Eikaiwa throwaway account.
First off all, I think my boss is full of bs, but in the contract, they have a line about trade secrets. This would make sense if the school actually had lesson plans, but they don't (or perhaps they did ten years ago, but they don't any more). It's a small school with no more than five English teachers (some foreign, some Japanese).
It's gyomu itaku, if that matters, and I'm have no more than three hours a week at the school.
I make all of my lessons at home, and I don't get paid hourly. I just get paid to teach my lessons.
I think it's an overstep for the owner to think that the school owns my lessons. They're paying me to teach classes, not to make lesson plans or materials for the lessons. They can't be the school's trade secrets. If anything, they're mine.
by Electrical_Catch_22