At our Monday morning meeting we finally got some answers. My principal went through the routine weekly minutes; bus duty, a few due dates and upcoming events. There was a confusing schedule about parent teacher conferences with a field trip at the end of the month but at the end my principal Jane had a surprise announcement. At the end of November, 2 administrators will be leaving; Soo Jen, who tried to leave the past two months but her replacement kept quitting beforehand and Mrs. Yi.
Mrs. Yi? The principal? That was a surprise that got the gossip going. Her arrival a little over a year ago seems to have been the root of all the anxiety that the foreign teachers here have been experiencing. I’m hopeful about meeting the replacement this week and there were certainly a lot more smiles than usually accompany an announcement of this sort . A couple of the foreigners joked about having a “party” while we all secretly did a little happy dance.
Questions immediately started going around: Was she fired? Did she quit? Will her replacement be better? What does this mean for us? Over the next few weeks we hope to have some more honesty and answers coming from our administration; this news coupled with the handful of new students we’ve had over the last 2 weeks bode well for the longevity of this hagwon.
3 comments
It says something very good about your workplace that information like that is given in a frank/open way. Being told openly that people are leaving, weeks in advance, shows a respect management has for you that I hope you don’t take for granted!
Yeah, I definitely have heard that they spring things on you here in Korea. We haven’t had too rocky of a relationship the last 2 months that I’ve been here although they were late on the paycheck before I was paid and my coworkers have said there has been a lot of lying in the past. So are all a little happy about the change and I’m glad they gave us almost a month of notice; I just hope the successor is a good replacement and continues this new string of good will.
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