after a sleepless night on Monday, I came in on Tuesday and asked my boss if I could talk to her about contracting the extension. At which point she says, "Ummmm....yeah... I've been meaning to talk to you about that for awhile but I just really didn't want to. Yeah...well, see. The thing is...we have had 30 kids drop out this month....and you know...we have nine teachers here...that is like less than 20 kids per teacher...and so yeah... we won't be able to have you extend."

I was absolutely floored. FLOORED. First of all, out of the nine teachers, four are foreign staff and five are Koreans, three of which with limited English proficiency. AT AN ENGLISH ACADEMY. Second of all, she has personally told half of those parents to take a hike because she just isn't willing to compromise with parents concerned about their child's education. And to top it all off, she's known for WEEKS and hasn't bothered to say anything?!?!

So I was beyond upset and asked when my final day would be. I went from a "definite" November 1, with a potential few extra weeks tossed in to a final October 4. From 10 weeks left here to less than six in a swift moment. Although this realization was shocking, it was not as shocking as my boss' utter neglect of any consideration for me, whatsoever. If I hadn't approached her on Tuesday, when would she have talked to me? When would she have done her due diligence by me and INFORMED me of what was going on???

When we talked about it again today, I stood up for myself. I ensured that I would be paid entirely at a certain date, that I could stay in my apartment a few extra days to move and was assured of the work that would be required of me before I left. Of course, I will not rest assured until there has been a contract signed to the effect of all of this because she's a lying, conniving snake and a whole bunch of other words I can't write on a forum that my mother reads.

But still I couldn't resist getting my digs in. So I asked about the American, who is leaving for a week after my new end date. "So you're just going to have three English teachers at an English academy?" She assured me that I was correct. So I just whistled (which she hates) and said "Wow then I am glad I won't be working here by then."

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