[livinginkorea]

Interesting topic!

About two years ago I was working at this private institute and since I was too easy then I was walked all over and ended up doing 50 classes a week. Yep 10 classes from Monday to Friday and they wanted me to work Saturday as well. Granted that the pay was good (about 3,500 euros) but I was dying after a while. My classes started to suck big time, I wasn't prepared as I wanted to be and I have little or no free time. At the weekends I could do nothing as I was sleeping all the time.

Then I had to say no. I had to cut back. The managers and owners were major pissed off and didn't care that my teaching wasn't as good as before and I got very annoyed at their indifference and reminded them that my wife also worked at the same school. To make a long story short, the owner threw a computer on the ground and we (wife and I) walked out.

Fast forward to now where I am 10 times happier. Money doesn't mean anything if you don't have time to spend it! I am doing all part time classes, mostly on M, W and Fri and have the afternoons off on T and Thur. If I wanted to work more then I can easily but I have the right balance now. I am just looking for one or two private classes and then I will be more than happy. With the wife teaching too it's definitely easier on both of us to be honest so we can enjoy life more.

[clivehawkins]

Quote livinginkorea

About two years ago I was working at this private institute and since I was too easy then I was walked all over and ended up doing 50 classes a week. Yep 10 classes from Monday to Friday and they wanted me to work Saturday as well.

That's insane! Have the people who run these institutes ever taught? It seems not. You just end up with tired, grumpy resentful teachers.

As teachers we're lucky in some respects that it's fairly simple to work a little extra if you need a little extra money. Private lessons are never hard to come by and you can pretty much pick and choose what you do. It's difficult to do the same if you're a secretary or shop assistant. However, going back to the original point, at some stage 'no' is the only answer. Otherwise you just end up burnt out and another casualty on the TEFL scrapheap.

[Whistleblower]

Quote clivehawkins

However, going back to the original point, at some stage 'no' is the only answer. Otherwise you just end up burnt out and another casualty on the TEFL scrapheap.

Clive you highlighted an interesting area to be honest. My contracted work is 35 hours teaching per week. I don't teach this but I have 28 classes per week, thus 28 hours. At times I get very stressed, and due to a lack of management at my Hagwon, and don't seem to be able think about topics per classes. At other times I get an inspiration for topics. This is further helped by this website.

Furthermore, my wife has some classes in the morning and evening and if my wife is stuck for topics or anything I help out preperation wise.

So I have a pretty heavy workschedule plus the time to look after my son blah blah blah blah clean the apartment blah blah blah blah and cook at times blah blah blah blah.

I would always say "No!" if I had to. It is important for teachers to stand their ground and assert a form of professionalism within the profession or people take advantage of you.

In the ideal world, I would rather be a freelance and pick and choose the schools or classes to teach.