Damage Control

its is 100% bulls--t of course Japan Geos controls and manages the schools in Japan. I know this for a fact as
I know the ex Aus-Nz CEO and the Big boss from Japan tolod him to F--k off ,so he did about 6months ago.

They are just trying to fool their staff the Japanese trasnslation is full of untruths and I would assume they are shi-ing their pants.

lOOK FOR JOBS PEOPLE!!!!!!

It really doesnt matter much anymore if GEOS Australia took direct order from Japan or not.....the damage this causes to GEOS Japan is incredible. Students in Japan are already nervous about eikaiwa and this situation in Australia will cause another exodus of Japanese students from GEOS Japan, just as the late payment BS caused last fall.

So, as other posters already noted...if you are a GEOS teacher or staff in Japan, it would be wise to consider your future options regarding your employment in the company. I dont think GEOS Japan can handle anymore crisis or bad press. Can things get any worse?? Most likely it will.

I can image the folks at head office in Tokushima are having an emergency meeting on how to white wash this whole ordeal and find a plausible explanation to give students, j-staff, and teachers to prevent them from running off in the coming weeks.

Nobody has really done more than touch upon the damage that this has now done to GEOS schools in other countries. For anyone who isn't aware, international schools rely almost entirely on their agents to feed them students (a fairly small proportion of students are ever already 'in country'). Agents will always look for the most favourable deal for themselves, whether this is in terms of commission or otherwise (and this has traditionally been one of the strengths of larger chains of language schools in that they can negotiate better deals due to economies of scale). On the other hand, this can also work against you if your chain finds itself in the position that GEOS is now in. Agents are busy people and don't like the uneccesary hassle of having to spend their day talking to existing customers when they should be out making money and finding new customers. They want to package somebody off and only hear from them at the end of their course when they ring and thank them for the great time they had.

So now, every student at every GEOS school the world over, every person due to start at a GEOS school and (given the average age of a GEOS student at an international school) their parents or whoever paid for their course is going to be on the phone wanting to know if they still have a course to go to and/or how they can get their money back. There are over 2000 students in GEOS Australia alone, probably 10 times that worldwide. That's a lot of angry people to speak to. Would you send a student to a GEOS school in the UK or the USA after that?

There's also been talk of selling off the GEOS Australia schools. But honestly, who's going to buy goods this damaged? Nobody really knows, on a group level, just how badly in the hole these schools actually are. When this all happened on Friday the staff my local GEOS Australia school had no clue or warning that this was about to happen. The accounts administrator at the school was genuinely shocked as in their mind the school was in the black still. The only people who see the big picture here though the principals, and the fact that several of the most experienced walked away 2 or 3 months ago should have sent alarm bells ringing to anybody at those schools. Example, the flagship Sydney Bondi school GEOS had for 20 years (and which was finally closed a couple of years ago) never once turned a profit. It was run at a loss for 20 years because it was a big flashy building that made Sydney more attractice in the brocgure.

So GEOS staff in Australia, I'm sorry. Being ex-GEOS Australia management myself I feel for anyone caught up in this. You've got Monday off work while the administrators carve up the assets, use today to get your resume in order and go look for another job first thing Monday morning. With the market suddenly gaining a few hundred extra teachers at the end of the busy season it might also be a good time to start looking at that DELTA or MA you've been putting off.

Same applies for anyone else still hanging on in Japan, the Uk etc. I can't see how GEOS can come back from this.

So we are all now working Pro bono for Geos Japan now, I have asked questions to so called management
and they are just telling staff what they have been told tell say. EVERY THING IS FINE!!!!
NO it isnt.

What happens to lost wages of teachers in Japan can they get a percentage of this back from the government or is it gone.

can someone please tell me some info about this.

As a recently unemployed member of australian geos i advise all geos employees worldwide to look for work elsewhere immediately. Listen to "the truth" above...

Even if australian geos is profitable and sold off to another company (wont happen but wishful thing on my part) and presented in another name there is no way students or agents are going to sign up for it.

No warning, no pay, no job, no market... That is the situation australian geos employees find themselves in. The rest wont be far behind.

Heed this warning.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but not when you cant put food in your belly or pay your rent!
Nice when you dont have "friends" to give you the low down!

Good luck to all "current" or previous geos employees.

x the recently retrenched x

What this person said is 100% true to how I understand it, coming from someone once well placed in GEOS JP HQ to know.
I am not sure about how much Mr. K didn't know but it was contained to a very small cliche at the top top..... *and things always leak.
The overseas schools were the sources of profit to prop up the failed Japan market. The financial crisis also snuffed out at lot of the overseas juice, doing seriously damage to Japan as they had nothing to call on.

While they maybe be subsidaries, they were the subsidaries that fed the machine. Also there is a very Manchester UTD like situation in the sense that when you don't have money, you need to get it from somewhere.
The place where you get it, usually wants it back with interest.
If you can't pay it, it increases, which means there is more to pay that you can't pay.
And that was in effect a long long time ago.

GEOS have officially declared insolvency.

Mr K, you're next. Let's see you spin your way out of this.

Soon there will be 1000 teachers in Japan looking for a job. I will be one of them.
What can you do? Just get on with it. will go to work but wont get paid. Dont want to go and listen to a pack of lies and with management knowing that we wont be paid really pisses me off.

re @ 16.25

Huh?

Do you really think Geos can survive? Even if you swallow the management story hook, line and sinker and believe Geos was not having very serious financial problems before this, they certainly will now!! If you were a student, would you want to invest your money in Geos-especially after all of this and Nova?

The point is there is almost zero chance of Geos surviving expect perhaps as a shell of its former self like the remains of Nova. This is not a personal attack. This is just a reality check!

I really feel bad for you GEOS teachers out there. I was once a GEOS teacher last year for about 7 months and knew within the first 30 days it was a big mistake. I was employed with old-Nova and G. Cum...but GEOS was by far the f**king worst of them all. I walked off the job in the Chubu area a few months ago with ZERO notice as soon as I got my visa renewed and didnt look back.
I had plans months before my departure....Im sure glad I did. But with a rotten, lying, backstabbling J-manager (first name starts with S) and a racist bigot JET teacher (first name starts with K)...a real shitty school somwhere near Mt. Fuji (city name starts with M)....I was left with little choice after putting up their abuse, racist remarks, lies and outrageous bullshit day-in and day-out and bailed on them at the first chance I got.

I dont know how you GEOS teachers can get a new job with over 800 (got that number off my visa renewal application provided by GEOS last fall) GEOS teachers flooding the market in the coming days and weeks looking for work which is really scarce.

With GEOS Australia out of business....that means all those GEOS Australia posters and student testimonials of homestay and english school programs in Australia will have to ripped off the walls at Japan GEOS and the color brochures in the schools will have large stickers covering GEOS Australia schools. This will be a MAJOR blow to the already fragile student confidence in Japan.
At least Australia (and other modern western countries) there is some form of tuition insurance, but in Japan you are f**ked if the school goes under here....students are left with Nothing...ZERO.

God, Im glad to see GEOS going out of business...its like reliving old-Nova all over again.

Feel real bad for the GEOS teachers in Australia and the students there too. For the GEOS Japan teachers...get the f**k out!! You are being lied to and being sold a false bill of goods...dont believe the bullshit out of corporate or J-staff!!

Also, anyone who is thinking about quitting should not just walk out.

Geos teachers ARE enrolled in unemployment insurance. So if the worst comes to the worst, you will be covered by Hello Work and start receiving money within 14 days IF anything happens to the company. If you just quit, you'll get nothing.

Until something actually happens, ignore the rumors and other bullshit on here. It will do you more a lot harm than good. Remember, you're covered.

These rumours are hardly basesless. The chances of Geos going down are now in fact very high. The fact that, unlike Nova, Geos acted to close over 50 percent of their schools in Japan may rescue them from a sudden and complete crash. However, by the time all this is over, anything of GEOS that might remain will be a shadow of its former self, and the staffing levels will be severely reduced compared to what they have been in the past.

Whether or not people should be working at an Eikaiwa school for an overseas experience or whatever as a matter of principal is a related but also different question to that faced by people facing immediate employment and financial issues as a result of the current situation. Perhaps they are kicking themselves now for believing your claim that all these rumours were baseless.

anyone would have news about what will happen to those kids at geos schools in australia???
will they get their tuition fees back? will the australian gov (TAS) intervene and save the dreams of these kids? how about their accommodation fees? 2300 students are in limbo now and is anyone updating them on what will happen to them and to their savings?

Yes, everyone who is not preaching the apocalypse is a Geos stooge. We all know that you're masturbating yourself into a frenzy at the thought of big eikaiwa crashing & burning, but please don't be such a tryhard.

If anything happens to Geos in Japan:
- you will be able to reclaim lost wages, PLUS
- you will start to receive unemployment benefit within 14 days, 80% for up to 3 months (or longer depending on the length of your employment)

If you choose to quit:
- you will start to receive unemployment benefit after 90 days, 80% for up to 3 months (or longer depending on the length of your employment)

Don't do anything silly based on what the moron above wrote, you won't see a penny for 3 months. Look at the facts and ignore this 'if you don't agree with my scaremongering you must be a Geos stooge!' idiot. It's just common sense.

Surely so. If some guy on the Internet says so, he must be completely unbiased and know exactly what he's talking about. THIS IS THE INTERNET !!!!!!

So, Pegleg your advice is to stay at GEOS in the hope of getting immediate unemploment insurance rather than getting a new job???

What should teachers do after GEOS goes bankrupt?? Recieve unemployment insurance for a few months and then what.....after all the jobs are gone??? Are You suggesting people just ride the GEOS ship down to the bottom of the ocean and then make plans??

How about getting a new job and worry about unemployment payments later?? GEOS teachers will get unemployment payments regardless if they quit or stay to the end, so your argument is moot.

You ARE a GEOS stooge. Your advice/logic is pure BULLSHIT.

Seriously, who is this fucking moron that keeps going on about so-called "Geos Stooges"?

Seems like anyone who doesn't agree with his silly bullshit fantasy is told "oh, but they're not just rumors, because uh... I don't have any proof, but they're not!!" then labeled a "stooge". What a daft twat with a silly grudge.

The fact is that those who know are not talking, anyone running their mouth is spouting 100% bullshit.

Don't worry, Nissan, its just silly old Thorn reappearing on the forum. We had felt that he had gone away and found a girl friend or something to keep his hands busy. Ah so, we were wrong and here he is again.

Hey, lets give silly old Thorn a bit of homework, OK?

THORN, Thoooorn, ah ther you are. Here's you homework for tonight. Read sections 184 and 187 of the Australian Corporations Act and see if you can think of any possible applicability.

Now Thorn, we are going to test you in the morning and if you get any questions wrong we will have to spank your little botty. Ok, off you go, go....

I am a Geos teacher. Our school gets an email almost daily with a "CS chart". This is a table showing the expenses for each individual school, the goal of each individual school, and how much money they have earned so far. It's all in Japanese so it's obviously for the managers' eyes only.

The targets for schools are insane and far exceed the expenses. The sales targets are often 300% higher than the expenses. So if a school needs 120 man to cover expenses, the sales target will often be 360 man. I've been keeping a close eye on these charts for the past 3-4 months since the last Geos scare, and on average, schools are achieving 60-70% of the target, which means that they are covering expenses easily with money to spare.

That leaves me to wonder... if they ARE experiencing problems, where the hell is all this extra cash going? If Geos Japan are able to maintain their current performance, I think (and HOPE) everything will be fine PROVIDING that kusonoki is not siphoning money off or doing some other illegal shit. If anything kills Geos I don't think it will be lack of students or cancellations, it will be kusunoki doing something illegal.

Stooges vs. Scaremongers

Scaremonger: "GEOS Australia declares bankruptcy. GEOS is going down! Get out quick!"

Stooge: "No, don't be stupid, everything's fine, it's just rumours on a dodgy Internet message board. You shouldn't quit your job, as you won't get unemployment insurance."

SM: "Don't listen to this management bullshit - they're lying to you! Get out and find another job now! They're just using you to protect themselves. You're the one who'll end up on the streets penniless because you listened to their bullshit!"

Stooge: "Here we go again - another crackpot rumour merchant losing the plot. The GEOS Australia bankruptcy has no effect on the Japanese schools. Don't quit your job, as everything will be fine in Japan. I don't know what everyone's worrying about."

Hilarious!!!!!

Just to elaborate on my comments previously...

My observation from the former geos australia is that most of the japanese english language students in my city have been studying at other language providers increasingly since mid to late last year.

Both japanese and korean students are eligible for working holiday visas in australia therefore they arent actually required to study in australia at all.

We had a large percentage of korean students on working holiday visas and student visas, most of whom were studying to improve their career prospects in korea on their return. The taiwanese were also in this bracket.

The next largest percentage were the brazilians and south americans because they are not eligible for working holiday visas and a student visa is their only option to gain entry into australia. Most of them are here to work and save money. GEOS is their cheapest option. They studied at GEOS australia for the price and the visa. Period.

The western europeans were usually gap year students studying english during their summer holidays and most of them realised very quickly they didnt need to.

The eastern europeans were in the same boat as the south americans.

We did get the occassion gaggle of japanese school girls and study tours but these have been increasingly few and far between since the global economic crisis (and no doubt the rumours floating around japan).

I dont believe it has been japanese students funding australia geos for some time...

But that is just my opinion...

I guess GEOS Australia staff are unhappy that "those in the know" jumped ship, saved their entitlements, and didn't communicate their concerns with teachers and clerical people on the coal face. BUT all the warning signs have been there for GEOS workers for months:
1. Chatter on the net about wage payment problems.
2. No money to buy anything at the schools,
3.Don't worry, be happy letters from Japan and the company CEO.
4. Student numbers slopping around.
5. Management and management linked staff leaving in a line. At my school, the Manager, the DOS, the Teaching Co-ordinator, the EAP Co-ordinator, the senior Marketer.
6. Replacements for these staff rapidly sourced in-house - how experienced you would have to be the judge.
7. Non-local staff doing lots of whispering and Skyping.
8. Management ducking for cover when they saw LJ posts.
9. New, just CELTAd or backpacker teachers appearing in the school.
10. Edgy students.
There you go, 10 symptoms on which a decision to stay or go could reasonably have been made. But inertia and sweat equity are wonderful things.

Its apparent we didnt work for the same school. None of this happened at my school. We had money in the bank to pay staff their (now lost) wages. Something to do with brisbane taking us all down with them??? Or have I been misinformed? You must have been in the know. Good luck to you and all your entitlements while the rest of us join the dole queue. Obviously now with hindsight I can put one and one together but I was led to understand our head was above water and now we've all taken the fall for somebody who wasnt above board...

Yes, yes, I know, I know, how naive!

I am a Geos teacher. They were not late making payments this month. I got paid in full and on time including transportation expenses and monthly performance bonus (extra pay).

I cannot speak for Japanese teachers or managers though. Most Japanese teachers are paid on the 10th.

Regardless, they don't dare pay native teachers late because of the consequences. Especially after what happened with NOVA.

They paid the teachers on time (the JET at my school included) although it wasn't there at 9am, must have gone in sometime after 11. The managers and head office staff however were not paid on time. They were supposedly paid today, although no-one seems to have heard whether or not it went through.

Manager's were paid today. Fingers crossed for next month!

First, the government virtually banned Nova from taking on new students, then slapped them with a massive fine. Nova also had to repay a lot of students. On top of all that, teachers started walking out.

Not all true. Nova was banned from selling advance tickets to the degree they had been in the past. Yes, they had to pay a lot of students back, but why? Because their reputation was shot. Why did the teachers start walking out? Because there was no money left to pay them with.

Looked at this way there are some similiarities to Nova (as well as some differences).

Difference: Geos can still sell advance tickets.

Similarity: Geos reputation is down the toilet, so people won't buy them anyway.

Difference: Geos don't have to pay students back because of being done for misleading promotion.

Similarity: Geos may have to pay many students back who ask for it in future and are entitiled to do so.

Similarity: Teachers have been and will even more so now start to leave Geos for the same reason that they left Nova, because it is highly probable there isn't much money left to pay them with, and that there won't be in future because spring sales will be lousy and they can't get any more money from Aus or dare to lose more overseas schools by doing the same thing to them they did to Australia without making matters worse.

Diffference: Nova was trying to cope with a downward decline in the overall market for Eikaiwa, that has since turned into a rout after the demise of Nova, due to loss of faith in the industry and the world market downturn. Geos gets fallout from this.

Difference: Geos no longer gets a free ride on Nova's huge advertising budget, and can't afford to spend much on advertising themselves.

Geos may not go broke, but if they don't, they will end up miniscule and have a lot less people working for them: those who fall by the wayside will not be treated well in the process, as we can clearly see from what has happened in Australia.

Indeed, thoughts are with all GEOS Australia students and staff. Having read the latest from the Ernst and Young administrator above, the prospect of schools re-opening looks all but gone.
Reading the CEO's comments, essentially washing his hands of GEOS Australia, must be sickening. To bleed the region dry over a period of years to support an outdated business model in Japan and then to claim you knew nothing of the financial problem is business practice at its worst.
As was mentioned, he drove out his best people from ID because his daughter didn't like them. This department and the GEOS International Offices had some great staff and agents - just a nutcase making awful decisions.
Agents will now find it impossible to promote the GEOS brand with any confidence and Europe, Asia and North America will surely see the numbers freefall.
GEOS Japan customer services have been fielding hundreds of calls from students worried that their school in Japan will be closing. Of course they are told not to worry - its business as usual. Come in, take your lesson, renew for another 12 month overpriced product, buy crappy outdated self study material with zero practicality, oh and while you're at it, why don't you sign up to one of our wonderful language immersion programs overseas to improve your English?! er.... just not the Australian ones.....
I do hope the company can ride this out as I know some great people working there but the loss of such a major overseas operation, the loss of the funds that brought to Japan and the resulting loss of student confidence in the brand doesn't point to a rosy future.

I am another Geos teacher.

I was paid on time too. No problems.

But today I pulled 500,000 yen out of my bank account (my entire savings for 3 years of being here... absolutely pathetic, eh?) just in case. I'm 1 payment behind on my prefectural tax and the last thing I need is those cunts pulling 35,000 yen out of my bank account. So now I have the cash stashed in my apartment. 500,000 yen should be enough to move all my stuff (I've been living a life of luxury and buying all kinds of things... massive sofa, fridge, double bed, hot water washer, dishwasher, 60 inch tv and so on... so I've been buying all kinds of stuff) to anywhere else in Japan using the cheapest moving service or hiring a lorry myself, plus a few yen to travel to job interviews and whatnot.

If Geos goes under, it will be very sad. I'm in a small school and I love this town, but there are no other jobs here. I plan to quit in the next few months but I'm not quite ready to leave YET... so I hope it holds out until then so I can see my 550,000+ yen for 2 months salary with extra pay. It's an easy job and it's possible to bullshit your way through most lessons, especially kids who will be happy as long as you're playing some kind of game with "points". I usually roll in at 1pm and sleep until 4pm. Most days I finish at 8 or 9pm. My manager is awesome and has lots of lessons cramped together without too much time inbetween. I've tried planning all sorts of original genki dance-around-the-room-like-a-dipshit award winning lessons and you know what happened? The students always told me... "last teacher was just chatting, last teacher want to know berry much about Japanese cultures so I telling him many informations"... a lot of these people just want to shoot the shit in English for 45-60 minutes. It's the easiest job in the world, pay is decent for me as I put in 0 effort.

I hope Geos Japan survives for the next 3-4 months at least. All the chat about stooges and whatnot is just bullshit so just ignore that idiotic trollery as you'd ignore someone who claims that black is white................

Gumbo,

If you say "Stay at GEOS - don't quit" then you're a GEOS stooge.

If you say "Get out of GEOS now - it's going down" then you're an anti-GEOS troll.

The best advice is probably in the middle - stay at GEOS and don't quit right now, but look for other work and prepare to get out if and when you find other work, or the company goes down. And make sure you've got UI to cover your back.

PS Does this post make me a stooge or a troll?? Or even more hideously, a combination of both - a "stooge troll"?

Actually no. A symptom of the problem, I would say.

A lot of this information especially from former Australian Geos employees would be very beneficial for current Geos employees in Japan who post in the Forums:

Sign up and contribute.

If you've quit over actually losing your job, you might have to wait up to 3 months for your UI to kick in. If you actually lose your job through bankruptcy or lay-off you can claim t much sooner - 1 week or 2.
Does that answer your question?

Dear GEOS teacher with 500,000yen in savings. Im glad to hear you have a good manager at your school and puts your schedule together so you can enjoy your free time and have energy for your classes.

My manager at my small school has spread my classes out...I have 34 classes...with 21 of them man-to-man lessons...none of them paid private. My biggest class is 3 students! I have a 11 year old girl who paid for a group kids classes, but Iam forced to plan a private lesson class for her! Her family pays $100 a month for 4 `private lessons` I have to use a different book other than the Sho workbook. My manager is a complete moron. Im the 4th teacher at this school in one year, the others ran off in their 3rd or 4th month.

When you work at GEOS its a gamble on the school manager...they can make or break you. They can make your time at GEOS enjoyable or a living hell. I was just unlucky. I got a new job as an ALT in a major city and Im gone in less than 30 days, Thank Jesus.

You lived like a King with appliances you bought. I saved everything I got...and live like a hermit and tucked away a nice little nest egg with all the overtime I had to work....Im sitting pretty good now.

Best of Luck to You.