Facebook Group on Yes Summer Vacation

Yes Youngdo - VACATION TIME CONFLICT

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Basic Info
Name: Yes Youngdo - VACATION TIME CONFLICT
Type: Business - Employment & Work

Description: This group is for the employees of Yes Youngdo who feel disappointed by the scheduling of the August vacation. As it is currently standing, the August vacation is scheduled from Tuesday, August 26th to Friday, August 29th. If the administration of Yes Youngdo were kind enough to give us August 25th off, we would have a total of 9 consecutive days off (after including the two weekends). A lot of us are planning to go to another country, so having 9 consecutive days off (oppose to the scheduled 6 days off) would make a world of difference. If enough people join this group, I will contact the administration of Yes Youngdo to try to negotiate a better deal. I will e-mail them a list of all the employees who have joined this group and try to use it as leverage. Maybe they would consider having us work another day in lieu of August 25th. Please invite everyone you know who works at Yes Youngdo to join this group.


**** I hope the teachers were able to work it out. I guess they're on their vacation now if it's this week. This is a problem teachers have at a lot of hagwons. I wouldn't blame YY for this too much. Being a hagwon, pleasing the parents is the #1 priority and most Koreans don't get one full week of vacation -- ever!

They don't really understand that one main reason teachers come to Korea is for the chance to take vacations in Thailand, Bali or wherever. I think YY should go above and beyond the hagwon norm by offering a full week's vacation. If they do the word will spread. Teachers vacationing in Bali or Koh Samui may pass it on to other travellers they meet, many who are potential ESL teachers in Korea, that they love the fact their hagwon YY gave them a full week off when other hagwons gave less! Someone interested in coming to Korea would remember that sort of thing.

BTW, when I worked for YY we had a 6 day summer break, Thursday - Tuesday. I took a trip and on the way met someone working for a smaller hagwon in a part of Korea I hadn't heard of and found she had 7. I felt embarassed telling her I had a shorter one and thought it was interesting someone working for an unknown hagwon in an unknown area had more vacation time!

Not long before that when talking to the manager who called me at home to say I'd been accepted, he said plainly that there was a week of summer vacation. I think it was my first day there when I talked to him before starting my classes that I found it was from a Thurs-Tues. I said to him that's not a week but he defended it by explaining that in Korea Saturday was considered a working day so our 6-day holiday included five working days which is the same as one week. And he was Korean-American! He knew better. He knew what foreign teachers expect when they hear the words one week.

Probably he was just following YY's policy which he had no control over. I wish he had just told the truth over the phone though! Now that I think about it I wouldn't have liked hearing that, but I probably would've taken the job anyway. I had already decided to take it at the time he called, to the best of my memory.

One Former Teacher's Story on Video

This video can be found at youtube. I copied one of his comments posted below his video and pasted it here below the link. I have no idea who this teacher is. The story may be false but I would guess it's not.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ts_Z2M4ugc

The workload steadily increased while the benefits stayed the same. I do agree with you that attitude has everything to do with it. I loved my experience in Korea. I loved the lifestyle and the culture. I continued to teach ESL in Canada when I returned because it truely is an amazing experience, but this company in particular has declined in quality over the 2+ years I have knowledge of. And based on the fact that it is completely family run, nothing short of a miracle will changed that.