Almost worth KILLING my boss!!!

Well, if anyone has a contract horror story, tell me if mine doesn't stand next to the worst of the worst. I swear, I have never had any feelings of wanting to cause bodily injury to anyone, but after being put through the shit that my boss put me through, I was ready to put a weapon of mass destruction up this guys @ hole and have a whole slew of weapon inspectors follow. Even to this day, I think I would gladly give up a months salary for one shot at him "wanna know why"read on.

I have so many horror stories, so I will just start with something small, and then in the future add more. First, a little bit of history. I signed a contract with a school, a small school, but not so small that they would have any kind of money problems. Anyway, after only 3 months of working for the school, I had my first experience with being paid late. Everyone's had this happen, it's become so common it's not really even a big deal anymore. Anyway, I asked them if this would be the first and LAST time getting paid late, they said yes, I said OK. BIIIGGGG mistake!! Every following pay-day for the next 3 years, I was paid late...but it doesn't stop there, it gets worse.

You see, at my interview I noticed one thing fishy in the contract, it said that I would be paid AFTER the 15th of every month. I asked them to clarify this, and they said that all it meant was that if the 15th fell on a holiday, day-off or for any reason I wasn't able to come to work, that I would be paid on the soonest day after. Well, it was always after, wayyyy after. BUT THAT's NOT the worst part of it. Now we know that I am suppose to be paid on the 15th...but the soonest I was usually paid was about the 21st, but usually later than that...which wouldn't be THAT bad, if I was actually paid IN FULL!!! They would pay only a portion of the salary, saying they had to spread out the rest to other teachers. You see, I was the full-time teacher, the only full-time teacher. Everyone else was part-time, so they got paid sooner, and in full. I would, at most, get about 50,000 yen, only 1/5 of my salary. A few days later, a little more, and by the end of the month I would usually get everything. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT...who gets paid in installments. Made it a bitch to pay bills on time. Anyway, I got the bright idea to ask my boss to just CHANGE the pay day to the end of the month, so that I would get everything in one lum sum...but that was quickly turned down for no apparent reason. So, I was left on the installment plan for the next 3 years.

Eventually this whole way of being paid was getting to me financially, and mentally. It got to the point where I would walk up to my boss, ask if it was OK to get some of my salary (This is after pay-day remember) and he would ask me to "Be patient". One time, I lied to him and told him that my gas had been turned off and that my lights were gonna be off by the time I got home and that I would just need 20,000 yen to have gas and lights till Monday (It was Saturday that I asked, and Sunday was a holiday). His answer "Be patient, I will pay you on Monday." SOOO, basiclly he is asking me to spend the weekend in the dark, without gas for cooking or the ability to take a hot shower. The thing that really pissed me off though, is that he didn't have the balls to tell me to my face, he would tell the staff, and then leave the school while I was in the middle of a lesson.

As time went on, he got cheaper and cheaper. Every month he would look for new ways to cut money from my pay. He would promise a small increase in pay for going to certain jobs outside the school to do contract work, but would then FORGET having promised any such raise in pay. I never knew how much, or when I was gonna get paid. He always had some excuse about not having enough money...but here's the killer; when a new student would sign up (Mostly young ladies) he would always try to impress them by subtracting the entrance fee, which is 10,000 yen. Now I am all for giving people chances for improving their English, and giving discounts to those who have lower incomes, but this guy was doing it to get off, and this was the guy saying we had money problems.

One year, we had a christmas party, just teachers and staff. He was very specific in asking for us to choose a cheap restaurant. We figured this year he was gonna go all out and pay for us...there were a total of 10 teachers and staff, not that much considering he spent close to 0 yen on everything else at the school. So, we go to this cheap as hell restaurant, and in the end, he paid for HALF of the FEMALE, STAFF...that's right, he didn't pay for half of EVERYBODY, he didn't pay for half of the FEMALES, he paid for half of the FEMALE, JAPANESE, STAFF!! God...what a slap in the face. I was almost glad that I wasn't part of the Japanese female staff, and in case your wondering how many of them were female staff members, there were TWO!!

Anyway, as time went on, more shit hit the fan!! I took 2 paid holidays because I lost my voice (Also stress related)...however, the following month I noticed that I had 2 days taken from my pay. When I asked why, my boss said I DIDN'T HAVE paid holidays...well, fortunately I happen to have KEPT all my important documents, even the one with his little piece of shit HANKO stamp on it saying that I did have paid holidays. When I asked him what this paper was, he was quick to say that that part of my contract was cancelled after one of the staff members that was working when I first started there, quit. What the fuck does a staff member having quit have anything to do with MY paid holidays.

Now I am sure you are wondering, why hadn't gone postal....believe me, if I hadn't been worried about paying bills on time (actually I was late most of the time.) I would have...but as it turned out (like most people) the fear of this guy keeping my salary was always there. So, I gave my one months notice and got fired two weeks later...for what reason you ask, FOR BE SELFISH for always asking for my salary and ONLY thinking of myself!! Actually, I am sure that the reason I was fired was because he didn't want me to have the opportunity to explain to students why I was leaving. I was suppose to be able to tell students I was leaving, two weeks before actually leaving. He axed me before that day came though. What he doesn't know is I told students way before about the shit that was going down.

I can say now that I would do things differently, but that would do me no good. If ever I go crazy, I hope that my ex boss is near so that I can bite off his nose or something!!