my boss and I

HIYA!

At the beginning of December my boss told me there will be a one afternoon class, of sorts and asked that I go. I said I wasn't sure. I told him I wanted to do a meditation retreat at the temple. He asked me what's more important, my job or my religion. I told him I didn't feel like there needed to be a choice. One day, one afternoon
out of a whole year! C'mon.

We talked about paid vacation days. My contract says I get five in winter and five in summer. It doesn't specify exactly when I can take them. A paper that my boss typed up and handed to me the day I arrived for a little orientation at the school said I'd get three in winter and three in summer, plus of course all the national holidays (as my contract also says). I remembered the contract while my boss remembered the paper he typed up and gave to me during my orientation.

At this time he told me that he pays me a monthly salary, which includes weekends because I get the same pay regardless of the number of days in a month. This doesn't work. I don't get this at all. I feel that he was trying to find some reason to coerce me in to working that one afternoon. I told him that if it were someone else saying this to me, that I'd really suspect them of lieing to me. I don't know what to think of him telling me. We've always had a good working and personal relationship. Nothing like this had ever come up. Nothing like this has come up since then either, I'm glad to say.

In the end, we compromised. I'm getting four days off. But he has told me again and again that I'm getting the five days off. I have told him that I don't see how he's counting this five days. I get Monday, the 25th, which is a national holiday (yes, Koreans do celebrate Christmas but I don't know to what degree. I'm told that about 25% of the population regard themselves as Christian, 25% as Buddhists, and 50% as having no religion. I'll write about Christianity, as I encounter it here, in a blog entry someday. Not tonight). Tuesday the 26th is off. Wednesday the 27th is the afternoon that there'll be some sort of party at the school. Actually, I'd like to go. But I'll be at the temple starting maybe Monday. I don't want to postpone the retreat just so I can have some snacks and chit chat with students for a couple of hours. I think there's going to be a movie. I forget. Anyway, though I would like to attend, it's not worth it. Then Thursday and Friday the 28th and 29th are off. So, as I count it, I am getting 4 paid days off. I can only say that my boss is counting with his math, and, to quote Tony Snow, Bush's advisor and in Bush's cabinet I think, I'm using "the math" (he said this in reference to the number of casualties in Iraq. I'm pretty saddened by the carnage in Iraq. Once I find some trustworthy organization, I'll help impeach Bush. The guy and his henchmen are a menace to the planet and everything that breathes). Though I've told my boss the way I count this four days, he doesn't respond. I don't want to push. I'll take the four versus the five. No biggie. It's better to swallow this one than demand one more day.

The bosses seem to be somewhat cold to me lately. But they've had a very busy and very stressful time up until the present. So I don't know how much they're dissatisfied with me and how much they're stressed about other things. I know they don't have a happy married life. My boss has told me numerous times that they fight all the time. They also do translation and my boss was incredibly busy with one job every day for a month. Then right after that he took on another, and then another. So, they're real stressed with translation too.

We've been talking about changing textbooks because the ones I use are disgusting. Downright rotten. But he's making some changes. One of the books will remain the same but we'll require the kids to buy the actual book instead of the horrible partial photocopy that my boss made up and had published. It's bad bad bad. He agrees too, and I'm glad. The other book I use is just inappropriate for the age levels and for the kids' abilities. Too hard for most of them and the material isn't engaging the little kids. It's an adult book and we've foisted it on these little kids who are dying in the classroom. I can't get my boss to see this. So I'll do what I have to do for eight more months and jetison this history like a suitcase full of dirty underwear! The smell is foul foul foul!

My first month here my boss invited me out to a drink. We agreed to do this once a month. We haven't gone out the two of us since then. Yesterday I invited him, my treat. He declined yesterday, and then again today, with a reason that I believe. He said maybe Thursday. I don't want to go out and drink any later than Thursday because I'll fast starting probably Monday.

Seems I have more money in the bank and that I save each month than my boss. So I told him I'm happy to pay. He's told me several times that he's just barely getting by. That could very well be considering what I know of his life. He's got a family and two businesses. I don't any of this. I'm happy to treat him to a few drinks and a bite to eat. A couple of things he's said suggest that he isn't so keen on the idea of me paying but I've told him that I'm happy to pay.

As of this evening, our relations are not as warm as they were during the honeymoon phase but much warmer than while we had that talk about paid vacation at the beginning of the month.

Enough,
Troy.