Rumour: GEOS Late in Paying Salaries

Just because you have a CELTA ticket whacko, does not mean you are not wasting your time, as much as any old idiot taking a ride on the stupid eikaiwa train is. When GEOS goes under, CELTA ticket or no CELTA ticket, people back in your home country, are going to be gob-smacked that you could have taken anything with regards to teaching English in Japan even the slightest bit seriously.

Dan, whoever you are, apart from taking small-minded shots at random posters on the Internet, might I advise that you never, ever become a careers guidance counsellor, a boss, or a clairvoyant.

3 or 4 years ago there were about 500 schools in Japan. Now down to 180? Wow.

I have been wondering about it. What is the importance of this site? Paul's Deli, during once of the many episodes where he made a total jack ass out of himself, once claimed it actually saved it's life. Some, like Thorn In Nova's Vagina, use it for entertainments sake, as a medium to polk fun at and bug idiots who think a job in eikaiwa is anything more than flipping burgers at McDonalds. Others, like The Eikaiwa Ripper, use it I think simply because they are lonely and lost in Japan. It thus becomes a place to interact. But really, they are just all small observations, that really on scratch on the surface. The real importance of this site? I think the real and main importance of this site is to give Shawn and his crew a feeling of self-importance and meaning, since they know full well, gaijin life in Japan is a ridiculuous half life and farce.

KARA

Someone who actually WANTS a job with GEOS? It's pretty clear that you never intended to take a position with them, but instead just wanted to feel better about yourself by shooting down what appears to be a perfectly polite email. No one put a gun to your head and forced you to apply. And if you were that desperate to do so in the first place, what does that say about you?

Can't say that I blame them for not doing telephone or video conference interviews either as it certainly isn't the best way to hire teachers.

Good luck though, with a winning personality like yours you are sure to find employment in no time at all.

So you're not just a careers guidance counsellor and a clairvoyant, you're a psychologist as well.

I take it life's been hard on you and you're having difficulty coping. I'll give you some careers guidance here, how about occupying more of your time with something constructive. Learn something or get a hobby, something purposeful to do for at least a few hours each day. Learn a language, do a marathon, join a sports team. Learn a musical instrument. Do a course in something. It won't hurt. You might even enjoy it.

All the best.

The Eikaiwa Careers Guidance Counsellor.

CanadaJin, I too think you are off base here. His reply was NOT condescending nor arrogant. It is normal to go to a company's office or HQ to interview for a job with them. It is not an eikaiwa thing, nor a Japan thing, nor a white person in Japan thing. You as the applicant are responsible for going to where ever the interview is if you want to interview for that job. That is normal all around the world.

Your response was very rude and immature. Calling someone else stupid for not thinking your rudeness was cool (or whatever positive response you expected) again makes you appear to be a rather immature person.

It is amazing I know that schools have and do hand out those stupid tissues to everyone and their dog. But these past few days the GEOS staff are outside the main Nagoya station handing out snot rags at 7:00 in the morning, yes 7. Even other wait til later in the day. Just assume that they are getting real desperate.

The Principal of GEOS Perth and GEOS Oceania Manager (one and the same) has also jumped ship. He was there forever but is too smart to stay

Managers and Head Office staff are being paid late again this month. Payday was supposed to be Jan 29th. They will not be paid until Feb 1st.
I have a PDF in Japanese if anyone wants it.

Geos in Australia declares bankruptcy.

Australian schools are compelled by Law to have their accounts audited by external auditors. If the auditors have given a 'thumbs up' as to the financial viability as to the future of the operation, who are the Managers to question the auditors, despite what their personal beliefs may be? Who are the Managers to question releases by Head Office that all is fine, despite what they may think? School Managers have no access to the full financial situation of the Australian operations. This is handled by their office in Brisbane. They are privy to the same websites and rumours as all staff are and they too rely on the information they are presented with. I guess so many Managers actually bailed in recent months becuase they were perhaps struggling with their own feelings and what they could or could not say.

The Government bodies rely on the audit opions too unless they have reason to believe otherwise,,,but it is certainly not the Manager who presents the financial inofrmation or the opinion. They rely on it but may have their own opinions.

can we not close this GEOS conversation and call it quits!!!

GEOS Australia has been voluntarily liquidated!!!! hello!!! is this not clear?

It is OVER. OVER, OVER OVER

END OF F*CKN STORY

just watch the empire collapse.......hahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

GEOS Japan took money from the successful schools in Australia to pay the staff wages in Japan. They had no right to take that money and the Australian schools refused to send it, but being the parent company GEOS Japan took the money until there was none left. Then when they depleted that, they took the money that was held in trust for the students on student visas. Any students issued with a student visa must pay for their course to get the student visa. This money must be kept in a trust so that the student can be refunded etc should a problem arise. GEOS Japan emptied the student trust accounts of the most successful schools (Perth & Melbourne). GEOS Japan took what was not theirs and did so at the cost of the international students studying at their colleges in Australia. Perth had over 500 students and Melbourne over 600.
A number of sites have interesting statements ranging from ignorant people who think a job teaching ESL in Japan qualifies them to call themselves "sensei" stating that it is stupid to run an eikaiwa school in Australia. The GEOS schools in Australia paid the salaries of the Japanese and foreign GEOS Japan staff. The only reason they are closed is the misappropriation of funds mananged by the directors. GEOS Australia were not "eikaiwa" schools, but taught GE, Cambridge certificate courses and Academic English courses for a range of students from all over the work. Japanese students represented an average of 8-10% of the student bodies at each school. Other, more disgusting, statements come from GEOS Japan themselves - they are now claiming there is no connection between GEOS Japan and GEOS Australia, yet they took the funds of students they had no right to. They have put over 2000 International students and close to 300 staff out on the street. Staff won't be paid and students are in a foreign country without an educational provider. Many have paid and are coming with no school to come to and others have paid and not yet received their student visas so may have lost their money. Many students enrol for over 40 weeks at one school and the costs of course range from $230 to $320 per week.
GEOS JAPAN should be ASHAMED of itself. It has stolen student money to save face in Japan and now claims that it has no relationship to the GEOS Australia schools. GEOS Japan is solely responsible for the closing of the GEOS Australia schools and the repercussions that has on students, staff and clients. They need to be made accountable!

I totally agree with You GEOS Australia about your post. GEOS Japan is run by a criminal and GEOS Japan`s behavior and business ethics is virtually unheard of in modern western countires, but its quite the norm in Japan where companies can steal from their workers and rip-off customers with impunity. It makes me sick to hear about what happened to GEOS Australia.

I feel for you in Australia.

As the person who first updated the wiki about short comings on wages I urge you to find proof and do the same about GEOS taking the money from Australia to keep Japan operations afloat. People read wikipedia. It is important.

I do not think I will feel very sorry for the Japanese students who lose their money when Geos goes down. Since I have been in Japan, I have lost track of how many English schools I have seen fail without warning and taking the student's money with them. Yet, just a couple of years after Nova, it is happening again.

Sure, the Japanese media is not giving it near the attention they should, but those students should be using just a tiny bit of common sense. It if was my money I was forking over, I certainly would take the time to do an internet search on Geos.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Please post this PDF file, link it to the wiki and update that there was late pay in January again. This is necessary.

@ "not to worry there" anonymous.... that is good to have this e-mail on hand but lets try to get it to the public. There are countless students renewing who should have this information ASAP so they know their options.

On a less than high ground... who wants to gamble on which country is next?
I know that the banking laws in Korea, USA and Canada are all quite strong so robbing from these subsidiaries would be more difficult so I think the next closure will be in.... RUSSIA!

Did you work in Shizuoka?? The school manager highly resricted NEts from using the computer, as we rarely saw the CS target or email from the area leaders...we were always keep in the dark....thats the GEOS way.

Well... Im a GEOS Teacher, and I'm (not so aggressively, I'll admit it) looking for a job.
Last month 3 students cancelled. That was before the GEOS Australia thing.
having said that...
I've never had any problems with pay, its always been on time...
I like my students, the Japanese English teacher is even nice sometimes!

But it's the work that's killing me... I've had no manager for a few months now; however I'm expected to meet the same sales goals as before... Was the manager useless then?
I can never practice my Japanese (with students or staff) and the Japanese teacher hasn't even given me one of my 24 free Japanese lessons even though I kept on bringing up the issue, telling her to choose a time in her schedule... Yes, because she has 17 classes a week, very hard as you can imagine...
I have well over 50 students, do around 24-25 hours of teaching a week (which means +30 classes or 40/45/50/60 minutes)... Just my students bring in enough money to pay more than two of my salaries, but of course I'm worried... Between my wage, the Japanese teachers, the rent, and god knows how much GEOS expects to make every month, I'm not sure its enough for them.

I'm thinking of changing over to ALT, better hours (getting home at 23:30 isn't the best thing for your social or family life...), better holidays... Even if i get paid a bit less I'm willing to trade that for weekends off and being able to have dinner with my friends.
The only thing holding me back is... The Schools. Aren't Japanese Schools Hell? I'm not a huge fan of kids (granted I teach 25 of them a week, from 4 to 12 years old) but I'm afraid it will be darn weird having hear screaming kids 8 hours a day. Any ALT experiences?
I even found a preschool that was a bike ride from my house that was looking... But it's the prospect of 100% kids that scares the sh*t out of me.
I'm just afraid of trading down... I've been reading up on it, people tend to prefer the ALT route, but... And I hate to say it, I'm not a teacher because I love kids, or because I would love to see Japan become more international, I'm teaching because its honest money and until I have decent Japanese it will be difficult to get a job in my field.
I take my job very seriously, I work my *ss off, spending more than 9 f*cking hours at the school everyday (and not on facebook!), I prepare my classes, I spend time talking to my students, etc, but... I'm just doing this because I don't have a huge savings account to live off, and I sure as hell aren't going to live at the expense of my boyfriend.

So now you can all come and unleash the flames of hell and tell me what an evil person I am and how I put all foreigners to shame... But if you could give some advice at the same time, that would be great :P

Thanks.

R.

Dear GEOS teacher, I certianly understand where you are coming from. I was a GEOS teacher at small school with a JET and a manager until last November. The JET at my school was a hardcore racist(she to refused to give any of the required japanese lessons, even though she taught 12 classes a week) and the manager was an icompetent bafoon.
I was teaching 35 classes a week for 50 students!! I had 23 man-to-man students who paid for group classes, but they didnt want to be in group classes...they wanted private lessons at the group price and the manager allowed it....I was worked to death. I Loved the students and had only 6 students under the age of 15....I had a great time with the students...but dealing with the head office, the rasict JET, and the retarded female manager just left me totally exhausted. I quit after 7 months.

I was aggressively searching for new work after the first 6 weeks I was at GEOS...it took me 6 weeks to realize GEOS was a dysfunctional company with MAJOR problems and I didnt want to stay in the company any longer. It took me almost 6 months to land a new job in Tokyo and I walked off the job with zero notice and no forwarding information...I just vanished...before I walked off I destroyed critical documents, altered the student attendence sheets, and threw away all the counseling forms and whatever else I could to wreak havoc for the manager....it was payback for all the lies, bullshit, rascist comments, fucking with my time sheet and for the constant and daily harrassment I received from the JET and the school manager. I　was the 4th teacher to quit at that school in 15 months under this retarded J-manager and racist JET...they made the native teachers lives hell.

If I were you...I would be very very aggressive in finding a new job. I went down with old-Nova in 2007 and I couldnt find a job anywhere...it took me almost 6 months to find another job after the NOVA debacle. Dont wait. Take whatever job you can get and dont be soo picky right now. Im MUCH HAPPIER that I left GEOS...it was like a GIANT stone rolled off my back.
Save your own ass first.

Japanese, watch the news and read newspapers? First I have ever heard of that kind of behaviour in Japan.

It's business as usual here but I thing Geos will find it hard to get teachers at the moment. Many are leaving but I think the well is a bit dry. Students haven't said anything to me. Any way I am counting the days untill my plan b kicks in and I advice other Geos Teachers to do the same.

Very few firms make a general announcement that they are having a world of troubles. The news is out in Australia, and the government agent there has had to backstop (pay up for) some of the GEOS promises.

As is pointed out time and again on this board, nothing is "fine" with Eikaiwa, because the wheels have been coming off it since Nova. The Japanese government just used the "industry" as a holding pen for working holiday visa holders. Now, they need to come up with another scheme. But in the meantime, they will let the old scheme run here---they have enough on their plates already.

The weakness of this blog is that few people supply verifiable information. Hey Fangooly, can you post the links so it can be verified?

Yes, but this money cannot be removed from trust accounts.

You are quite right about the trust accounts. Walker Wayland would be unlikely to authorise such a transfer. But, on a good day you can probably pull close to $NZ250k out of the cash at hand accounts and the foreign transfer areas of the GEOS NZ accounts. That's about a quarter of the liability to the home company, not small bikkies, and would scupper GEOS NZ. This is all pure summise of course. But it's how the corporates work in times of stress.
And about GMS and final control of GEOS NZ, final control lies firmly in the hands of the sole Director, Mr K.

Check out this company....really makes you wonder who you are working for!

I mean, really! Who names their company DONGEL!!!
This is no accident, somebody realized how ridiculous this rat race is so they decided to name their company this on purpose, just to hear various young children and BOE officials say DONGEL on a regular basis...

https://jobs.gaijinpot.com/index/view/lang/en/orderby/latest/region/11/j...

http://www.dongel-teach-japan.com/companyprofile.html

WABusiness have carried an article with some information about government activity pre the Perth GEOS collapse. Article has been edited to elimate "old stuff". Note the time frames. It's all beginning to come out of the woodwork.

Local industry bears burden of GEOS fall
News: 11-February-10 by Mark Pownall WA BUSINESSNEWS

LOCAL administrators of English language schools have been working overtime to accommodate almost 500 foreign students left stranded by the collapse of Japanese-owned Australian chain GEOS a fortnight ago……..

Insolvency experts from Ernst & Young were appointed to the business on January 29 after concerns raised by two months of investigation by state and then federal authorities prompted the Australian directors to seek voluntary administration.

Western Australian education authorities launched a thorough investigation of St Marks after analysis of its annual accounts for the year ending June 30.

It is understood that WA’s Department of Education Services was concerned by the school’s financial situation, including evidence of what appeared to be a high level of subsidisation out of Perth to other colleges in the group. It then turned to Commonwealth authorities, which conducted a national review in December…………..

Under the industry’s protection scheme about 12 colleges in WA have agreed to take on the education commitments of St Marks, which extends to students who have paid for tuition and are expected to arrive as late as May.

Some in the industry have raised concerns about having to provide free tuition, as well as the administrative burden of helping students reapply for visas, for a rival.

Market speculation has focused on GEOS’s fee and commission structure, claiming it discounted student education and paid agents handsomely.

However, former GEOS regional marketing coordinator Gary Maserow dismissed this view, stating that prices were based on the market and that the group enjoyed economies of scale.

Mr Maserow – who quit GEOS in October and is seeking to start a new school, Q English, with former colleague Peter Millington – claimed the blame for the collapse lay with the Japanese parent, which left the Australian business cash strapped.

The same old mantra...."It wasn't me that did it, sir, it was those naughty Directors." Doesn't wash. Who was authorising bank transfers? Great news is that it ain't the ESPRA stuff that principal actors should be losing sleep about but the provisions of the Companies Act. As 8.24 said, "It's all beginning to come out of the woodwork."

Yup, it was the directors fault response to

as one of the former principals of a GEOS school and clearly you were not, every principal has an email trail of proof, all TRANSFERS you refer to were made by GMS and not the principals as transfers to japan and Australia holdings were done by GMS so there is no need for you to comment on this blog with something you know nothing about.

So, you agree with me then, what are you talking about?, you agree with everthing I said and then said I don't know what I'm talking about, Hmmm confused. I think we're saying the same thing, or I simply have no idea what you're talking about.