A week of mostly calm and peace...

The week has come and gone, with at least one of our local instructors being called back off of standby... I was talking to our Area Manager and she says that it is her, in collaboration with branch Titled Instructors (they are still getting treated as Titled Instructors around here), who gets called back off of standby... When asking when that would happen, she explained that when branches got to within about 10 students of the 1:40 ratio, another teacher would get a call... For example, a branch of 160 students will have 4 instructors, but when they get to about 190, another instructor would get called in... This provides me with some hope as the 2 branches in this area have far less students than they should, and most likely will, have...

From the same conversation with the area manager, I also found out that contracts are not reliant on evaluations anymore, rather, they are based on a one paragraph email from the area manager which goes in to GComm head office... This email is read, and based on whether that email says the instructor is any good, the Vice President of G Education gets to review it, if it is then decided that it's OK, Ono the G Education president has to give the OK... One of our area instructors just had this process done, and it was decided that he was OK... I am sure that's a relief... The AM knew this guy though and that made it easier... If the AM doesn't know the teacher that will be tough... Any readers have a contract renewal recently? Anyone know of anyone that has?

I will post again soon and let everyone know how its going... In the meantime, share information, post a comment, and read others' comments... Let everyone know that they are not alone in this new endeavour...

The brave few volunteers...

Today was one of the worst days at work... It wasn't so bad for me but for the bosses it was a killer... At our branch there were only two who needed to be asked to go on standby... At a neighbouring branch 7 instructors were asked... People were sensible about it and spoke to the ones that could most afford it financially, as opposed to the instructors that the new bosses will want working for them... Those boys stood up and took a bullet for us...

So I will post a short one as my fury prevents me from saying what I think...

Hats off to the Tobu 9... Jon, Eric, Adam, Adam, Dana, Leslie, Jeza, Michael, and Scott... You all have my admiration and love brothers... May you get your jobs back if you want them or get new jobs if that's what you boys are after...

To anyone reading this, post a comment if you know of friends that volunteered to take the hit for those less well off financially...

I have had to go out to commiseration drinks twice in two days, and I am sick of it... When will this nightmare end??? If this was the winning bid, what did the losing bids offer???

More rumoured sackings... and some rehirings...

I had a two week break over the new year period as I wanted to relax and enjoy the festive season... I hope everyone had an awesome time... In that time I got my brown envelope, but I have no idea what to do with it...

I have heard two interesting things over the last few days... The bad news first... I received an email from a very reliable source that the meeting the IAMs had all day on Friday was an information session... The information was that they were losing their jobs... They have been asked to go quietly after receiving 1 months pay and a flight ticket home... There are no management jobs for gaijin left under the new GComm regime... I haven't spoken to my AAM yet, but I will endeavour to do so and find out what's going on... If anyone else speaks to their AAM let us know...

The other thing was that some B option people have got their jobs back... I have met a couple that have been coming into the branches and getting their jobs back, so not everyone got fired... I was absolutely shocked to see them... But that's some mildly positive news... Are there any B Option people reading this? Did any of you get your jobs back?

The third thing that I have recently heard a rumor about was teachers in branches that are overstaffed were going to have to go on standby from yesterday... I haven't heard about any of that happening in this area, particularly because we have just had a new branch open up and possibly another one scheduled for next week, all the instructors around here will be required... If this has happened in anyone's area, please let everyone know...