Deskwarming is often discussed and debated on blogs and on the messageboards. We took a long look at it in Jeollanam-do public schools last December.
By mandating deskwarming and busy work, in cases where there often isn't anything to be done and where nothing has even been planned yet, places like Jeollanam-do are going to make it harder to attract applicants to rural areas, since that's been one advantage they've had over urban districts. They're also going to upset the teachers they already have by deciding they ought to come into work just in case somebody throws together a last-minute thing. This isn't done to get the most out of teachers, or to put them to work on well-developed programs, it's a knee-jerk reaction by schools who have no idea what to do with their NSETs, a problem that spawned the inconsistencies in the first place. It's hard to believe consistency and efficiency are important when it's decided only three weeks in advance.
35 comments:
I, for one, took some unpaid time (four days) to make 2 1/2 weeks of vacation. I will have at least one week, however, of simply being at school ... staring at the wall.
The video's spot-on. This job/being in a foreign work environment with only three or four people whom you can effectively communicate is extremely stressful. As I told Charles Ko in an email, it's like being in prison.
And though I do, indeed, love the job, I think holding us in captivity does only one thing - it makes us into bitter people, less-effective teachers, and gives the implication that even though we had to go through months of applications and interviews to be selected, Koreans still think of us as little children.
I'm offended by the reasoning, honestly.
Yeah, don't do it.
I have been renewed 4 times, never desk warmed. If you are a good teacher I think you can get away with it.
And really if you're only getting the minimum vacation anyway the job isn't better than a hogwon, so if they fire you you can get a hogwon job. Not much too loose.
If you all stopped doing it, they'd give up asking.
One time they asked me to come in and "make lesson plans," while the students went on a trip. They didn't say how many lesson plans they wanted or what to make them about. So I came for two days. It was basically me and the Gym teacher who was the old head teacher, and he would just have us go home a noon. The third day rolled around and I arrived at school to see that no one was there, and the door was locked, so I just went home. That pissed of my co-teacher who seemed upset on that Monday.
But in the years after that they have gotten a lot better at stuff like that. They don't really seem to care about a lot of things anymore.
Andrew's right. If you all stopped doing, they would stop asking. When one person refuses and the other person agrees to something, it undermines everybody else,
Though not as a teacher, I once worked eighteen months straight with no day off, not even Sundays and holidays. Suck it up.
@Kushibo
18 months and no vacation and you're proud?
Sounds like an epic failure to me.
Machismo is so rarely appropriately employed.
Desk-warming is dumb. Why not yell about it?
I'm with Justin Kraus.
Working 18 months with absolutely no time off is nothing to be proud of at all unless one is working for/on a project one absolutely loves and absolutely needs to do.
If one is working 18 months with no time off at a regular old teaching job, the only word that comes to mind to describe that situation is "sucker."
Andrew, clearly you've never worked at a hagwon because working there, you get 7 days at most (and less if you are unlucky). Having taught at 4, I had to fight for something each time (time off, airfare home) and there are enough horror stories to go around about folks being fired in their 11th month (so their employer doesn't have to pay the severance and airfare).
If people don't do it, they'll just take away vacation days then.
That being said, it's a stupid idea and it's also insulting because some of the supervisors think we are "unprofessional" and should not be treated as such. Guess they watch the xenophobic news too much...
The blame for this lies solely on the MOE since they are the one's being anal about enforcing it upon the OOE and district offices.
18 days is still nice (and more than some jobs) but it's going to repel a lot of good Teachers (and rightfully so). Once the economy picks up, there will be a shortage again and that should be a nice slap to their egos.
18 months and no vacation and you're proud?
Where'd you get proud? I was trying to convey low tolerance for whiners.
At a tax software company during tax season, you can work a couple months straight 7 days a week, 9-10 pm.
But 18 months straight?
Well, if you're starting your own business or you're part of some start up with hopes you'll go public and make a couple million, there can be valid reasons why one would work those hours and not be a sucker. If it pays off, you'll be laughing your way to the bank. If it doesn't, you'll have learned a hell of a lot you can use more profitably later in life.
Entry level jobs that help you climb the corporate ladder are likewise about long thankless hours and not about being a sucker.
I'm with kushibo I think. Some jobs deadlines must be met and you do what it takes.
Heh, it's interesting to look at that older article, see my own comment, and compare it to my views now that I've been back in Canada for a while.
I still think that desk-warming is insulting and inefficient, and that it contributes to the bad attitudes of some foreign teachers in Korea. If you treat your workers like children ("sit here quietly, because I said so"), they're probably going to act like children.
Having said that, I have to agree with Kushibo's point. Public school NSETs get far more paid vacation time than they would at most comparable jobs in their home countries, so when they complain about not having MORE vacation time, it ends up sounding kind of ridiculous.
I now teach ESL to adults in Canada, and I'm on contract, which means I get 0 days paid vacation. I can take time off, but I don't get paid for it, which of course means that I can't afford to take frequent vacations the way I could in Korea. Am I an idiot for taking this job? I don't think so; there are things I really like about the job, and quite frankly, I'm happy to have found a job here, period. Besides, most of my friends here are in the same boat, regardless of the field they work in. Reality is what it is.
Having plenty of vacation time is a perk of working at a public school in Korea; annoyances like desk-warming are the price you pay for it.
@ Kushibo
"I was trying to convey a low tolerance for whiners..."
Well, you failed. But thanks now for clearing it up. Though I'm still not sure why you think calling a stupid thing (deskwarming) stupid is whining.
I'm with Justin. If something is stupid, and you say it's stupid, that's not whining. It's pointing out the obvious.
Desk-warming is stupid.
Complaining about having to come in to work on the days one is required to come in to work is whining (especially when actual vacation days are not insignificant). Complaining that it's a waste of time borders on being whining, and demonstrates a striking lack of creativity or drive.
Take an online class, write a book, run an ESL blog, find a way to work on getting the MOE to set up useful classes for the NSETs, etc., etc.
Whinging or not, it doesn't make deskwarming any less stupid.
I get more than 20 weeks vacation and don't deskwarm even a single day. I have no dog in this fight.
Just to clarify, of those 20 weeks, only 6 of them are actually contracted. However, my department doesn't believe in making teachers come in when there is no actual work to be done.
I do what all the Korean teachers do: I do my prep for next semester at home.
Hey Darth, where do you work, and are they hiring?
I had my co-teacher remember just today that classes go in session on the 24th and not the 28th, which is the day when I will arrive back in Korea.
He had the vacation plans that I made with him two weeks ago written on his calendar.
Last week I even discussed the matter with the principal of the school. He wants me to pick up a backpack for him while in America. He got a calendar out too and then marked down the dates.
Then today they seemed surprised when they told me when school will start back up, that I had already bought a plane ticket.
Moral of the story: just don't take a vacation, you will spare yourself dissapointment. Use the two weeks that you do get to go work at a camp or something.
Well it's not all bad. I kept my head level enough to leave the building for about 20 minutes. When I came back they talked to the principal and said that if I can't find any other plane tickets that I should just stick to the original plans that I made.
But still I didn't apreciate another teacher chiming in and implying that it was my fault for not checking when the vacation ends, after schedualing the vacation in the first place with the coteacher and principal, either of those guys could have looked at the date and told me that that period of time wasn't possible.
Damn you prophetic Hitler, Damn you.
Man Hitler is still a cunt, even in death.
@Kushibo
"Complaining about having to come in to work on the days one is required to come in to work is whining (especially when actual vacation days are not insignificant)."
Agreed.
Would you tell an employer in your home country that you're simply not coming in for scheduled days of work, because you have better things to do? And then still expect to get paid for those days? I doubt it. So why is it ok to do so in Korea?
I'm not saying you shouldn't try sweet-talking your way out of deskwarming; but flat-out refusing to come in? Honestly, that's just childish. Every job, in every country, will occasionally require you to do things you find stupid and pointless. Find a different job, or suck it up -- those are the adult options.
Eh, I think the issue isn't coming in on contracted days and not WANTING to be there but the fact that we come in on contracted days and SHOULDN'T be there.
It all goes back to the general lack of planning for the implementation of NSET's in the public schools.
Why do I have to come sit in a room 400 yards from my apartment and surf the internet here? Why not surf it at home? If the answer is, "because your contract says so" then that is grounds for an eye-roll.
If they actually had a list of thigns that I needed to get done or projects to plan/work on... still an eye-roll but at least I wouldn't get so bored!
During first year in Korea I had to come in even though students and the regular Korean staff were not here. I did not call that time "desk-warming", because I had plenty of work to do on my master's thesis. It was a welcomed reprieve from students and the rest of the staff to do something worthwhile like honing my professional skills.
So, if you are "desk-warming", it is your own damn fault. Maybe the complainers prepare for the next term or work to become experts in their craft (no matter how temporary you may think it is.)
"Desk-warming" is just punishment for those who do not take initiative to do something productive. It is punishment for lackadaisical attitudes. It is punishment for the mentally lazy and the unprofessional. Does the school always have to give you work to do? Reactive people are not what I would want to hire if I were an employer!
The way you use your time is up to you. You can be productive and do something that would actually enhance your resume and eventually lead to a better job or you can sit around complaining about how bad you have it because you have to come to work when school is not in session.
Well put, Happy Camper. I probably don't understand the issue correctly but is it E2 teachers at schools used to get longer summer breaks, in sync with students, but now have to be in the office while students are still on vacation? In other words, they're asked to work a full year for a full year's pay with a standard 10 day vacation?
If the rules are switched mid contract, that can a bitch for sure. You signed on for something and then it's changed. One needs to pick your battles in that case. Go home or look on the bright side.
If one is presented with the offer before taking the job, well, I'd be happy to be told 2 months a year I won't have to teach but can do my own thing and be paid for it.
I probably don't understand the issue correctly but is it E2 teachers at schools used to get longer summer breaks, in sync with students, but now have to be in the office while students are still on vacation? In other words, they're asked to work a full year for a full year's pay with a standard 10 day vacation?
Yes, that is the issue.
As I noted, I don't desk-warm, and do all my work from home just as the Korean staff does, but were my school to force me to come into the (completely empty) school to do the SAME work, I might bitch about it, too.
Getting all my course prep done, re-designing my class webpage, and designing an entirely new curriculum for a pilot Honours English program (plus whatever PD I have lined up for that particular vacation period), and doing so in a comfortably air-conditioned house is preferable to coming into a completely empty school (except the for the security guards--even the cleaning staff has the entire summer off) and sweat my ass off in a non-air-conditioned office for 9 hours a day to do the EXACT SAME amount of work I'd be otherwise doing at home.
I see the complainers' main argument to be "Korean teachers get to stay home to do their prep and PD and still get paid, why can't we, too?" and I don't fault them for it. If that's NOT their argument, then I'm not exactly sure what is.
If it's a matter of the schools not trusting the NETs to do the necessary work over their breaks, I don't see why they couldn't have scheduled meetings throughout the summer (or winter) break, say once every couple of weeks, to go over the work that has been finished to date, and to make any changes to it if the principal thinks changes need to be made.
Darth Babaganoosh wrote:
I see the complainers' main argument to be "Korean teachers get to stay home to do their prep and PD and still get paid, why can't we, too?" and I don't fault them for it. If that's NOT their argument, then I'm not exactly sure what is.
I would see that argument up to a point, because I know that a lot of the KoKo teachers do take classes during the vacation or, having dated a KoKo English teacher, work their arses off on school stuff (I was "forced" to help her with some stuff, because my Koko girlfriend's co-teacher was an incompetent who did take off from Korea during the time he was supposed to be in country).
But it seems Hitler's argument is not that he can't work at home, but that he can't take those six weeks off and leave the country and go on vacation. It was my impression that at least some complaining about deskwarming were following Hitler's argument.
WORD VERIFICATION: tusking, what teenage elephants do instead of going all the way.
But it seems Hitler's argument is not that he can't work at home, but that he can't take those six weeks off and leave the country and go on vacation. It was my impression that at least some complaining about deskwarming were following Hitler's argument.
I can see where impressions like that come from, and don't really agree with them. Yeah, yeah, vacation time should be vacation time, but teachers have a responsibility, if not to do some PD over their breaks, at the very least they have to do some prep. Okay so Hitler gets his 6 weeks around SEA. When he comes back is he going to get to work and prep for the upcoming semester? My guess is no. He'll go out drinking with his buddies 4 nights a week and buggering around doing nothing.
OTOH, I also see it (reading between the lines) as Korean principals agreeing with NETs about certain vacation times and plans, then at the last minute denying such agreements were ever made and forcing the NETs to change their already-bought plane tickets.
That's happened to enough friends over the years that now whenever they say such an agreement was made I ask "Is it in writing, or just a verbal agreement?" "Verbal." ... I bet them they won't leave as planned and will lose money on their tickets. I win every time.
Darth Babaganoosh wrote:
Okay so Hitler gets his 6 weeks around SEA. When he comes back is he going to get to work and prep for the upcoming semester? My guess is no. He'll go out drinking with his buddies 4 nights a week and buggering around doing nothing.
The message is clear: No one should hire Hitler. (Not that an Austrian could get an E2 visa for English teaching anyway.)
OTOH, I also see it (reading between the lines) as Korean principals agreeing with NETs about certain vacation times and plans, then at the last minute denying such agreements were ever made and forcing the NETs to change their already-bought plane tickets.
Having been approached as a potential intermediary/ombudsman for a few people who found themselves in such a bind, I'd say that about one-third (of my anecdotal group) were as you said, while the other two-thirds were either those whose bosses simply had not disagreed but not agreed either, or were otherwise taking liberties and making assumptions.
Some had the strategy that the bossman can't say no if you already bought the ticket.
The message is clear: No one should hire Hitler.
Clearly.
A little late to the party here, but I'll add that complaining about deskwarming is sometimes inappropriate.
Yes, it's stupid how it's sometimes thrown upon teachers at the last minute, though nowadays I think it's built into the contract and new teachers know it's going to happen.
It's also stupid that schools enforce it for "professional development" when they themselves have no idea what teachers should do, and when being stuck at a desk actually prohibits some forms of useful professional development, such as month-long CELTA courses or other training sessions.
Hitler, and the people who created this version of the meme, have some reasons to be upset with how deskwarming is put into practice, and with how vacation time is handled. Our winter and summer camp schedules weren't finalized until a week before they were to begin. I kind of complained to my coteacher that airplane tickets home were expensive if I waited until the last minute, to which she replied I should have just assumed a couple months earlier when I'd have off . . . very tough when plans are always subject to change.
However, it's wrong to complain about having to go to work when there's "nothing to do." I have family members who work in schools here in the US as administrators, and though they get some time off during the summer they are still expected to show up and work when students aren't in school. There are a lot of professions that have slow periods, yet they are still expected to come and put in work.
Besides, in spite of the disorganization that plagues a lot of NSET programs in public schools, there is still a lot that can be done. I was expected to prepare lesson plans, though it was largely impossible b/c my schools didn't choose textbooks until a week into the semester, and classes were changing a month into the term. But teachers could do some work on online courses, could browse www.waygook.org or other online repositories of lesson plans, could read through books on teaching and leading conversation classes, could study Korean, or could do other things to better themselves as teachers, neighbors, and community members.
If you spend three weeks on Facebook or reading Lonely Planets or planning your fantasy football team, I'm sorry to say you haven't made the best use of your time.
Maybe I'm just an arrogant old so-and-so; but if you don't like your job, vote with your feet...
Not at all connected to the original question, but reminded me of something I've wanted to know for ages. Why do some spell it "hogwon" and most spell it "hagwon"?
Why do some spell it "hogwon" and most spell it "hagwon"?
It is "properly" Romanized as hagwon, with the 'a' like an Italian or Spanish 'a.' But some people like to be clever and suggest they are money grubbing fools (i.e., hogging won), so hogwon is kinda clever.
Like if Obama were to step up the war in Iraq, we might start writing his name O-bomb-a.
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