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093 Soothes the Seoul · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Occasionally I had to go on visa runs and the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: first school that I became part owner of was a mess.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: When I got to peek behind the curtain as a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: part owner, I found out why teachers weren't getting their
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: visas on time, or why their housing wasn't being set
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: up ahead of time. There wasn't a lot of budgeting
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: going on. There were not significant events planned out on
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a table with due dates. The curriculum was good and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: we had students coming in, but the day to day
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: administration was what I was being invited into help with
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: because it basically didn't exist until those responsibilities were given
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to me after I joined the school administration. A big
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: problem with this was getting visas for the teachers we
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: hired at our school or getting them housing that we
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: had agreed to get them both of those, and then
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I would find out that a teacher had arrived and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: there was no apartment ready or hotel or work visa
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: set up for them yet, and we would have to
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: scramble and do that. And this happened from the bottom
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of the school straight to the top where I was
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: having problems getting my visas, and occasionally I'd have to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: make visa runs to other countries, which just means you
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: fly out of the country and then fly back in
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: so that your tourist visa renews. So I could wait
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the extra week until my work visa would arrive that
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: we had just scrambled to apply for and put on
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: an urgent notice with express mail, because that's about as
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: basic as it gets. If you're going to be working
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: in China, you need that working visa, and in this instance,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: my new working visa was being handled by the other
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: four administrators of the school. How much of a debacle
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: this needlessly turned into is a big reason why I
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: stopped working with those people and teaching at that school.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: After I had worked there for a few years and
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: many many things were going very well in China for
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: me personally, but I knew it was time to stop
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: working at that school after a while because of events
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: like this. We now had five owners of the school.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: There were the two original owners, Justin and Tom. Then
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: they added me on because I could make curriculum schedules,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: teach the new teachers, bring in new students with demo classes,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: train and organize the school. I just did a lot
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: of good business stuff, so they wanted me around because
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: they were having trouble running the school before I showed up,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: they were in fact going to close the school, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that's how I ended up becoming part of the administration then,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: because they were still running out of money, which I
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: don't understand, and that is more fully explained in the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: episode where I talk about how I opened my second school.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: But anyway, they didn't have money, and so someone offered
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to invest in the school for part ownership, which they
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: agreed to, and then another person offered to invest in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the school for part ownership, which the original owners, Justin
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and Tom, agreed to. I said no to both of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the new investors, but I didn't have enough information on
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: how Justin and Tom were spending so much money, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: so I couldn't provide them useful solutions. Also, they didn't
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: tell me this was happening until they had already invited
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: people in for investing meetings, and they were already out
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: of money somehow, so there was no way I could
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: have come up with the solution on the spot after
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: everything had already happened. So that's how we ended up
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: with five people as the boss of the school, which,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: as you can imagine, made administration somewhat difficult, and we
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: would have at least one meeting a week, often two
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: or more, and those anyone who has meetings knows those
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: were the bane of my existence. And that is why
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: when I opened the second school, first rule was no meetings,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and I pretty much resolved to never be in a
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: position where I would have to attend a meeting again.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: The two new investors were David and Edward. Dave had
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: pretty much stopped working in any useful capacity at the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: school after like six months. He still showed up for
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: meetings sometimes, but he was a go getter and he
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: was very rabbin in his pursuit of profitable businesses. So
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: although the agreement was that he would run certain parts
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: of the school, I ended up running those parts of
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the school, and David just wasn't there a lot of
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the time. He was constantly pursuing newer projects with the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: promise of profit behind them. The newest investor, with a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: very large stake I believe he invested the most, was Edward.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Edward was supposed to be in charge of getting the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: working pieces because he was Chinese and could get that
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: issue done more easily than other people could. Justin was
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: on hiatus at this point, just taking a break from
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the school in general, and Tom was still in Sichuan,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: with Dave taking a back seat and also pursuing other
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: leads on profit. It was mostly me and Edward at
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the school, and Edward basically acted as principal and I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: was running most of the day to day operations outside
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: of payroll schedules, training, maintenance, promotional events, the holiday celebrations.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And I do want to point out that with all
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: of my problems with this school, I always did get paid.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it would be a week or two late, but
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I always got paid the full amount eventually, and I'm
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: not a stickler for a schedule, so that didn't really
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: bother me. The lack of accountability, as in this story
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: by the other owners and administrators of the school concerning
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the tasks they had set for themselves is what eventually
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: prompted me to make an exit. In this case, specifically,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I needed that new work visa or I would have
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to go on a tourist visa run to Korea and back.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: We'd have to cancel my classes or reschedule other teachers
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: who already had class loads on short notice. If this
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't taken care of on time. The five of US
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: administrators had a group chat. I checked in with everybody
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: two months before my visa would expire to check on
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the timeline of the working visa that Edward already had
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: coming in. I was assured by Dave that nothing would
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: be going wrong because he, two Tas and Edward were
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: all working together on the visa to make sure it
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: went through without a hitch. They had gotten visas for
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: teachers before, this wouldn't be an issue. The problem was
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: that I was at the top level and I had
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: to deal with the teachers whose visas they had messed
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: up before and consistently. But I couldn't get it myself
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: because the working visa needed to be applied for by
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the Chinese owner of the business, so Edward had to
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: be doing this with support from Dave and Thas. So
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I'm already asking about two months before I even need
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: to go on a visa run. So I told all
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: of the other owners working on the visa on my
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: working visa issue. If I cannot renew my working visa,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have to leave, go to a new
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: country and then come back, and then we can wait
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: for another week or two while you know, you finish
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: up that work visa for me. Other than the message
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: we're definitely working on it. I didn't get any updates
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: about the visa when I asked for them each week
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: or so, but I was told each time that my
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: new visa was already on its way and it would
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: definitely come in before the current visa expired. That's it
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like six weeks out or something, because it was already
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: on its way. I made it very clear every time
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: we had a meeting that the sooner my visa came in,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the better, because if I have to leave at the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: last minute, I won't be around to help with any
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: situations that arise at the school, which was a big
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: part of what I did. We had a lot of
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: teachers at the time, seven or eight I don't know
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: different teachers, and if one of them didn't show up,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I was the one who went in and taught their class,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: or if we had new teachers, I was the one
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: who trained them. If we needed curriculum made, I made
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: the curriculum. If we had to do demo classes, or
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: if we needed to or organize the tas to complete
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a project like handing out flyers or just general promotion.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I was usually in charge of a lot of these,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Like I said, daily operations tasks in the school, and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I had seen visa's not get processed by my co
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: owners before, and I wanted to make sure that mine
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: would get done because not only would it be inconvenient
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: for me, who would just have to leave on a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: mini vacation, basically it would hamper the operations of the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: school and it would take them a long time to
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: catch up because they didn't usually fix these problems that
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I was very accustomed to fixing. I have the text
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: messages from that time, and that's what this story is
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: typed off of the exact text messages that we sent
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: to each other in and out of meetings, the notes
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I took in meetings. Also, I reminded the other managers
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that the other two times my working visa hadn't worked
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: out right away, I had had to fly to other
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: countries last minute to take care of it myself. And
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: if that happens, then we're going to have to cancel
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: all of my classes because Dave isn't teaching at the school,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Justin's on hiatus, Tom is taking a break in Sichuan,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and Edward was the principal. He wasn't a teacher, so
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: if I was made to leave the country suddenly, then
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the school would be in a lot of trouble because
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I had a lot of students that I was responsible
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: for teaching. Now, you might think with eight different teachers
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: we would spread that out a bit, but that was
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: another problem. We would hire new teachers who didn't have
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: much to do because the other owners wanted to keep
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: my classes under me, which is a good idea, but
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: then we don't need new extra teachers that were paying
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I was outvoted on this point four to one, so
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: we kept hiring new teachers and kept paying them full
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: salaries despite not having them work. The other administrators believed
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: it would be good to have these teachers on hand
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: because eventually we would need new teachers. Not a great
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: argument from my perspective to be spending all those salaries
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: on teachers we weren't using effectively. Now, Dave and Edward
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: both told me that they had just gone to the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: visa office. Everything was going through correctly, and my visa
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: was on the way and it would definitely arrive sometime
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: in the next six weeks shiny valid, before I would
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: have to leave the country to go on any kind
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of visa on I brought it up privately later with
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Dave once a week in text messages and in managers
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: meetings to make sure that everyone knew I was concerned
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: about getting the visa on time, and I knew what
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: would happen if we didn't get the visa on time.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I knew that the school would be shorthanded because I
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: was teaching a large portion of the classes. I was
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: also the tech guy at that school, so in something
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: went wrong with the computers or the projectors or anything,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I would go in there and fix it real quick.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: But that was the days that I was there. If
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I was not there, if a teacher couldn't figure out
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: how to connect her laptop to the projector, or he
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: didn't know how to open up a PDF because it
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: was a different type of PDF, something like that, classes
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: could be canceled for that day if the issue wasn't
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: resolved right away. Because the classes are only forty five
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: minutes in total, so if you miss ten minutes of
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the class, the parents are going to be very upset
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: about paying for that class. But if all of those
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: other teachers don't know how to fix anything technical, then
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: they're out of luck because I'm not there to troubleshoot.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So that's why I sent messages to everyone privately who
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: was working on it and got assurances that it was
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: on its way, And every time we would have a meeting,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I'd bring it up in general and just say, remember,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I do need that working visa or I'm going to
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: have to leave the country for a while. So now
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: we're five weeks out from the expiration of my current visa.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I told all of the managers again in our meeting
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that if I didn't receive my visa in two weeks,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I was going to buy a ticket to Korea because
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I would have to obtain a tourist visa for China
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: in Korea, because I was familiar with the visa agencies
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: there and I knew that I could finish it in
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: like five days, which is pretty fast turnaround for a
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: Chinese visa. But I made it very clear that if
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: that happens, I will be out of the country for
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: at least five days because I would need to get
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: a whole new visa if my working visa that was
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: coming in didn't arrive in time, and I would be
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: gone five days, even though the emergency time is less
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: than three days for a fast visa, you can pay
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: for a priority visa basically. But if I left the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: day before my visa expired and I worked up until
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: that day, the next day was the weekend, and visa
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: agencies are not open over the weekend, so I'd have
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: to add two days to that three day visa processing time,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and I would be gone from the country one over
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the weekend, the busiest days of an Inningish school, and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: two for a full two extra days in general outside
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: of the school, so I would not be there to
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: help with anything, including importantly the Halloween party that was
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: coming up the weekend after my visa was set to expire.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Because my absence would affect so many parts of the school,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I made sure to make this situation very clear during
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: our group meeting, where all of the owners were present,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: as I had the previous weeks every time we had
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: a meeting, everyone agreed. Tom was there on Skype, Dave
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Edward on either side of him, Me in there, and
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: all three of them were like, definitely, we get it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: That visa is coming, so you won't have to go
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: to South Korea to get a new visa while we're
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: waiting for this new visa to come in. No worries.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: They all agreed that the South Korea plan was a
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: solid backup. I sent messages to each of them to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: record that I had talked about South Korea. We had
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: all agreed that I would go to South Korea if
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: my visa did not come in on time because I
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: needed a visa, and like I said, everyone agreed it
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: was a good backup plan if my new work visa
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: in come in. So two weeks pass without any updates
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: from anybody. So now I'm three weeks out from my
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: current visa expiring. I send out an email to all
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of the managers questioning the status of my work visa.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I am getting worried about canceling classes, which parents don't
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: like to do and I really don't like to do
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: for many reasons. The response was identical to all the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: responses I had received for the past two months. I
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: was told that if I really needed to go to Korea,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the school would buy me a plane ticket there, I
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: would get the new visa, I'd get back and my
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: work visa should arrive in the next month or so,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I said, Okay, I will keep working until my visa expires.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: But the visa that's coming in now that I need
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: is very important because if I don't have one, I
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: could be kicked out of the country permanently, and then
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I won't be around to teach at all, which is
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: a large portion of our student class load, and I
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to deal with any of my company responsibilities.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Everyone agreed. Again it's in text message writing that they
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: all understood and agreed that that was the plan. Those
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: were the consequences. Okay. Cut to according to the date
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: of these text messages, about two weeks a little less
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: eleven days before I know I'll need to buy a
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: ticket and go to South Korea. I let Dave know that, Hey,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: this is really the last time I'm going to ask
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: for an update about the visa before the school needs
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: to buy a ticket for me, because at that point
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I'll have less than a week left if I wait
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: another week, and I've been asking them for major updates
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: once a week or so because I'm not receiving any updates.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: So I suggest if we're going to go that route.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I can just buy a ticket today, you know, eleven
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: days out, so that this doesn't turn into an emergency
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: in another week, and I don't have to spend what
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: might be a much longer time because there are no
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: tickets so close together in South Korea. This is important
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: because I know, through questioning all of our employees that
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: none of the managers have informed any of the parents
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: that I will be out on a visa trip yet,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and they haven't made any contingency scheduling the other teachers
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: to take over my classes. During those owner meetings we had,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I brought up canceling or rescheduling my classes multiple times.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: I was told that they would definitely reassign my classes
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to other teachers, and it just kept not happening. Everything
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: is just running like normal. Despite bringing this issue up
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and my potential absence up to the other managers once
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a week at least for over two months now, I
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: am again told by Dave that the company is handling
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the visa, not to worry about it. We still have
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: eleven days. It's definitely coming in. Every time I brought
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: it up in the meeting, Dave would say that that
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: same thing and then turn to Edward and say we're
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: definitely working on that visa right and ed Order would say, oh, yes,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: everything's coming through on time, It's all taken care of.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: But nothing was being taken care of as far as
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: I could see. But I had decided that I was
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: going to take care of my responsibilities and they would
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: take care of their responsibilities, and if they didn't, they
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: would have to deal with the consequences. I am kind
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: of excited at this point. I half figure that they're
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: going to screw it up. I know that the ticket
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: prices from Beijing to Korea don't fluctuate too crazy from
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: one week before your flight to six months in advance,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: so the price issue isn't a huge problem. I'm kind
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: of excited because if they screw up this visa like
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: has happened with other teacher visas, I'm going to get
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: this little vacation in Korea, which I'm just going to
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: have a very long weekend in Korea hanging out. I
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: won't have to go to the Halloween party that I
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: had to organize but did not want to participate in,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: just because we do so many parties and I participated
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: in a lot of them, and I would just have
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: an extra couple days in Korea to hang out. Oh
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and when I mentioned the Halloween party, it's not a
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Halloween party for the staff. It's a Halloween party for
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the children. It's a promotional event so that people can
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: see how fun our school is. So you have to
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: organize this was Halloween, a haunted house and all the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: food and the music and the activities, and then run
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: that whole party for at least a couple hours. So
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I was fine on missing out on that and hanging
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: out in Seoul for a while. This is why I
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: suggested multiple times, Well, why don't I just go now?
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: We get the priority visa. It takes three days maximum.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I'm back here. If we wait until the day before
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I stop teaching, the three day visa trip is going
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to turn into a five day visa trip because the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: visa offices are all closed on the weekends, and I
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: won't be there to help out with the Halloween party,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to be gone five days. I've brought
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: this up multiple times to all of the other managers.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: This time, when I bring it up when we're eleven
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: days out or whatever, Dave's eyes widen in the meeting
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and he says, what five days? Geez, man, that's a
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: long time. Why didn't we know about it? So I
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: remind him of our several conversations regarding my visa over
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the past three months or so, and he agrees that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I have been asking him about my visa a lot
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: pretty often, and that he has told me he and
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the company were handling it, but I still didn't have
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: my visa. So he acknowledged that we had talked about
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: it multiple times for a very long time, and I
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: still didn't have the visa. I needed to avoid that
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: five day excursion if I had to wait until the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: last day to leave for the visa, which everybody wanted
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: me to just keep teaching like normally. Edward said, well, look,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the visa's been coming this whole time. I've been following it.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: We still have eleven days. It'll definitely be here in time.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Just keep teaching your classes. It should be fine. One
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: week later, we are now having our October twenty second
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: manager meeting, and I remind everyone that I'm going to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: buy a plane ticket now, as we have all previously
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: agreed on. This is how that conversation goes me, okay,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: so I know that I can wait until about two
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: days before the flight. That ticket prices to Korea won't
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: change from Beijing, so I'll buy a ticket Monday morning
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: at the latest. Edward okay. And how long will you
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: be gone? Me? Four to five business days from next Wednesday,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the day before my visa expires. Since we haven't applied
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: for a priority visa, it's going to take four to
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: five business days from next Wednesday, so I'll probably return
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the following Monday or Tuesday. Tom Okay, got it. Will
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: you be back by the weekend? Me? Nope. I will
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: be in Korea until the following Monday or Tuesday. Edward okay. Okay,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So can you participate in the Halloween party that is
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: on Saturday? Me? No, I'm leaving on Wednesday, and I
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: will not return until Monday or Tuesday. When I have
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: my visa in my hand, I'll buy a ticket back
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: because I can buy same day tickets, Dave. So all together,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: how many days? Me? Four or five business days from
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Wednesday plus the weekend, So I'll be back on Monday
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: or Tuesday as soon as I have the renewed visa,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: which I should receive on Monday or Tuesday. The fourth
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: or fifth business day I'll buy the return ticket that
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: same day and come back. Edward, So, what about your classes?
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Should we cancel your classes on Wednesday? Me, since I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: won't be here to teach them and no teachers have
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: been scheduled or are available those days, should cancel my
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: classes until Tuesday. Everyone now looks like they have heard
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: for the first time that I will have to go
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: on a visa run because my visa is not here.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: So five days later, on Monday morning, the twenty seventh,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I purchase my ticket for the twenty ninth for the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: afternoon after I taught classes for that day and forward
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the ticket confirmation to the other managers. I send out
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: a mass text to them in addition to the email
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that says, Okay, I'm leaving on the final day. The
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: weather looks fine. It shouldn't be a problem. I'll be
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: leaving on the twenty ninth. I forwarded all of you
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: in email the ticket confirmation. I get one thumbs up
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: emoticon from Tom as confirmation as any response from all
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: three of them. No response from David or Edward, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Justin is still on the hiatus they've been on for
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the past several months. The next day, Tuesday, the twenty eighth,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I work until nine pm. I have one late class.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: That's why I'm working so late. That day, I ride
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: my bike home, take a shower, jump on the subway,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and catch a ride to the airport. I get there
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a little after midnight. I don't want to go to
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: bed and then wake up and then have to get
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: ready and then go to the airport early in the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: morning and get all ready. I'd rather just go to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the airport, hang out in the liminal space, watch a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: bunch of TV, and eat some food, have a beer
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: or two, and then jump on the plane at eight
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: or nine in the morning, whatever it was. So I
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: get there very early morning on the twenty ninth, like
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: one am or something like that. I start hanging out,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: just watch TV, like I said Veg, and then at
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: five or six am I send out a message that
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: morning that I'll be getting on the plane in thirty
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: minutes and that I'll see everyone on Monday or Tuesday.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I ask Edwards to remember to cancel my classes if
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Tom can't cover them. No replasts from anybody. It's still
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: pretty early, so maybe they aren't up whatever. I have
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: confirmation from all of them on multiple dates in multiple
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: messages that they know I am going on this visa run.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: So I get on the plane. The plane lands in
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Korea at twelve forty five pm a little afternoon, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I bline for my favorite visa agency. The guy that
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: works there is cool, He's very knowledgeable. He's just good
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: at his job. So I get right there. They are closed.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: All of the visa agencies, luckily, are in the same
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: neighborhood in Seoul, so I walk around the neighborhood and
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I think of which one to go to. I choose
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: one or two and haggle with them a bit, and
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I find one reasonable guy who haggles down to the
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: price that I'm used to paying with my guy that
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I would have used before. So I turn over my passport,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: fill out the forms, log into his WiFi, turn the
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: application into him, confirm that I'm paying for priority mail
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the quickest possible turnaround, and begin my five to six
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: days of goofing off in Korea while I wait for
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the visa to come back. It is just at that
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: point where my visa application is turned in and now
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I'm playing the waiting game that I received the message
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: from Edward, Hey are you at the school? Today, the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: parents are saying you're late for class. I am struck
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: down and I shake my head and message back, I'm
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: in Korea. Now. The agency I often use is closed,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: so I found another one and the application has already
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: taken care events submitted. I get no answer back from Edward,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: so I go walk about town, go the cartoon museum,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: then hang out in the bar district that I know
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I have marked down that there was a new cafe
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: selling Rubens. I got a Ruben a Ruben panini. It
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: was good, and about twenty four hours later from our
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: previous conversation, Edward asks when I will be returning four
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to five business days. I respond, since I submitted the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: application on Wednesday, I will receive my visa, buy the
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: plane ticket, and then return on either Monday or Tuesday.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I immediately receive a reply from Edward. This is a
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: very long time for you to be away from the school.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I remind Edward that I've been talking to them over message,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: email and in person about this visa trip for well
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: over two months. He doesn't reply. Later that night, I
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: receive a message this is like eight hours later. Now, Edward,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: we have the Halloween party tomorrow and you can't make
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: it here to the Halloween party. Me. No, I can't.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I'm in Korea getting the visa. We talked about, Edward.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: You know, Dave has a cold and Tom is covering
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: one of your classes while you're off in Korea, and
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: you don't even seem to care. I firmly remind him
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: of the multiple in person meetings, the multiple emails and
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: multiple text messages he and all of the other managers
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: have been exchanging with me about not only my working visa,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: but this specific trip for the past three months. Edward
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: insists that he wasn't there in the meetings, didn't receive
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: any messages, and that we needed to have a meeting
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: about the costs of this trip. When I returned, I
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: was like, yeah, okay, whatever, and I kept drinking beer
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: and hanging on the cartoon museum. I received my passport
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and visa on Tuesday morning around ten am. I bought
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the only reasonably priced ticket for three twenty five pm.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Five hours later, I got to the Beijing airport around
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: five pm and got back into the city by six
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: thirty pm. So same day I got the visa, got
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the ticket, and got into the city. Dave Edward and
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I have a meeting. They both have poudy faces on.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Edward starts off with you neglected to tell Dave, Tom
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: or I how long the visa trip would take, so
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: we had no idea when you would be back me.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: We've discussed all of this multiple times. Do you remember
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: me mentioning my expiring visa since August or any of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the emails and messages I sent out to the managers
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: over the two and a half months since I first
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: brought it up. Edward no. I was like, Okay, here
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: are several emails and text messages from me with personal
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: responses by all of you, confirming my leaving for this
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: amount of time on this date and returning on this
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: date at about this time, and I pulled up basically
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: a PDF of all the messages I had from them,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: and all the emails I had from Edward, Dave, and Tom,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: with all of this information in there, because we had
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: talked about it so many times over the two months
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: that I'd been waiting for this work visa, including their
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: responses too in confirmation of the visa trip. Edward says, Okay,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I remember those, but I didn't know how long you
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: would be in Korea. So I point to a line
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: of text and respond. Right here, I wrote, if I
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: leave on the last possible day, Wednesday, I will be
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: in Korea four to five business days plus the weekend.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: I will return on Monday or Tuesday. Under that from you,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: you wrote, Okay, got it. I have multiple messages from
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: you and Dave and Tom, and we've talked about in
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: person many times, all agreeing to these dates. So I
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: turned to Dave, who's also in the room. Dave, do
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you remember talking to me about the visa run? Dave?
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I remember talking about it with you several times, but
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I have to admit that I wasn't really paying attention
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to all of the details. Me. Okay, those details were
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: these numbers that you answered. Do you remember the Wednesday
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: meeting in person that we all had where I reminded Edward,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Tom and you together that I would be back after
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: four to five business days, leaving Wednesday, returning Monday or Tuesday. Dave, Yeah,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: I remember that, me, Edward, Do you remember that? Edward says,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I remember you saying four to five business days multiple times,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: but I don't know how long that is. So now
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: we all agree that everybody in the meeting knew that
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I would be gone for four to five business days,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: but at least one of them didn't realize the length
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: of time involved in four to five business days, even
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: though I explained when the vast offices were closed that
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: they would not be open on the weekend, and that's
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: why four to five business days would turn into those
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: six or seven days I be gone, leaving Wednesday, getting
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: back Tuesday. I mentioned the specific dates. I mentioned that
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I would not be here for the Halloween party. There
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: were no ambiguous dates. And now in this meeting, after
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I had returned, I was holding the written responses and
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: confirmation of those dates so that they could read their
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: own responses and confirmation. The scolding, I guess continued. Anyway, Edward,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: that's all fine, but your time in Korea hurt the
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: company because of lost or rescheduled classes. Me. If I
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: don't have a visa, I can't work in the country
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: at all. If I am kicked out for not having
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: a visa, I can never return, which would hurt the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: company much more than the few days of classes. I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: asked you to reschedule teachers for Edward, Well, you chose
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: a late flight on Tuesday, because when I checked Sea Trip.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: There were more flights, all at the same price you said,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: but at an earlier time. At this point, Dave jumps
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: in and says he does need a visa to be
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: in China, and he got back on Tuesday like he
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: said he would in the messages. Oh, Sea Trip was
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the name before trip dot com, where we did a
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: lot of our ticket buying because it was a Chinese company,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: so you got good deals from Beijing. Edward, still talking
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: to me. If you had bought a ticket at nine
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: forty five am, like I said, you could have been
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: back here. Me. It takes two hours to get to
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the airport from my visa agency. When I messaged you
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: that I had the visa at nine forty five am,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to get there until noon. There were
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: three available flights on SA Trip, two at one oh
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: five pm for eight hundred dollars each and another one
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: at three ten pm for two hundred and twenty dollars.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I flew out two hours later and saved the school
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: about six hundred dollars. Edward, Well, then you didn't give
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: me enough time to offer better advice. Me. I've been
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: bringing up the visa trip for over two months. I
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: was told directly multiple times by you and the other
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: managers that the company was taking care of it and
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: not to buy a plane ticket. I told you that
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: if I didn't get the new visa, I would have
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: to buy a plane ticket and renew the visa myself.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: That's done. Now I have the visa, so we can
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: wait for the work visa to arrive in the next
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: week or so. Edward then threatened to cut me out
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: of the company for being so selfish and not thinking
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: of the company as well being. After all, he pointed out,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Dave had a cold and Tom had to run the
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Halloween party all by himself without you. Edward then told
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: me I was leaving China again next month on another vacation,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: and that all I tried to do was get the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: most out of the company without thinking about what's best
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: for the company. The trip he was referring to was
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: to fly to my best friend's wedding, a friend I
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: have literally known since I was one year old. I
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: had written confirmation from and to all of the other
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: managers that I would be taking this leave seven months
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: prior before it happened, and reminding everyone about it every
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: month or six weeks or so. I pulled up one
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: of the emails between me and Edward, where Edward had
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: written a few days leave is no problem, especially since
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: this is your first leave ever. So we'll see you
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: when you get back from the wedding. Have a great time.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Six months later, in this presently taking place meeting after
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I returned from the Korea visa run, well, according to
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: your contract as manager, you don't receive your company's share
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: if you have any unapproved class cancelations. Well, it was approved.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: We all approved it in April. Then we talked about
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: it for the past seven months. And here's the email
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: where we talked about it. Edward. If I had known
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: in April what would happen in the future, I wouldn't
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: have approved it. Therefore I'm not approving it now. Well,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: I answer, pre means before the trip is already approved.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: We've all agreed to it. Edward says, there's one definition
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: of cancel, and you are canceling and nulling your comment.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: It's probably about this point that I have decided to
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: leave the school, because this is not the first time
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: this kind of situation has come up, and reading between
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: the lines and from context and business history, Edward is
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: probably upset because I wasn't there to teach classes for
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: a few days. Because he was responsible for scheduling at
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: that time, nobody else taught any of the older kids
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: like I did, and he had to deal with a
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: bunch of parents. So I knew that the thing he
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: was most upset about was actually just me not teaching classes.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: He wanted me in the classroom more. So I try
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: to wrap things up with Look, there's already a five
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: day holiday during the week that I will be attending
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the wedding. I scheduled my trip that way so that
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't negatively impact my students or classes, So we
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: only actually have to cover three school days because there's
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: a five day Chinese holiday. Now, look, we can move
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the starting date of my leave up two days since
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I don't work those two days, so there's no classes
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: to cover. The company will pay the balance to change
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: the cost of my ticket, and then we only have
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: to cover one of my class days. Edward eagerly responds, Yeah,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: we can do that. That makes sense, Dave, what do
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: you think? Dave, on his phone for the past five minutes, says, uh, yeah, sure.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: The meeting kind of cooled down after that, point, Dave
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: and Edward were very happy that I had solved their concerns.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: The next month, after that conversation ended, Dave mentioned that
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: they'd been trying to work out Ella's visa situation for
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the past two weeks but didn't know how to do it.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: So I pulled out the main schedule, scheduled a trip
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: for her to Hong Kong, rescheduled her classes to be
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: covered by other teachers. In about ten minutes, Dave was nodding,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: watch me do this. Edward looked at the laptop afterwards
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: and said, ah, great work, Thank you. He left the room.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Dave left the room, and from that point forward, I
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: never let Edward participate in any business decisions or programs
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: again as long as I was participating in them, and
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I did not. When I had to schedule visa runs
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: for the teachers, I sent out an email explaining what
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: I was doing. I used the company card, I gave
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: instructions to the teachers. It got solved when I had
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: to train new teachers. When I had to come up
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: with a curriculum. Whenever anything happened in that school from
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: that day forward, I did it myself. I sent an
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: email to the other manager saying this is what I'm doing,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: never asked for input, and if anybody offered any I
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: either said yes or no. And then I think I
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: left the school about a year later. But I should
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: have implemented what sounds like maybe a radical managerial perspective earlier,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: because that last year where I just told everybody else
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: what I was doing and didn't allow their input to
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: influence my business decisions, was the smoothest year of the company.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: It was still irritating that the other managers didn't deal
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: with a lot of these business operations and didn't remember
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of the things that I did. But I
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: cut out ninety percent of my trouble. I didn't have
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: to worry. I didn't go to meetings unless they were
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: critically important. As far as I judged that importance, I
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: would do my responsibilities that I had always done. I
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: would take care of a few more without consulting the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: other managers. And I did, and it was a pretty
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: good year. And then I decided I was done with Beijing,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: and I flapped my arms off and started traveling around
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the world. This really was a turning point where I
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: realized that if I disagreed with business decisions. I couldn't
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: do business with these people anymore unless I cut them
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: out of the business process. Then I could do it
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: for a year while I planned my exit. But I
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: realized that all this trouble was because I was expecting
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: other people to be more responsible than they were. The
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: trouble I was taking onto my own shoulders just wasn't
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: worth it. And trust me, I don't think people have
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: to be responsible. It was my problem for expecting them
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: to take on responsibilities that they clearly were not ready
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: for or interested in. That played very heavily into the
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: next school. When I returned to China in chung Du,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: which I'll talk about in another episode. That second school
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: was so laid back and easy to run compared to
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: this Beijing school afterwards, because I had no other managers.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: There was me and one other person, and I did
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: most things and she handled the rest. And that was
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: a good school. I will talk about it soon, and
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: I will talk to you soon. Thank you very much
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: for listening. Give me a message at bit of a
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: rambler at gmail dot com or all the socials, and
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: I will talk to you soon.