Hi everyone,
I’ve ended up in a job that I really enjoy, but it’s through a dispatch company and the pay is absurdly low. I love the work I do, but the salary is not livable at all (and definitely not enough for the amount of responsibilities I have, let alone how little free time I have).
I’ve found another job, and I know I should tell my dispatch company that I’m leaving as soon as possible, but leaving my current workplace is going to be extremely hard. It sucks because I want to quit the dispatch company, not the workplace itself.
Does anyone have any experience / advice for this situation?
16 comments
if it’s English teaching? Fuck them. just tell them you’re quitting and moving on to something else.
if it’s something more serious? tell the company that you’re doing work for, patch things up before you leave not to burn any bridges in case you want to come back there later and then quit.
If you feel bad about leaving the school you’re at (assuming you’re a teacher, but this could apply in other jobs too), then I’d tell the principal or someone that I’m leaving, explain the situation, apologize, thank them for being a good place to work at, and ask them to keep in touch.
This is good advice. If you’re working at a school, letting administration such as principals, vice principals, and English department heads know in a non-confrontational “by-the-way” way, that your dispatch company doesn’t pay you a living wage may motivate them to take it up with the board of education if you’ve proven yourself as a valuable worker.
You are not at fault, at all. If your workplace wanted someone long term, they should have hired a seishain instead of going through a dispatch company. They got what they paid for, nothing more, nothing less, so there’s absolutely nothing for you to feel bad about.
Honestly, it really depends on you personally.
When I went through something really sucky at my job, I quit the next day and just didn’t come back into work.
I felt bad, and when I went back to my hometown and saw that there was a lot of fallout from that, I felt a bit worse.
But I am perfectly fine with choosing myself and my future over companies and being someone’s bottom line.
At the end of the day, it is 100% about you.
If you have a lovely experience, but you can’t support yourself, then change. (if that is what you wish).
That’s your right.
Be polite about it, get out, and get your bag.
Life will move on and they will find a way to fix the problem.
Talk directly to the VP or principal. Tell them why you’re leaving. Show them a pay stub if you feel comfortable doing so. Tell them all the sketchy shit your company does, and that as long as their BoE stays with these companies, this will continue to happen – as it undoubtedly has happened prior to you. Tell them you’ll stay if they hire you directly from the BoE (after checking your sketchy-ass contract, naturally).
It’s not going to resolve anything, because dealing directly with foreigners is scary, but they’ll know exactly why you’re leaving and that you gave them an option to resolve the situation.
Just do it. They would fire you or move your workplace in a second.
I don’t understand, dispatch companies take a margin, yes, but they still give you much better hourly wages than if you were a 正社員. I’ve been working as a 派遣社員 in different branches (caretaker, teacher, even convenience store and factory), and every time it was less responsibility than every one else, but with a much better salary. So I don’t know what you’re doing, but it sounds weird that you have more responsibilities than others, because if something happens, it’s your dispatch company that will be responsible, so companies generally (and understandably) *avoid* to give you more responsibilities.
Find a new job and tell everyone why. Also, make sure your new job isn’t at an eikaiwa. It isn’t like this ALT job you love so much.
Here’s a better question to ask yourself: Are you planning to work there the entire rest of your life? No? Then at some point you will have to rip the bandaid off and quit. This appears to be the time.
Alternatively, you could explain the situation to the staff at the school and ask the school to hire you directly and skip the dispatch company.
Tell the company and if they really want to keep you, they can hire you under a different department in another role and that allows them to dodge the non-circumvention agreement with the dispatch company. Dispatch companies in Japan charge abusive commissions, sometimes over 50% of the total salary. Fk them.
> Does anyone have any experience / advice for this situation?
Please don’t feel guilty, these places knew the game as soon as they went with a dispatch company. It took me too long to learn that smiles and good relations don’t pay the bills. Places will take advantage you of and smile in your face, while underpaying you until they find another person to take your place. Take care of yourself first because the local school and the dispatch company are definitely taking care of themselves at your expense.
You are confusing two things. There is your personal situations, where you feel bad for people you care about, and there is the business situation where you can now sell your labour for a higher price. They are occurring simultaneously so it’s ok to feel both simultaneously. But they are two different things.
Remember, you aren’t leaving because of them, it’s not personal. It’s just business.
We are all cogs in the machine. After 6 months all companies and people have moved on. Don’t sweat it too much.
It’s only dispatch, good lord. They happily give you starvation wages and take advantage of you, so why should you act like you’re besties? You have zero things to apologise for.
I regret not leaving my previous job earlier. Had an opportunity to go somewhere but turned it down because I wanted to ‘finish’ my contract in good faith. What that got me? Several months of unemployment.