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Interac Yokohama. Supervisor gets skewered by teacher. Added to a blacklist?

osakabob

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23 Nov 2014
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I know there have been some posts here regarding Interac practices. Perhaps this company should be blacklisted or added to a blacklist if the following is what they do to workers.

I received a copy of an email sent to the Yokohama office from a friend who works at that branch office. Apparently a teacher sent this to that office regarding the native supervisor there. If you are going to out your evil boss or company, this may be how to do it (below)

"You are unable to understand, clearly, what happened. So let me be very clear.

_________ asked to meet me in August to discuss my assignment. And I then asked him, what about my assignment are we discussing? So I can prepare for this meeting. This was a very simple request. But he would not tell me. He then threatened to not pay my salary if I did not go to the office.

And I asked him repeatedly, what is the meeting about? He would not tell me. On August 14th he rudely told me: "As stated in my previous email, I would like to discuss your assignment. It is a merely a discussion, so you don't need to prepare anything. I am not sure what it is you feel you need to prepare."

This is completely disrespectful and incompetent communication. I am asking to be prepared with INFORMATION about THE PURPOSE of the meeting, not to prepare a lesson or presentation! This is an extremely evasive response and poor decision making from ____________.

It is his decision to not say anything, a very poor decision consequently. And perhaps your company does not know he chooses to communicate inappropriately with teachers, like this. It is not professional, honest, or transparent. It is also a "red flag" (warning) that he cannot be trusted and that the well being of his co-workers is not his concern. He is not supportive. I realized the opposite was true, that he was actually a threat to my safety and well-being.

So, after I realized he was unable to communicate, I requested to speak to another Interac worker about the meeting details because ____________ was unable to communicate successfully with me.

On August 14th, I sent this message to ___________:

"If you are unable to tell me why I am coming in, so I can prepare, please have someone else contact me at this point. It appears you are not able to communicate effectively with me at this point. I am ready to come in today, tomorrow, anytime.. I am not coming unprepared and you penalizing me for this is not appropriate. Please treat your employees with respect and integrity."

He did not honor this request from me to speak to someone else. Instead, he continued to threaten me directly, choosing to hide his behavior from other interac workers in his office. This is total incompetence and the start of a very bad situation for __________ and interac.

Are you aware you have someone working for you who is communicating like this? Now you are aware.

He repeated this process multiple days during August. Not communicating the purpose of the meeting while making multiple threats to reduce my pay. It was a mistake in judgment by ______________ that got worse and worse for him. Then the situation got out of control, as he lost all communication privileges with me, as I had warned him.

Your company didn't know this because _____________ did not tell you. He probably told everyone at the Yokohama office, "this teacher is missing… I don't know what's happening?!" Actually, he did know what was happening because I warned him that he needs "to communicate honestly, transparently and effectively." He was too ashamed to tell you that the situation was actually out of his control, because of his inability to speak professionally to me, and that he had lost all contact with me because of his abusive treatment of me. Clearly, ____________ cares more about his job than being honest with you (or me).

Do you understand now, what happened?

If you need further clarification, ______________ can provide you with all the email communications from August and September. He has copies of these emails. Let me warn you though: if you ask him, he may not answer your request. He may choose to ignore your request repeatedly then he may threaten to take your salary for the day if you ask him again… because this is his communication style, as I have explained. Perhaps you should experience this multiple times, like I did, to truly understand my experience.

If he refuses to communicate honestly and professionally with you also, I can provide these emails to you.

The consequence for his poor judgment, and for your unawareness of his poor judgment, is your company receiving negative attention now. You really need to understand what ____________ is doing because it is damaging Interac's reputation.

When I explained this all, in detail, and other concerns, to the labor bureau, they understood clearly, everything I said and everything that happened. I provided all the necessary evidence to them. I warn you now: get the details clear because the labor bureau will be contacting you.

And ___________ cannot threaten the labor bureau, or take their salary, so I suggest you have someone competent speak for him to avoid further embarrassment and damage to interac's reputation.

Frankly, I would be very concerned that ____________ is involved with any responsibilities for interac, at any level, given his poor decision making choices. It is an embarrassment for interac to have someone in a leadership position who is unable to communicate and who then makes progressively worse decisions.

My recommendation to you: review ______________ work very closely. All his correspondences (emails, meetings, phone calls) with staff, check his work thoroughly, evaluate him, and ask for anonymous evaluations from teachers and co-workers, about his treatment of them and his performance. You will find many problems. I am absolutely certain of this. You have a "bad apple" in your ranks, as I have proven.

Then hire someone who can communicate clearly and respectfully.

Interac is now receiving negative attention from multiple authorities and parties because of ____________. And wasting all of our time.

Your apology is accepted."
 
If you posted this to get support or other opinions, here's mine.

You seem to have given us foreigners a bad name by being obstinate, stubborn, and pig-headed about an issue that initially was so trivial that it didn't warrant batting an eye.

You were told to come in to hear information about your teaching assignment and that you didn't have to prepare anything. What is the big deal? With only that much information to go on, I would have assumed they wanted to fill you in on location, parking, your JTE, the teaching conditions, classes, previous ALT, whatever.

So, unless you have more information that you aren't telling us, and I suspect that's the case, you blew this way out of proportion and yourself have communicated poorly.
 
Wow! Is all I have to say. Thanks for sharing this. Talk about turning the tables.

Respect goes both ways. Be honest and forthcoming with your company. Companies expect this. So do workers. Appears that did not happen here and it clearly backfired for the company.

More to the point, it would take a total loser, imo, desperate to keep their job, to accept this treatment and go in to the office unprepared for a meeting. Many do. Might as well get slapped in the face.

About blacklisting this company, maybe this was one supervisor or maybe this treatment is systemic at Interac. If it is systemic, then yes, this would definitely warrant blacklist status. Perpetuating this work culture is completely complicit. Maybe other Interac teachers can speak to this point. If this supervisor is not removed, same result, blacklist. Wonder what the outcome will be, if any. Likely nothing.

Always wondered if the company had observations/feedback going upward, where workers report about their bosses performance. Some companies do this. I think it would be very positive for workers if more companies did this to weed out rubbish bosses.

In any case, very interesting event. Some teachers may be more willing to speak up and be heard if these stories are shared. Good on your friend for getting this out there. I'm am sure he did not send you this from his company email!!
 
OsakaBob and Cheersmate.
I`d like both of you to come in to the office next week to discuss the assignment.... at the same time. Please pm each other to work out a convenient time.

Could you please come fully prepared to discuss the, um .... assignment.
 
LOL. Definitely not wasting time with this company. It's all you Doton. And good luck with that.
 
... What is the big deal? With only that much information to go on, I would have assumed they wanted to fill you in on location, parking, your JTE, the teaching conditions, classes, previous ALT, whatever.
...

True, what's the big deal about why a supervisor cannot just reveal those points, and instead not act as overlord when dealing with someone?

Simple courtesy would say that if you're calling someone to a meeting (and not planning to fire them), you should give some info about agenda, what you plan to talk about, meeting purpose, etc. And when it's pointed out that you neglected to offer that info initially, you should briefly apologize for overlooking or leaving that out, and correct your mistake by providing a bit of info. Stonewalling in the face of that indicates you are arrogant, pompous jerk.

True, osakabob seems to have reacted badly to it all, and may have taken it to too high a level, especially if this is a one-off. But if it's SOP then this "manager" needs some "guidance."

I doubt such managers/supervisors (office schmucks) get that same kind of sensitivity training that teachers do.
 
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Look, @johnnyG, We are getting only one side of this story. If any of this took place on the phone, we have no way of knowing what was said or HOW it was said. I seriously doubt that the blame is on only one side here. The OP sounds way too high and mighty (yes, even with an Interac "overlord" who is claimed to be the same). I really doubt we are getting the complete story. Piss someone off, and you should expect to get pissed on. This goes both ways.
 
True, osakabob seems to have reacted badly to it all, and may have taken it to too high a level, especially if this is a one-off. But if it's SOP then this "manager" needs some "guidance."
osakabob didn't react to this because osakabob actually wasn't involved. You and glenski need to read posts more carefully before making rookie mistakes. You are so caught up in the message (or glenski's initial mistake??), that you botch the details, and subsequently, your posts. Slow down, read carefully, then respond accordingly. Just sayin.
 
osakabob didn't react to this because osakabob actually wasn't involved. You and glenski need to read posts more carefully before making rookie mistakes. You are so caught up in the message (or glenski's initial mistake??), that you botch the details, and subsequently, your posts. Slow down, read carefully, then respond accordingly. Just sayin.

@osakabob I did notice it was not you, but only well after the fact, and then got caught by this board's rule that you can only edit up to an hour after a post has been made. It was dinner and I was going back and forth between stirring a pot of soup, making salad, and playing here on the net. After my post I made an edit or two, then in rereading everything noticed I had said that you had reacted badly, but then the 60 min. limit warning appeared when I was going to change that. Oops!
 
@osakabob- So what was it the supervisor actually wanted to discuss with him about in the first place? Did your friend ever find out?
Let me guess, to present him with the Employee of the Year Award, but he couldn't say because it was going to be a surprise party!
Talk about a tempest in a teacup, much ado about nothing, and all that jazz.
 
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I know there have been some posts here regarding Interac practices. Perhaps this company should be blacklisted or added to a blacklist if the following is what they do to workers.

I received a copy of an email sent to the Yokohama office from a friend who works at that branch office. Apparently a teacher sent this to that office regarding the native supervisor there. If you are going to out your evil boss or company, this may be how to do it (below)

"You are unable to understand, clearly, what happened. So let me be very clear.

_________ asked to meet me in August to discuss my assignment. And I then asked him, what about my assignment are we discussing? So I can prepare for this meeting. This was a very simple request. But he would not tell me. He then threatened to not pay my salary if I did not go to the office.

And I asked him repeatedly, what is the meeting about? He would not tell me. On August 14th he rudely told me: "As stated in my previous email, I would like to discuss your assignment. It is a merely a discussion, so you don't need to prepare anything. I am not sure what it is you feel you need to prepare."

This is completely disrespectful and incompetent communication. I am asking to be prepared with INFORMATION about THE PURPOSE of the meeting, not to prepare a lesson or presentation! This is an extremely evasive response and poor decision making from ____________.

It is his decision to not say anything, a very poor decision consequently. And perhaps your company does not know he chooses to communicate inappropriately with teachers, like this. It is not professional, honest, or transparent. It is also a "red flag" (warning) that he cannot be trusted and that the well being of his co-workers is not his concern. He is not supportive. I realized the opposite was true, that he was actually a threat to my safety and well-being.

So, after I realized he was unable to communicate, I requested to speak to another Interac worker about the meeting details because ____________ was unable to communicate successfully with me.

On August 14th, I sent this message to ___________:

"If you are unable to tell me why I am coming in, so I can prepare, please have someone else contact me at this point. It appears you are not able to communicate effectively with me at this point. I am ready to come in today, tomorrow, anytime.. I am not coming unprepared and you penalizing me for this is not appropriate. Please treat your employees with respect and integrity."

He did not honor this request from me to speak to someone else. Instead, he continued to threaten me directly, choosing to hide his behavior from other interac workers in his office. This is total incompetence and the start of a very bad situation for __________ and interac.

Are you aware you have someone working for you who is communicating like this? Now you are aware.

He repeated this process multiple days during August. Not communicating the purpose of the meeting while making multiple threats to reduce my pay. It was a mistake in judgment by ______________ that got worse and worse for him. Then the situation got out of control, as he lost all communication privileges with me, as I had warned him.

Your company didn't know this because _____________ did not tell you. He probably told everyone at the Yokohama office, "this teacher is missing… I don't know what's happening?!" Actually, he did know what was happening because I warned him that he needs "to communicate honestly, transparently and effectively." He was too ashamed to tell you that the situation was actually out of his control, because of his inability to speak professionally to me, and that he had lost all contact with me because of his abusive treatment of me. Clearly, ____________ cares more about his job than being honest with you (or me).

Do you understand now, what happened?

If you need further clarification, ______________ can provide you with all the email communications from August and September. He has copies of these emails. Let me warn you though: if you ask him, he may not answer your request. He may choose to ignore your request repeatedly then he may threaten to take your salary for the day if you ask him again… because this is his communication style, as I have explained. Perhaps you should experience this multiple times, like I did, to truly understand my experience.

If he refuses to communicate honestly and professionally with you also, I can provide these emails to you.

The consequence for his poor judgment, and for your unawareness of his poor judgment, is your company receiving negative attention now. You really need to understand what ____________ is doing because it is damaging Interac's reputation.

When I explained this all, in detail, and other concerns, to the labor bureau, they understood clearly, everything I said and everything that happened. I provided all the necessary evidence to them. I warn you now: get the details clear because the labor bureau will be contacting you.

And ___________ cannot threaten the labor bureau, or take their salary, so I suggest you have someone competent speak for him to avoid further embarrassment and damage to interac's reputation.

Frankly, I would be very concerned that ____________ is involved with any responsibilities for interac, at any level, given his poor decision making choices. It is an embarrassment for interac to have someone in a leadership position who is unable to communicate and who then makes progressively worse decisions.

My recommendation to you: review ______________ work very closely. All his correspondences (emails, meetings, phone calls) with staff, check his work thoroughly, evaluate him, and ask for anonymous evaluations from teachers and co-workers, about his treatment of them and his performance. You will find many problems. I am absolutely certain of this. You have a "bad apple" in your ranks, as I have proven.

Then hire someone who can communicate clearly and respectfully.

Interac is now receiving negative attention from multiple authorities and parties because of ____________. And wasting all of our time.

Your apology is accepted."
 
As it turns out, this supervisor has been fired. Some internal policing going on at Interac. Easier to just cut this liability out. Still a blacklist worthy company even if they try to distance themselves from this person now. Who knows how many other teachers/staff this more-on botched over while Interac top brass sat idly and watched. They only did something here because their reputation (revenue) was at stake. No shocker.

Stay well clear or work there at your own peril. You see what kind of people they promote. You have been warned.
 
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