Let's make a deal...

Yesterday I began vacation negotiations.

I had been told by the recruiter that I had 14 days total for vacation and that I had to use 7 of those days in each semester. I was also told that those were days I could take off school and could either combine them with weekends or holidays to make the vacation days stretch longer. Then, the EPIK office told us at training that most schools take off January and February and may give us the months off too (if they feel generous), but to expect that we'll be sitting in the teacher's office for two months doing nothing but web surfing and maybe a few extra classes on the side.

I was pretty surprised when I asked about this stuff yesterday and my co-teacher told me that the teachers teach all January and then have most of February off. However, she was unsure of whether I would be teaching those months or not, so I explained to her that I really need to start planning my vacations now so it's important that she find out for me, especially since I wanted to vacation in December.

Her findings weren't so happy.

After talking with the principal, she told me that I would definitely be working January and possibly all of February too, despite the absence of every other teacher. However, I did have his blessings to take off 7 days in December for a vacation if I wanted. It really wasn't the answer I wanted.

That was round one; today we will have round two.

Round two is less of a battle of power and more of a battle of cunning strategy. See, I had foreseen this problem a couple months ago. I knew they could make me work all of winter vacation and I took the EPIK warning to heart, so back in September I devised a plan to win their favor and acquire a couple bargaining tools of my own.

From the beginning, my school has shown me that they want to follow my contract to a T, like making me teach all 22 classes whereas most schools are giving their foreign teachers between 15-20 (Courtney has 13!). They've also been really careful not to let me work any overtime so that they won't have to pay me double for an extra hour of teaching. However, I don't think they planned on me earning extra credit. I offered to teach two extra 1 1/2 hour classes FOR FREE (one is Girl's Debate Team, the other is English Club), I help tutor teachers a little on the side, and I spoil the teachers in my office (including the VP) by bringing doughnuts and PB&J sandwiches on occasion. I've also gone above and beyond to win student favor by giving out prizes and candy. I've also brought special American teas to my VP in the morning. They don't really know it, but they love me, and they want me to keep doing these things...

So, when my co-teacher returns to the Principal's later office today, she will be reminding him of all the extra classes I teach now for free and all of the extra things I do for the teachers and the students. Surely my hard work now merits some extra vacation time later!! ;) Plus, I have instructed her to point out that if they give me vacation time in February, then I won't need to take 7 days off in December during school. The trade: I exchange 7 days during school for about 23 during vacation and their students don't miss a day of my teaching. Besides, what the heck am I going to do for all of February if they keep me here? The school really has nothing to lose and neither do I.

I'm quite pleased with myself. I surely am the poweress of manipulation. Let's hope they follow my lead and meet my requests!