Details of the job

I just finished reading over the contract and rules and regulations. OK, so here's what WinBe entails and how it compares to NOVA:

My paychecks at NOVA were all over the place. The last three months I was in Japan I worked a ton of overtime and my paychecks reflected that. For the first 9 months I was there, I think I missed at least one day of work each month though, so those paychecks also reflected that. When all was said and done I made 2,623,605 yen that year. Because I left NOVA halfway through January and only started getting paid on the 9th or 10th of February 2006, I was almost a full month short of a year in days actually worked. OK, so if I count that 2,623,605 as 11 months it's about 238,500 yen a month. That's the number I'll use for comparison.

So WinBe pays 250,000 each month, but the hours are worse. I was only on a 34 hour week at NOVA and it'll be a full 40 at WinBe. Not actually 40 though since I think an hour for lunch is included in that 40. On the positive side, I'll either get Saturday/Sunday or Sunday/Monday off instead of Wednesday/Thursday like I had at NOVA. Having Friday and Saturday night off makes a huge difference in your options.

The school I get assigned to will pay 20,000 for my moving costs and if I stay until the end of my contract, I'll get a 100,000 yen bonus (assuming I don't miss more than 7 days of work outside of regular holidays).

At NOVA, I got two weeks of vacation time. That sucked cock. Big hard cock. I'll get somewhere around 5 weeks at WinBe, but I can't choose the time off. I get Christmas/New Year's off, Golden Week (a Japanese holiday in May) and Obon (in August).

Unlike at NOVA, I'll be expected to contribute to sales. This may be one of the worst parts of this new job. Plus, WinBe has a lame incentive thing where if you get 30 new students to sign up, they give you another bonus of 100,000 yen. I can already see how lame that's going to be. Acting like I really want these timid Japanese house wives to sign a contract because English is fun. Shit like that. Oh man I don't want to do that.


Actually, the more I look over this contract the more it looks just like NOVA and the more I don't want to say 'yes.' I recently gave Bruce good advice which was to go ahead and say 'yes' to NOVA and then if he hears back from a better company, just write them an email saying you changed your mind. I think that's how I might handle this. Write WinBe back, say I would love to work there, and then just pretend like that didn't happen if Interac calls me back. Hmmmm....