The Japanese Boss from Hell

In today's article, I'll tell you a bit more about my first manager in Japan. More stories are to come.

She Makes Teachers Cry?

Like I said, that cracks had begun to show early, it just took me awhile to notice. Officially I had a bunch of classes on my set schedule, unofficially I was teaching those classes, plus random classes that my manager decided to give to the other Native English teacher and me.
I asked my co teacher was this normal, and she said yes.
She told me a story about the teacher before me. The guy who I replaced, and whom I shadowed my first week. She would yell at him if he dusted off his clothes in the break room. I thought it was very very odd indeed. She had made my co-teacher cry on multiple occasions she told me. She made her cry because she yelled at her in front of the other staff, saying that she was incompetent.
My co-teacher complained to the trainers, but the guy before me told her to just do what the manager said. And to not make her angry. Regardless, she told and the manager herself got yelled at.

It's Resolved Right?

So, she couldn't yell at the English teachers, so you think it would have been a peaceful environment... WRONG.
She still LOVED to yell at the Japanese staff. She I later found out that they were basically doing her job because she didn't know how to. She basically didn't know how to do the job she was paid for. She was a single, 35-year-old woman, which in Japan is quite odd.
However, I soon found out why.

The Poor Japanese Staff

 I thought us English teachers had it bad, NOPE the Japanese staff had it much much worse. When she yelled at my co-teacher, a very sweet, soft spoken Japanese teacher came to speak to her. She asked her if she was okay. It turns out that the manager often made this teacher cry as well. She would say really mean things to her like calling her stupid and incompetent. She would yell at her for stupid things. Another teacher who had worked there awhile would often have to do WHATEVER she wanted, even on his off days. If there was something to do with us English teachers, she would make him do it.

The New Guy

My co-teacher and I went along with mostly everything the manager said... Until our new co-teacher came. He actually came because I did complain about my hectic schedule. He had worked at the company for 4 years. I thought he would also go along with what she said...I was so wrong. He started telling us that our school was CRAZY. He had been to many schools and he said that ours was the worst by far. He told us the way it should be done, and the other girl and I were in awe.

The Throwing Under the Bus Incident

I had been teaching at the school for around six months when we had a meeting with all the teachers at the school, and the leader of the area.
There were a lot of things that the teachers were supposed to do that I wasn't aware of at the time because the manager didn't really tell us exactly what we should be doing. The only thing I knew to do at the time was teacher, and I had to keep on top of that because I never knew when a new class would be added.
But the kids were having Summer Seminars is that they called it. I had no idea, but my student's Summer Seminar sign up was low. So, it was mentioned in the meeting that our school's sign up was low. Okay, I thought... But my manager couldn't leave it there. She mentioned in front of EVERYONE "Latoya your sign-ups are low, what are you going to do? “..
The only thing I could think was WTF. I almost reached over the table to smack her!
I DO NOT like to be put on the spot, ESPECIALLY not when the other employees are in the room. I was beyond livid. After that moment, I know EXACTLY the kind of person I was dealing with.