Names have been changed in this letter

Mr. S.
Linguaphone Academy
Shinjuku


Dear Mr. S:

I would like to deeply apologize for my unprofessional behavior on Friday, 2
February, 2001, resulting in my resignation. I’m sorry for not being able to
give you prior notice as R told me "I want you to resign as of today. Put
down today’s date. M, escort him out of the building.".

I believe you are entitled to an explanation as to what lead up to the event.
Yes, I admit that I had made a misjudgment and erred on the 1st of February.
That should not have happened, and as the assistant manager of the school, I
should have performed my duties in a professional manner. I regret my poor
decision.

In regards to losing my temper, that was also inappropriate. My state of mind
at the time was full of stress, when R called me incompetent and neglectful
of my duties. I felt that was extremely hypocritical of R to say that to
me when A, one of the most incompetent, disorganized, dishonest, unfit,
inadequate, managers I have ever met was sitting across from me.

Once again, I would like to inform you (this time in writing to you directly
and not through R) about what happens at Yokohama Linguaphone. I do this
not for myself, but for my former coworkers whom I have failed. I have failed
to improve their working conditions.

R has been made aware of several concerns that previous instructors
including myself have had with A’s management of Linguaphone Yokohama.
R even visited the school and spoke to each instructor individually and in
private about what each saw the problems were. But no real action has
seemingly been taken to correct the problems that exist concerning A’s poor
management. In the past on several occasions, I have spoken with R about
A, to which R replied "You are the Assistant Manager. You should be
taking care of those problems yourself. Why are you coming to me? That’s why
we pay you the extra money. You should be helping A and not criticizing
him." As a result of that conversation, I realized that going to R for help
was worthless. R turns a blind eye and covers for the mistakes his friend
A, makes. R has on several occasions done the same to other instructors
who had gone to him for help.

You are probably asking yourself "Why have I not seen any written complaints
about A".

Here is why there have been no written complaints about A. He controls the
majority of teachers at the Yokohama school. He controls the apartment of one
teacher, and we have all witnessed what he had done to other teachers who had
lived there previously. (M2. for one and P before
that. I’m sure you are aware that when P resigned, he gave A two
months notice – six weeks more than required by law. A on the other hand
gave P three days notice to leave the apartment. Is this legal? P had to
live with me for one month before he was able to find a new place. Surely,
R must have told you about that. A also forced M2 to move out at
short notice when he transferred back to Shinjuku school. M2, too was
forced to live with a friend until he was able to find a new place. R
would have informed you of that as well. I’m sure.) A is also the
guarantor for another teacher who needed to find an apartment fast, and has
control over that teacher likewise. He also lends money from his own pocket
and from the school funds to another teacher who is having financial troubles.
(I assume you know about all this from R. If not, might I suggest starting
a Foreign Personnel Department to handle the needs of your employees since
R is incapable of doing so. Otherwise, A will continue to do as he
pleases.). With our part-time Japanese teacher, if she complains, he reduces
her hours without giving sufficient notice. At one time, A even called her
up after 10pm one night and told her he cut some of her classes the next day.
Another time, he again called her up after business hours and requested that
she come early in order to attend a meeting the next day. Is it company
policy to make changes in the schedule and give instructors little or no
notice of them? According to R, it is my duty to "take care of the problem
myself", but how am I supposed to anticipate his whims. Basically, A tries
to put everyone in his debt so that no one will come forward with complaints
about his mismanagement, and R turns the problem around so that it is the
responsibility of the one complaining to correct the situation. Which is
another reason you really do not know what is happening at the Yokohama
school.

Those A cannot control or put in his debt, like myself and a few others, he
pressures them into leaving. Why should we waste our time trying --
especially when no one is listening, -- to improve the management of the
school, when it is just easier to go someplace else? In the year and a half
that I have spent at the Yokohama Linguaphone Academy, I have seen at least 10
people (L, S, B, D, P, M2, N3, D, N2,
B, and myself) leave mainly due to A. There are even a few people who
have left without even working one day because A mishandled something. Why
should they have stayed when they can easily go some place else with better
management?

When a teacher does leave, A defames them and tries to ruin their
reputation with false claims. Case in point, when D2 resigned
because she no longer wanted to work under A, he went around saying that
D2 was lazy and not a good teacher and that she only created problems for
the school. Which is completely untrue. Whenever she took a club activity
out, there were always twenty some students going along with her. Her class
attendance averages were also above average, and she was well liked by all the
students. She was also very creative when it came to making lesson curriculum
and teaching materials. She was a great asset to the Yokohama school. At one
point, prior to her resignation, A even offered her a position as
Curriculum Coordinator for the Yokohama school (I believe it was around March
or April of 2000. You’ll have to check your records.). After D handed
in her resignation, A asked her to stay a little longer until a suitable
replacement was found. He wanted her to train the new teacher for the
position. D2 agreed which was very generous of her. Soon afterwards,
A called D2 late one night after normal business hours and fired her
saying "Don’t bother coming in tomorrow or again.". Violating Article 18 of
the contract. There were no grounds for A to immediately dismiss her
according to our contract (see Article 17). Furthermore, if she were such a
bad employee, why would R have asked her to stay and become Assistant
Manager at Shinjuku school when she went to him to complain about A? Once
again, R was made aware (this time by D) of the problems caused by
A at the Yokohama school, but no improvements have been seen.

Take N2 for another example. When I had just started working
for Linguaphone in Yokohama, she was the Assistant Manager. She was a great
teacher and also very popular with the students. In my opinion, when she left
the school, I thought it was a shame for the company to be losing such a
qualified teacher as N2. She, had always tried to fulfill her duties as
Assistant Manager, but A never delegated work to her, claiming that she
didn’t know how to do many things. Instead of giving her the proper training
required for the job, he did most of it himself. Later, he would sharply
criticize her in front of all the instructors (which is totally against my
leadership training I had as an officer in the United States Army)about not
doing her job properly. Any good manager would have done it in private and in
a constructive, -- not demeaning manner. On one occasion, shortly before she
decided to resign, A verbally abused N2 to the point she broke out in
tears. First of all, how was she supposed to perform her duties if 1). They
are NOT clearly defined in the form of a Job Description. 2). There is NO
training program for Assistant Managers. 3). There is ZERO support from R
as mentioned before. 4). A fails to give her the proper training. 5).
A neglects to delegate consistent work for her. Again, due to A’s
incompetence and lack of support from R, Yokohama Linguaphone loses another
exemplary teacher. How many students have signed because they liked her? How
many would have signed if they had met her? How many students will miss her?

Ask these questions each time you lose a teacher (in a year and a half, at
least 10) who is sick and tired of A, and are turned away by R. But
unfortunately, you probably only hear bad stories about teachers who leave.
Stories created by A, and R to justify their resignation and so that
they do not have to inform you of A’s blatant shortcomings as a manager.
I’m sure you will be hearing stories about me as well. And you are probably
unaware of the things I have achieved to help the company. I will cover that
later and I will enclose many things that should have already been brought to
your attention through R, A, and even A2. If you have not seen the
materials I have created for this school, I am not surprised. A2 once
told me to my face that "Ninety percent of what you tell me and submit to me
will be forgotten and not used.". R certainly does not know how to choose
people who can motivate subordinates. A2 said this to me the first time I
met him when he came to visit our school. Great first impression. I will
tell you more about A2 later.

Misinformation, or no information as it seems runs both ways in Linguaphone.
A does not inform R, and R does not inform you. A informs R,
and R does not inform you. A misinforms R, and R does not inform
you. Here is a test. Are you aware that A misread or more truthfully did
not read my Vacation Request Form? On the form, I clearly stated that my last
day of vacation was to be Wednesday the 10th of January. Which meant that my
first day back at school would be on Friday the 12th of January because
Thursday the 11th of January was my regularly scheduled day off. Everything
was clear had he bothered to read it. Even the advisors (secretaries) at the school whose
native language is not English clearly understood it! I also stated quite
specifically that I wanted 19 days unpaid vacation and zero days deducted from
my paid holidays. When I left for vacation and when I came back from
vacation, I had thought everything to be clearly understood. I even had
A’s signature on my form. Then, on Thursday, the 11th of January, the
advisors called me to ask me what had happened and why I hadn’t come to work
on Wednesday the 10th. They wanted me to call A who was extremely upset
with me, and more than likely wrote a report about me to send to R. R
must have told you about the report. News of a teacher not showing up for
work and classes having to be canceled surely must make it to your desk. That
is serious news. R then called the advisors who told them that according
to my request form, I was not supposed to start until Friday the 12th of
January, and that A was the one who had made the mistake. Knowing A,
this kind of mistake is not surprising. If you would like to see a copy of my
signed forms, I will enclose it. A later tells me that he had deducted all
of my paid vacations. Completely contrary to what I requested.

Please do not feel left out that A and R do not inform their superiors. You are not
the only one.

A has a tendency for not informing his subordinates. On numerous
occasions, he has changed people’s schedules and does not inform them. Surely
you must have heard about one of our part-time member space teacher
specifically asking for Fridays off only to discover he had been scheduled for
Fridays soon after he signed the contract? Or how about the times I myself
have not been informed of schedule changes? Once, I was regularly scheduled
for an early shift only to arrive at school to discover A had changed it to
a late shift. Then, later at a meeting, A told us that all early shifts
during the week were canceled indefinitely as of that day, but remained the
same on the weekends. Believing his word, I arrived at school only to
discover that I had been scheduled for an early shift and that the class had
to be canceled and the students sent home. You were probably notified that I
did not show up for work, but you were most likely not told why it happened.
If not, I’m sure you remember the time one of the teachers got so angry with
A for not informing him of the changes that he walked out of the school.
The teacher was regularly scheduled to work early on Saturdays, and when the
teacher specifically asked A if there were any changes to the schedule,
A said that there were none. The teacher came to school early as usual
only to discover A had changed him to the late shift. The teacher became
so angry, he walked out and left with no intention of working for this company
again. The next day the teacher returned to work as usual. He said that he
had spoken to R and that R had begged him to return saying that he would
correct the problem. Little has been done to improve the situation. A
continues to make changes especially with the part-timers’ schedules.

Not informing subordinates is one thing. Not training subordinates is
another. A has not provided proper training for any of the new teachers we
have hired. His idea of training consists of giving a tour of the school,
watching a few lessons, then telling the new teacher to ask the other teachers
if he / she should have any questions. Granted, there have been several times
when there has not been enough time to train new teachers due to the demands
of the school. Classes need to be taught right away and students complain
there aren’t enough classes offered. But wouldn’t it make more sense to
retain the teachers instead of train new teachers. Until the situation with
A and R is corrected, the turn over rate for teachers will remain high.
Quite bad from a business point of view.

It is truly unfortunate that you do not visit the schools often enough to get
to know what great people you have working under you. Even Mr. F is more
interested in meeting the sales people than the instructors who actually put a
face to his company so many of his customers pay for. Keep that in mind when
you want to improve the moral of your teachers. It really is a simple
concept. Happy employees make happy customers.

This letter was never finished nor sent. Who would have listened anyway? As long as the company makes a profit, who cares what the profit making teachers say? Anyway, teachers are easily replaced!

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