No, I'm not working for free.
Today, toward the end of the day, my CT innocently asked if I were busy on the 26th and 27th of the month. The days of that English camp that fall right in the middle of my contract-guaranteed and education office-specified vacation. Was I busy on either or both of those days? Oh, she and the other Korean English teacher could run the camp no problem, but the students, you see, were expecting a foreigner.
When I said that I might be able to help out on the 26th (since I was leaving for vacation on the 27th), she mentioned that (oops) they couldn't pay me. Had we not had that previous "misunderstanding" about the English camp, then she would have been able to budget some salary for me. No obligation here, but could I work a little bit extra for free-- for the kiddies? They would appreciate my presence.
Really? After you already said no, I did not have to do this? After I'd reluctantly CHANGED my PLANE TICKETS to accomodate this unreasonable "request"? You said no, absolutely, I did not have to do it. Now you say, could I please do it, but for no money? Are you trying to punish me? Give me one more chance to redeem myself by submitting to an even less reasonable request? Was this a message about what happens to employees who say "no" the first time they are "asked" to do something?
Feeling manipulated, shocked and annoyed, I said "no." Maybe I just failed another unspoken cultural test, but I'm pretty damn sure that I would NOT have gotten any extra pay for working a day or two during my vacation, had I agreed to do so the first time the subject arose. It's not my responsibility that she and another teacher scheduled the school's English camp during my vacation time and told me about this after I'd made reservations. She didn't push the issue.
I would not be surprised, however, if I get a call closer to the 26th asking if I might just, er, visit the school that day. For an hour or three. No pressure.
This incident triggers anxieties about how Korean employment works, particularly for foreign teachers. We rarely see evaluations of our performance. We are offered (or not offered) contract renewals without knowing why. We don't hear about little (or big) ways we've offended our coworkers or superiors until it's too late. (To be fair, this sort of thing happens in American workplaces too. It's just more frequent here, partly due to cultural differences and Korean non-confrontational, face-saving interaction styles).
I hope this refusal does not lead to unpleasant consequences. I cannot control how my supervisors choose to interpret it. I do not, however, work for free.
When I said that I might be able to help out on the 26th (since I was leaving for vacation on the 27th), she mentioned that (oops) they couldn't pay me. Had we not had that previous "misunderstanding" about the English camp, then she would have been able to budget some salary for me. No obligation here, but could I work a little bit extra for free-- for the kiddies? They would appreciate my presence.
Really? After you already said no, I did not have to do this? After I'd reluctantly CHANGED my PLANE TICKETS to accomodate this unreasonable "request"? You said no, absolutely, I did not have to do it. Now you say, could I please do it, but for no money? Are you trying to punish me? Give me one more chance to redeem myself by submitting to an even less reasonable request? Was this a message about what happens to employees who say "no" the first time they are "asked" to do something?
Feeling manipulated, shocked and annoyed, I said "no." Maybe I just failed another unspoken cultural test, but I'm pretty damn sure that I would NOT have gotten any extra pay for working a day or two during my vacation, had I agreed to do so the first time the subject arose. It's not my responsibility that she and another teacher scheduled the school's English camp during my vacation time and told me about this after I'd made reservations. She didn't push the issue.
I would not be surprised, however, if I get a call closer to the 26th asking if I might just, er, visit the school that day. For an hour or three. No pressure.
This incident triggers anxieties about how Korean employment works, particularly for foreign teachers. We rarely see evaluations of our performance. We are offered (or not offered) contract renewals without knowing why. We don't hear about little (or big) ways we've offended our coworkers or superiors until it's too late. (To be fair, this sort of thing happens in American workplaces too. It's just more frequent here, partly due to cultural differences and Korean non-confrontational, face-saving interaction styles).
I hope this refusal does not lead to unpleasant consequences. I cannot control how my supervisors choose to interpret it. I do not, however, work for free.