Scott and I have made the decision to resign our contract for another 6 months. This would be putting the end of our contract for February 2014.
(Whoops - I had started writing this in May.... found it in my drafts. So.... Enjoy!)The Major Factors:
1. Coming home in August would be a HORRIBLE time for me, as a teacher, to get a full-time teaching job. Also, we have to really think about where we see ourselves when that happens.... Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado.... Who knows? But we just weren't ready to make THAT big decision yet.
2. We came at the WORST time to Korea. We arrive in August, the week after all the long summer vacation... Thus, our long summer vacation would be at the END of our contract. So in reality, we would go on vacation (which we have booked for the PHILIPPINES - BORACAY!!) and then leave Korea. So it really wouldn't be a 'vacation' it would just be leaving early. Does that sound like fun to anyone? It really didn't to us! Even though we are thinking about traveling for a couple of months afterward, I didn't want to spend our LONG AWAITED summer vacation worrying about moving! Another note with this is, we have worked ALL year, with little to no vacation time to travel. Our whole point of coming over here was to travel and the furthest we could get was Japan (2 hour flight away).
3. We just aren't ready to stop traveling and seeing. A lot of our friends are moving on to different countries to teach, it is SO SAD to see them go, but we now have a network of friends that wouldn't bat at eye at taking us in for a week and showing us their new place. That is the most AMAZING feeling in the world! :)
4. Savings! I'm not going to lie, coming here I thought I would be saving so much money BUT in reality to go traveling (even around Korea like we are) costs money and we didn't come here to sit in our apartment and be miserable while an entirely different culture was going on outside. And I hope that no one coming to Korea has that in mind. Splurge a little! This was the FIRST time that Scott and I had a job that we now CAN splurge and I don't feel bad about it. However, with that being said, our big weekender trips are over, we got a raise and we now have to start thinking about saving up for our traveling and our future back home... And in Korea, that is a possibility. No rent, no car payment.... We just have to pay ONE cellphone bill (YES, we were sharing a cell phone for the first 11 months, now I have a CHEAP (Korean) pay-as-you-go phone) and fill up our scooters every so often for the bank breaking cost of 7,000W (7USD)!
The benefits:
1. RAISE. We got a pay raise of 10% (which is REALLY good for most contracts) -- that is an extra 200,000W (200USD)/month!
2. We negotiated a 5 day vacation over Christmas. It is only a week, BUT after working for an entire year with NO vacation in the middle, those 5 days will be heaven! Remember how I was talking about friend all over ;) ;)
Those are the two that we got from our negotiations. Our director was an absolute 'sweetie', he made us make our decision to stay over the weekend and then he told us he maybe didn't want us and then jerked us around for a little while longer after we gave him our negotiations. All-in-all, he forced us to make a rather large decision in 3 days, yet he took 3 weeks to get back to us about our negotiations. We gave up a lot to stay where we are and to stay another 6 months. Most of the time they want to extend a year, so he really kind of held a lot of the cards at this point. So were were willing to give up some of our 'wants' just to stay where we love.... most days.
Two lessons that I learned through our whole 'negotiation' segment in Korea has been this:
1. Figure out what you have your heart set on (ours was the raise, vacation and to be able to stay in Geoje) - Now think about what you are willing to give up for those (we gave up an 'extra' or 'resigning bonus' that some people get and our one bedroom studio apartment moving issue). Like I said, our boss was really using the power of time and working us into a corner (threatening to make us both leave) in order for us to give up that bonus and.... it worked because we wanted to stay in our Hagwon.
2. You are NOT irreplaceable, Beyonce. You may think you hold the power because he would have to hire a recruiter, fill out a ton of paperwork, interview new teachers, wait for that teacher's paperwork to come through, pay money to get that teacher over to Korea (airfare), and then give you your leaving bonus, airfare... whatever else. Yes, it seems like a hassle and a large expense.... but if you are being a diva and demanding - they don't want you that way. I have seen first hand a teacher leave a school 2 months into her contract and the school had her replaced (with a foreign teacher from England - airfare expense AND a visa run to Japan expense) in..... less than a week. That really showed me that we can be replaced, rather easily and, if need be, at any cost.
Scott and I really struggled with this aspect because so many of our friends had already resigned and had gotten what they wanted and gone about it in a demanding way, but that isn't our style. So yes, we may have cost ourselves a 'bonus' but we may have also saved ourselves from being fired and not asked back for those 6 months.
Okay, enough on that subject! We ARE so happy to be here. Yes, we gave up some to stay but.... we are staying! Summer is right around the corner and the beach is a 20 minute scooter ride (through the mountains) away and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! I think in the end, everyone got what they really wanted and we all had to give on both ends.
I hope this helps any who is thinking about negotiation. It is tough, but you can do it! :)
-C
