This time last year, in fact on the very last day of school, my director reneged, in a way, on an agreement, and I came very close to chucking my contract.
Basically I expected the arrangements of the previous year to be applied again, but they weren't. There is a legal remedy, I can't remember the name exactly, but it is based on an assumption that what was previous arranged, and prior experience of an issue, can be reasonably expected to be repeated in a similar fashion.
The Air Ticket argument (ATA) basically revolved around 2 things:
1) I proposed that they pay me a sum equal to a return airfare between South Africa and Korea. I said I'd accept the cheapest fare they could find, as long as they paid that to me in cash. So they came up with a bargain price of W1.2million for a return trip. Now, the cheapest price in South Africa, and I approached several vendors, was W1.5million. (The price I paid a year earlier was W1.7million).
They were presenting a price for someone flying from Korea to SA, which is cheaper than vice versa. In any event, I wasn't even making the trip - I was flying to Thailand. But they played their little game, and refused to pay me what was actually close to the amount I would have paid had I gone home and bought another ticket. Since I was ultimately making some kind of saving, I finally capitulated in theory, even though I knew that they were not really meeting their obligation. In other words, they were taking chances to make extra money for themselves.
2) The second thing was they agreed to pay me on the last day of the school term, December 24, and then on the last day, changed the date. They said they'd pay me 2 weeks later. Since I had already reluctantly agreed to let them skim W300 000 off what they owed me, I didn't want them biting off my whole arm, by postponing what they owed. After a lot of threats (from their side), they finally paid me the next morning.
After the holiday in Thailand, when I returned to the school, they said they were delaying my monthly salary payments by a week (effectively earning themselves a weeks free labor), and that they were going to subtract the amount already paid for my air ticket from my first months salary (because they made a mistake paying it), and said they'd pay it in two six month installments. This seemed ridiculous to me, and I came very very close, again, to chucking the school.
I decided not to because I had just spent a fair amount of money on a holiday and an expensive camera, and it wasn't a great time to be out of a job. On top of that, he still owed me a month end bonus, so if I left at that stage he'd have scaled another W1.6 - W2.2 million off me. I could be right, and show them they were wrong and leave and lose what was owed to me. I was reluctant to do that. I was also reluctant to stay, but I dug deep, because I felt really depressed and betrayed by their flip flopping, but came through and here I am now at the end of the contract, with most things pretty much sorted out. Patience is a virtue, but so is being assertive.
So December 14 represented the second of those two payments for an air ticket that was actually supposed to be paid almost a year ago.
Obviously this pattern of delaying payment to the last day, and then citing 'a misunderstanding' on that last day - this scenario was coming up again, and today I just said, "No, this needs to be done now, as agreed." Corneli was hovering in the corner, and at one point made a comment, and I'm sure they knew as well as I did that she was there a week ago when they easily assented to paying me on the 14th.
What actually happened today is interesting. It shows how there is a strategy to delay payment, and also to save face, and also how the word 'misunderstanding' can be used whenever they wish to change something previously agreed to favor themselves. In reality they don't favor themselves, in my view, unless you see it purely in a short term cash flow paradigm. Over the long term, their employees grow reluctant to work for them, and if they remain, they work grudgingly, despising the person who makes many demands constantly for not the highest salaries in town. It's a case of: You do this, you do that, do as much as you can, and when it's time for us to pay you, then we'll see how little we can do. That doesn't inspire workers. That's how you end up with a bunch of unmotivated losers working for you. And in the end, that's going to create a Loser Business.
So Jan told me at the meeting that they had decided to pay me at the end of January.
I met the directors wife in the hallway and basically said: "Do you remember our meeting last week, with Corneli and Gyerian? We agreed to pay the air ticket money on the 14th of December. Yesterday?"
She replied, very evenly, "Okay, we'll pay you today. Okay."
Then just before I left, a teacher (I'm embarrassed to say I don't know her name!!!) came up to me and said that the director had informed her that I'd be paid on the last day of school. Now the only reason she was speaking to me at all, was because I decided to check my email on my way out. Normally I'd be out of there as close to 9pm as possible. I got this message at about 9:20pm. So I'm sure the director was really making an effort to make sure I got the message. Not!
So I went with her (the messenger) into the office and tried to sort it out.
Here's how the information unfolded:
1) We'll pay your air ticket money at the end of January.
Lots of talking back and forth.
2) We'll pay your ticket on the 14th with your salary.
Lots of talking back and forth.
3) We'll pay your ticket the day after the last day of school.
At this point I mentioned the 6 month deal, and that a payment after December would be a 6 month, 7 month deal.
I also mentioned the meeting earlier in the day with the directors wife, and the one a week earlier.
These were misunderstandings they said.
I said I wanted to avoid the misunderstandings on the 24th of December, last year, and that's why this needs to be done now.
At this point Corneli appeared at the door and whispered: " Just tell them you won't take the money and leave the next day."
So I said: "I'll bring you the air ticket as soon as you pay me. I need this air ticket money to buy an air ticket. I can't buy it the day before I fly, and I can't buy it in January."
Lots of talking. At this point my own anxiety was floating around the feeling that this whole charade, of changing dates, and being very convenient about agreements and reality, was also an elaborate way of saving face, trying to seem apologetic or unaware of the reality while still trying to gain...whatever holy grail they had in their minds... to gain from this little chess game.
Suddenly my interpreter said: "They say they have not misunderstood anything, but maybe you have misunderstood. But don't worry, they can pay you tonight."
Jim Carrey voiceover: Alrighty then.
And just after 10pm I saw that they had.
Some call it saving face. I ackowledge that saving face is part of the culture here. The reality for people who are not part of the culture is that it is a really big fuss, that wastes a lot of time, and goes in circles. But you have to play the game, patiently and unemotionally, and not be pushed into a corner. If you are fairly transparent, without being aggressive, and it's plain that it's their side that is just very flawed, then they have to find a solid explanation for what they are doing.
Advice to Myself:
When agreements are not met, often there is not a solid explanation, and these need to be brought to light, and sufficient opportunity be provided for face saving, even if that means: You misunderstood, but that's okay.
Arrangements need to be made in advance, and it's useful to have witnesses, and to have jotted down times and dates and amounts on paper. Having said that, I've brought in documents before and they have been instantly dismissive about them.
I'm glad this little setback has been resolved.
But I ask you: is this BIZARRE or what?
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