It'll make you want to spit part 2

So a couple of months ago, I wrote this post about a girl I called Susie. Susie, as you might recall, was 6~7 months pregnant at the time. Susie was in great danger of getting fired for said pregnancy, but by some miracle, managed to negotiate a 3 month maternity leave that would start sometime in the middle of May. This maternity leave would not be paid and she agreed to give up many of the other contractual benefits that most foreign teachers here get (free plane tickets, a pension that you can claim when you leave Korea) for being allowed to keep her house and her visa during her maternity leave.

Fast forward to this Thursday. As you may also recall, Susie is an extremely overweight girl. So overweight, that you could not actually tell she was pregnant until the eighth month. Her obesity coupled with the pregnancy, of course, has made her pregnancy a little more complicated. So after a check up on Thursday, she came to work with a doctor's note saying that she has severe chronic hypertension and that she should spend the rest of her pregnancy laying in bed.

When the manager saw the doctor's note, Susie was met with skepticism and incredulity. Not only did the manager say that the notarized document was a lie and that any doctor would write it if a patient asked, but also insisted that Susie open her medical records for the school's inspection so that they could judge for themselves if Susie was well enough to come to work. Susie objected. When she objected they decided for themselves that it must be a lie and demanded that a 8.5 month pregnant woman with severe chronic hypertension work for another week and half, because that was what they had verbally agreed to.

Susie, in a brave and rare moment of standing up of herself, could not be persuaded to work against the doctors orders. Management then accused her of not caring about the school or her students. Why is that she was only caring about herself? Here is Susie, leaving us all to hang out to dry.

Well, please pardon me for a moment while I do a little bit of editorializing: But DUH! What the fuck? Of course a women who is 8.5 months pregnant is going to put the health of herself and her child ahead of some crappy school that doesn't give a shit for her. And use your damn brains people: it's a liability to have her working there. If something happened to her while she was working, who do you think would be responsible? I know that I would sue the pants off of you. And win. And furthermore, did you not know that you've had to hire a teacher for 2 months? Is it really her fault that you've had your thumbs up your asses for all this time?

So after a day of stressful meetings, Susie was basically told to pack up her stuff and move out of her apartment. And then later in the evening, it was followed up with a call saying that the school would be reporting her to immigration for breaking her contract and that she would basically have to leave the country within 2 weeks. (How she could actually do these things being 8.5 months pregnant and on bedrest is beyond me..)

The next morning, we had an emergency meeting at school where management decided that it was really important to tell their side of the story. Of course they hadn't fired Susie. She quit. And of course she didn't have to leave the country within in two weeks. That was all a big misunderstanding, but we should all know that Susie is a liar and has been manipulating us all this whole time. The meeting went on for 2 hours and turned into a huge argument between the foreign staff and the management and ended with everyone being dismissed except me and another foreign teacher. We were sat down with the big boss and explained to one more time.

When she failed to convince us, it ended in her trying with all of her might to make herself cry. She was shaking and making sobbing noises, but just couldn't make the tears come. Pardon me for being so cynical about this, but she has pulled this act on me before. And I know that she stabs every single one of us in the back to make herself look good whenever there is anything slightly controversial at school. I have already been blamed for the low morale amongst the teachers at school. And I'm sure I'm seen as the ringer leader in the Susie revolt.

I am sick to death of the owner of this school. I am sick to death about the way "Susie" has been treated. And the rest of the management is no better as far as I am concerned. I think they would take everyone of us down if they could.

I am seriously thinking of packing up and leaving in June. I just don't know how much more of this I can take.

These are the kinds of things that can really make a girl hate living in Korea.