NOVA Saga

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Pay day for them is on Monday, but last night a fax went round the schools saying that they won't be paid until Friday at the earliest!!! Screw that!!

[samurai 0]

wow.

 

I used to work for Nova. I came to Japan with 1000 dollars in my pocket. I needed the cash-advance to survive. I was the typical employee too. At that time, I wouldn't have had the savings to fly home should I want to quit. I suspect many employees are in the same boat that I can imagine I would have been in.

 

that's a farcked situation right there.

[thursday 1]

Sad, but not the end of the world. Don't be despondent, just go drink some beers.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

U and me both Samurai!!

[nippontiger 8]

I suffered 3 years of Nova tedium, but left 2 months ago for what I consider to be a proper job. Many of my friends in Japan are ex Nova teachers, and I think there are probabaly a lot of good people working for them who I would genuinely sympathise with if Nova goes down, I feel for the students too. However, there are quite a few people working there, most notably some of the people in the lower supervisory/management positions, who deserve all they get. I know if Nova goes down and I bump in to a certain "boss" from my previous branch, I will be saying to him "dont forget to straighten your tie for your next job interview, mate" - those who have experienced Nova will know what Im talking about..!

[thursday 1]

Did Nova get you into the country?

[HighlyTrainedNovaTeacher 2]

 

Yes I know what you are saying Gary.

[samurai 0]

"Samurai, can I see you and [Erika] in my office please... Okay, I just wanted to bring you guys up to speed on our dress code. I need to remind you guys of the importance of arriving dressed for work and well shaved. You two are fine, but I have to give the same speach to everyone."

 

Erika; "Good, I'm not about to shave anything for you."

 

{exit office}

 

Me; "I can't believe you just said that."

 

Erika; "I can't believe he just said that. F***ing wanker."

[thursday 1]

There's nothing wrong with asking a girl to shave her beard.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I got told by the AT during my contract renewel interview that I would only get promoted if I wore a suit!!

Needless to say, I didn't rush out and buy myself one

[nippontiger 8]

thursday said:

"Did Nova get you into the country?"

 

Its a fair point and yes they did - if it hadnt been for Nova, I might not have come to Japan, so Im thankful for that. I have recommended my freinds to come to Japan through Nova as its an easy way to get set up here.

However, in my three years at nova:

a) I received ZERO YEN pay rise in my last two contract renewals.

I received little or no career development - I didnt even get CAT trained (lets you decide students level).

c)I had an Assistant Area Manager use contract renewal time to force through an extremely undesired schedule change, meaning I couldnt see my girlfriend anymore.

d) I received inumerable petty complaints (see above) about things like tie not being straight, not being clean shaven, not teaching the book lessons (even though the students in question had told me they hated the book), not getting into the office with enough time in advance of my lessons (eg. well before I started getting paid)

y)Didnt get importand documents I requested over 2 weeks in advance, which I needed to change my visa status for my new job.

For these reasons, along with the fact that I didnt really want to do ESL teaching for too long, I just couldnt take this job seriously.

Come to Japan with Nova (but not for the next six months - they might be going bankrupt), work part-time for a while, and then get a different job, if you can.

[thursday 1]

so, they got you into the country, so where would you be if not for that?

[me jane 0]

Gary,

I don't doubt that NOVA is a bad company and regardless of your attitude they would have shafted you.

Nevertheless, based on your comments I wouldn't employ you. Look at this from another angle, bearing in mind that this is Japan and how Japanese people work.

 

 Quote:

a) I received ZERO YEN pay rise in my last two contract renewals.

Did you do anything to deserve a pay rise?

 

 Quote:

I received little or no career development - I didnt even get CAT trained (lets you decide students level).

While receiving some PD might have alleviated some of the problems below you could also have shown some initiative. Did you undertake any career development (or anything else) on your own to show that you were interested?

 

 Quote:

c)I had an Assistant Area Manager use contract renewal time to force through an extremely undesired schedule change, meaning I couldnt see my girlfriend anymore.

It's a business. What's it got to do with the company if you can't see your girlfriend?

(Incidently as it is very difficult to fire staff in Japan this is one of many "techniques" used to "encourage" staff to resign.)

 

 Quote:

I received inumerable petty complaints

See comment above about firing staff in Japan.

 

 Quote:

tie not being straight, not being clean shaven

Have a look at the way Japanese salarymen dress. This is something that has a much bigger impact on sales than how well you teach.

 

 Quote:

not teaching the book lessons (even though the students in question had told me they hated the book)

A good teacher can make any book interesting. Students often think they "hate the book" because this is the vibe they have picked up from the teacher.

 

 Quote:

not getting into the office with enough time in advance of my lessons (eg. well before I started getting paid)

Isn't that just common sense? Think about how the Japanese work.

 

 

 Quote:

y)Didnt get importand documents I requested over 2 weeks in advance, which I needed to change my visa status for my new job.

I agree they should have provided you with the documents but why would you expect a head office staff member to work overtime to complete your paperwork when you were not willing to do the same?

 

I know that some of my comments don't apply to working in the west but as I said at the beginning, this is Japan. The people on this board who are out of the eikaiwa circuit put in the hours to get where they are. (Look at the hours our lovely SJ-Mods put in)

 

Anyway, if you thought that you were worth more, why didn't you quit and get a new job sooner?

[Yuki's Passion 1]

If I didnt get a raise in salary after one year, I would quit. I dont know you, but you have only yourself to blame for staying with them for 3 years. If you werent satisfied working there Gary, why stay?

 

I dont understand why ANYBODY would want to do eikaiwa (unless its your own company) when you can work LESS hours in a jhs/hs, have more vacation, and no business hassle either. The only thing eikaiwa jobs are good for is gaining experience to move on to better jobs. Working at Nova, Aeon, Geos, ECC, POSeikaiwa for more than a year is wasting your time IMHO. Great for starting and getting into the country, but how much teacher development do they provide/offer? How bout after half a year? One year? Very limited isnt it? What a joke. Any school/company who actually cared about their teachers would be providing much more training. Obviously those companies dont give 2 $hits about you, and neither should you about them. Just my 2 yen.

[me jane 0]

I was at Geos for two years after JET. I chose Geos over a HS because I wanted to be a trainer. PD-wise I was lucky as when I joined as a teacher because my trainer had a Masters in TEFL and lingustistics and was very interested in passing in all on and not at all interested in sales. His idea was to motivate the teachers by teaching them to teach and that the business would follow. As a teacher I had teacher training at least every two months and joined an extra training program to learn about the business side of things. I was the Area leader after 6 months and teacher trainer after a year. I worked with the other trainer and we fought the management to provide good PD and professional speakers presented at quite a few of the seminars.

 

"The company" didn't care about it's staff but there were a lot of good staff trying to change things and then there were the teachers who just complained but never got off their bums and did anything about it and who were too lazy to even find a new job. Of course there were also the trainers who knew nothing about teaching and were just on power trips so I guess I was lucky.

 

The job of trainer was a fantastic experience and on one side it would have been a real challenge to stay and make a sucess of my area, given all the factors against us. I left because as CB said "those companies dont give 2 $hits about you" and I would have been fighting a losing battle.

 

Anyway, my point is either stay and make the best of it or leave and do something better but there is not much point staying & whinging.

[thursday 1]

Good stuff Jane

[samurai 0]

According to Jet's website, only about 1/3 of teachers they hired came over to Japan for the sole purpose of teaching. It's quite conceiveable, and arguable, that 60 percent of teachers in Japan are here for reasons other than teaching. Gaining international experience, traveling, seeing Japan, money, etc... are all reasons why teachers have come to Japan.

 

Here's my 2 yen, as a teacher in Japan, one of 3 things happens to you... a- you teach for a bit, then quit. b- you pursue it as a career and switch jobs and further your own education (hence the recent boom of Master's degree seekers), c- show up for a job as a non-career oriented person and complain about whatever... I call C the "you owe me" mentality that is quite common in western work ethics. One is a member of the C group because a- they don't have the balls to quit, or b- they don't have the balls to dedicate their lives to furthering their career in the field.

 

So... Gary, I'll ask- Why did you come to Japan?

 

At nova- I did my job, complained little, took the initiative to make my lessons interesting and got my contract renewal raise. They lost me at Chibiko training. I wasn't going to be a clown for 2 year-olds. (just imo)

 

\BYOA (attitude). My father taught me at a young age that nobody in the world will ever do anything to make your situation in life better. Either change your attitude about what you have so life doesn't suck or change it yourself. Quite frankly, the rest of us busy trying to up our own quality of life to be concerned about somebody else's "you owe me" crap.

 

I may have some personality gripes about some younger managers, but I did meet my wife there, not get fired for it and they never lied to me. I left on good terms... the way I try to move on from every job.

 

edit- Oh... and they did set me up here with an apartment (that was expensive). I just feel bad for the recent late paychecks because I remember how hard it was starting out. And I didn't come to Japan to teach. I came to travel. I just ended up taking teaching seriously.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I am in the middle of these comments, I can agree with points on both sides and argue against others. i worked at NOVA for just under 2 years and I'd agree with CB in that after one year you should leave and get a better job. When I was there i did receive a pay rise, although it was paltry due to other various circumstances, at a time when most people were getting 10 -25 grand rises. Nowadays NOVA does not do that and hasn't for the last year or 2. Nova, although a teaching company, cares not for its educational welfare of its students but for the money it can rip from their hands. This then means that it cares less about the PD of its teachers. If you wanted to get ahead with NOVA you toed the company line, kissed ass and waited to be moved up the pole, irrespective of your teaching ability. I feel that is wrong, but shogunai, I'm out of it now. I enjoyed my time at NOVA for the people I met, bot colleagues and students and the life I had. Pretty much drinking and partying in between going to work. I came to Japan originally for travel and fun and its only since coming that I made the conscious decision to get involved in Education as my career.

 

Teachers at Nova, and probably most Eikaiwa's often become disgruntled because of the lack of training and development that is available in these companies. Also I found that the sales aspect really gets people down.

[nippontiger 8]

In response to some of the above, I may have sounded like the stereotypical, bad Nova teacher, but in all honesty, I genuinely dont believe that was the case. I put in three years of service with them, and only received 5000 yen pay rise at the end of my first year. My attendance was excellent - 100%, no less, in my first year, and I guess 98-99% in the second two - my worst attendance was after the AAM had used contract renewal time to force the unwanted schedule change - an act which, if Im not mistaken, is illegal under Japanese law. I very much doubt that this was to try to get me to to resign as, if they didnt want to work there anymore, they would have simply given me the months notice that they werent going to renew my contract. This was just bad management by a middle manager who was almost universally disliked in the company. In terms of career development, I requested on numerous occasions to be put forward for various training days (eg toeic training, CAT etc) but never received these. I almost always turned up to work smartly dressed, in a smart suit (not a requirement), and clean-shaven - there may have been one or two occasions where my "tie wasnt straight" or something, and the nit-picking ATs would be quick enough to tell you off about it like a little child. Actually, when I did come in for criticism, I would always try to respond in a professional manner - at work at least. I was pretty popular among students too, and I pretty much always gave energetic, positve and educational lessons - using the book 98% of the time. I genuinely believe I was worth a pay rise - particularly on my final contract renewal - just to feel my efforts had been appreciated. Actually, most Nova teachers I met, did a pretty good job under the circumstances, and were generally professional enough, and the stereotypical "bad" Nova teacher was in the minority. However, most Nova teachers would get the same treatment as myself.

In terms of my comment about not getting to the office with enough time - I agree, my attitude of "why should I work when Im not being paid" was pretty bad - but why did I have this attitude? Its because Nova has exactly this attitude when it comes to its teachers pay, holidays etc.

So why didnt I leave sooner? Well, I was looking for an ESL position in a HS or something, and was was actually offered a position elsewhere, but in the end, I decided that I really needed to get back into my research, and I started looking for such a job - I didnt want to take on another esl job in the meantime, as I didnt want to leave after what might have been a very short time if I found a job in my field. My research is such a specialised area, that it actually took quite a long time to find relevant positions to apply for. So I ended up working for Nova for longer than I really wanted. Im glad I stuck around in Japan though, because eventually I got a great job here and Im now very happy . In the job I do now, I genuinely feel like I am trusted to do my job. I work 2-3 hours overtime with no extra pay, every day, and Im happy to do so because a) Thats the way it is in Japan I think my employers trust me c) I find the work interesting and rewarding d) because I feel like Im bettering myself e)I believe Im making a contribution towards solving an important global issue. So Im very thankfull for that.

I wish I could have said these same things about Nova.

I dont know where I would be now if I hadnt come to Japan with Nova, but as I had an interest in the country, I may have ended up here anyway - perhaps a year or so later. As I said, I would recommend coming to Japan with Nova, but I wouldnt recommend staying there too long. Its not a terrible place to work, but it could be so much better, if they perhaps weeded out the few bad teachers in the interview process, and were then able to not treat the teachers like children by default (eg non-socialisation policy), endless nit-picking, secretly spying on lessons etc. Also more training for teachers, and especially for ATs - middle managers etc. which would prevent things like ATs altering the schedule so they get all the free lessons to do "admin" tasks, which could have easily, and much more fairly been delegated to other very busy teachers.

[soubriquet 0]

Gary

[bobby12 0]

Interesting there are no comments on here from current NOVA teachers.

[indosnm 0]

Nice response Gary. Thumbs up from me too!

[nippontiger 8]

Thanks! Took me ages to type that!

[Yuki's Passion 1]

nice response Gary. There are some really good JHS/HS jobs being advertised on Ohayo right now - my last job might be up and the yearly salary is over 5 mil for very little work here in Kansai.

[samurai 0]

Well said, Gary. I think most teachers at Nova are good and the stereotype arrives from the few bad apples. It's too bad too.

 

In which field is your research?

 

Mine is Instructional Tech.