Those who are in HR for interac, borderlink, and other alt companies

11 comments

1. HR doesn’t exist to make positive changes. HR exists to protect the company and the company’s profits.

2. Unfortunately it doesn’t look good in the future for dispatch ALT’s.

3. So many blogs and reviews warned people about it. Yet people still join them and are shocked with how they treat their English teachers.

4. These jobs aren’t English teaching jobs, they have no advancement, they require no qualifications, and all of this is really common knowledge.

   This is like working delivery for Amazon and wondering why you’re not getting promotions and admin style raises with benefits and job security. ALT jobs are implicitly revolving door and companies suffer nothing for paying nothing with no support because people are tripping over themselves for an excuse to live in Japan.

   If you want a career in education in Japan, get qualified to teach in college, int’l school, or to be an actual teacher on direct hire with a Japanese license.

5. I’m not in HR, but I am a headteacher for one of the alt companies. I have found that not only HR, but most headteachers and instructor development managers have very low opinions of alts and consider them to be over-compensated if anything. This year the alt working time was increased by 25% per week with no pay increase to go with it and nobody fought against it in the slightest. The only person in management I’ve known to stand up for alts was quickly removed from his position.

6. People who is advocating for the employees is the union. I see a post every month on here from one union rep, but I don’t see any victories for the employees so far.

7. Why would you think HR in dispatch companies want to improve your situation? All they want is warm bodies while they make continue to profit off your work from the real wages you should be paid.

8. We STAY telling y’all about these conditions.

   Let me give those in their countries a tip before taking one of these jobs. I know you love japan. But the things you love about Japan can be enjoyed from the comfort of your home, especially in this day and age. You don’t need to take on a less than minimum wage job to be close to pikachu.

   If you really want to come out, properly plan out the best and most effective way; that includes avoiding the “I’m just using it as a way into the country and will move onto a better job after a year’ trap.

   If not, you’re better off staying where you are and coming to japan on yearly or bi-yearly trips. That is a MUCH better way of enjoying japan than working at one of these companies. Im not saying all this so the conditions at these places improve, they’re never getting better. This is for your benefit.

9. I work in HR. I try to make positive changes and improve the conditions of my employees. But I’m limited about what I can do. A lot of times the things ALTs complain about are out of HR’s hands as they’re decided by higher-ups. For instance, I have no say in how much you get paid or work.

   I see so much negativity on this sub, but I think it can sometimes be misplaced. I think it’s fine to vent about how much you think your company or the industry sucks, we all need that. But 7/10 times the thing you’re angry about is probably the decision of that city’s Board of Education, rather than the company who provides the ALT. That’s just my experience, though. I know there are bad companies out there who earn all the hate they get.
   I hope you can find a job that will make you happy, though. I’m sure there’s something out there for you.

10. No, they aren’t trying to make things better, not that they could even if they wanted to.

11. There is simply no reason to

    For every ALT that says fuck this noise this pay is trash, theres another 10 people willing to come in the country, and when it finally seemed like the supply of ALTs was gonna run out because its such a shit job (from a pay/benefit perspective, the work itself is actually really rewarding if you’re good at it) the government changed the requirement from ‘native speaker’ to 12+ years of English education, and now they have another endless supply for the next 20 years at least from countries where the salaries are so much lower than ALT salaries who just wanna save up money and send it back home