The largest English conversation school in Japan is in the midst of a rather spectacular collapse. The chain of schools, called NOVA, employs over 5,000 foreigners in Japan and is notorious in the local English-speaking community for being a lousy place to work. The average teacher stays for 8 months, which I think says more than I could. Anyway, the firm was slapped down by the the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for some shady business practices in the spring. The ruling included a six-month ban on signing lucrative long-term contracts with students.
The company staggered along for a few months, but starting last month people started getting paid late (not at all in the case of some middle managers), evicted from company housing (even though the company had been deducting rent from paychecks and supposedly passing it along to landlords), and branches of the school started closing down. Things took a marked turn for the worse this week when teachers were not paid as scheduled on Monday, and the CEO sent out a fax saying they'd try to scrape together the cash for salaries by "around the 25th".
We've known a few NOVA instructors over the years, and this isn't a fun time for any of them.
The frustration exhibited in this video is pretty standard:
The bunny ("usagi" in Japanese) is the company mascot, if you were wondering. Oh, and Nozomu Sahashi is the CEO.
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2 comments:
What can I say, except I am very glad that you are not employed by NOVA! One more reason we are eager to welcome you back to the US! Love,Mum
I heard about this. I'm glad it's not you, although your experience hasn't been exactly ideal.
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