Thursday, February 16, 2023

suddenly saddled with work

A sudden, desperate dash to make workbook answer keys, today, for hapless Korean teachers who can't speak enough English to figure out the simple answers for themselves, and who can't be bothered to study up ahead of time on the chapters they're teaching. English education really is a joke in Korea. After all these years, I'm just here for the money. 

Relatively speaking, though, my workload's been light since the lunar new year. The CEO is doing the circuit of all of our schools, teaching his so-called "concert" of lessons. Apart from my PPTs, I think his material is mostly lecture, the very thing he keeps railing against in his constant rhetoric about innovation. Don't try to figure out the hypocrisy: just open your palm and receive your cash. Assuming it comes: today, the 16th, used to be my payday every month, but I didn't get paid today because I'm still not on contract. I'm not too exercised about the problem yet: I can go a month or two without pay before I get antsy, although I'm going to insist that my contract be back-dated to February 1, and that I receive pay from that date onward. My new salary (once I sign the contract) is to be a million won a month higher, which is a 20% jump. I hadn't asked for that increase, but my boss lobbied for it, especially now that our team is down by one member.

In truth, I had little to nothing to do over the past few days, so when the current work order came in, it was a relief. I typed up answer keys and caught several mistakes in the main workbook; I'll pass those errors on to our designer so he can fix them before the next run of workbooks gets printed. And with the CEO being as unpredictable as he is, I'm morbidly curious as to what's next. More PPTs? Another lesson/lecture? Who knows.

Almost 9:40. Heading home now.



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