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GEOS Internal Memo: There's No Money Left
With the absolutely regrettable news of the bankruptcy of Geos Corp, I must tell you that your salaries for the time period between 2010, March 16th to 2010. April 21st Will NOT be paid to you. There isn’t any cash left. We will work on a way for you all to collect some of your money back through the government. We are still unsure of the procedures to do this.
G-Education has offered to take over the Geos Corporate sales Division and resume all corporate class operations from the May 6th 2010. However it will be under the new payroll system as follows:
- All previously negotiated hourly/rates between the GCI and part-time teachers will remain in effect.
- New Payment period will be as follows: For work done between 5/1 and 5/31+ transportation expenses will be paid on 6/21. For work done between 6/1 and 6/30+ transportation expenses will be paid on 7/20. etc.
- Paydays will now be on the 20th of the month or previous business day should the 20th of the month fall on Nat. Holiday or weekend.
Uh-oh. No pay. This will not end well.
Don't worry, the collapse of GEOS Australia has no effect on operations in Japan.
Japan:
- Shawn's blog
- or register to post comments
Comments
GEOS Cairns too..
GEOS Cairns too..
Cairns
Same street address, lots of same old staff, currently offering 50% discounts, see http://www.cce.qld.edu.au/index.php
Do some people have a business deathwish?
PS New logo look somewhat familiar???
who on earth would want to be
who on earth would want to be connected to this?! idiots.
She is from Thai not Vietnam.
She is from Thai not Vietnam. Now she is manager at new school in GEOS build. Our member paid the money for long study for Mrs Redding only 1 weeks before GEOS Gold Coast closed. This is big problem for us. No sorry no money refund from mrs Redding and now she is same job in same build just change the school name Gold Coast Learning Centre. How can we get the money back? If you can help us please email thankyou
This is the same shit thats
This is the same shit thats happening all over Aussie now. Change the company name put in the same inept managers who let all the money drain out of the company in the first place and knowingly screwed their own students. Geos Cairns now Cairns College of English (same bulding, same staff) . GEOS Gold Coast now Gold Coast Learning Centre (same bulding same manager).
Geos Cairns web address now goes to Cairns College of Englishs website.
Interestingly The GEOS Gold Coast website address goes to another new English schools website which is run by one of the ex GEOS Gold Coast managers who jumped the sinking ship last year. Is it possible that they kept the GEOS server passwords and illegally redirected all the web traffic from GEOS to their own school in the ensuing chaos of GEOS's collapse? All of these manages knew something was up and instead of warning the regulators or even trying to protect their students just lied to everyone until the end. Disgraceful spineless bunch the lot of them.
Wow thats a bit strong. Yes
Wow thats a bit strong. Yes it seems they all run away knowing what was coming but many of us would have done the same Im sure. I feel sorry for the poor saps who were left there at the end. Not good though.
I wonder?
Noticed that the Greys Auctions in Oz did not include any of the GEOS teaching resources (texts, student book series, CDs, "professional" library stuff, and so on). This is one of the higher ticket sides of setting up a new school. When you walk into one of these new but ex-GEOS schools in Oz I wonder if the GEOS resources are in use. Anyone know? And if they are in use, how and by what route to benefit creditors did they reach new owners? Just idle thoughts, really. In truth, I've sort of ceased to care.
Give that it is GEOS. there
Give that it is GEOS. there is probably a scam going on somewhere..,
I heard one of the background
I heard one of the background owners (Paul) of this ex-Geos Gold Coast school and now Gold Coast Learning Centre also runs a strip club next to GEOS Gold Coast (Hollywood Showgirls) and will be using the school to bring in girls to work for him as strippers on student visa through GCLC. Im Redding the manager has been bragging that she will be able to almost automatically get the new schools NEAS accreditation through using the GEOS documents (that I would think legally she should not have copies of anymore?) If these shady characters get this school running again it spells trouble for everyone. Why on earth aren’t the government powers that be rooting out these obvious charlatans?
wow that sounds over the top
wow that sounds over the top even for GEOS! LOL
Go to talk to Ernst and Young
Go to talk to Ernst and Young about the Greys auction items in Australia. They will tell you that they could not get clear title or ownership sorted for all the textbooks etc from GEOS for some strange reason. All these resources ended up going with the lease which would be ..yep thats right initially still with GEOS for 7 days after it was closed .....and then passed on to whichever ex GEOS staff member(s) were crazy enough to buy out that school and rename it. So all the people owed money by GEOS Australia where shafted again by this.
@13:15
What brilliant synergy!!! For the first time ever it sound as if the "GEOS Oz" management team have a smart guy on board. Go for it Hollywood Showgirls!!!!!!!! Hey......we could have Toe-lick classes! Blimey, might even do a DELTA there myself :-)
Geos - Unemployment insurance
I didn't know where to post this and the Geos NA thread didn't seem suitable, so....
I finally received my paperwork from Geos to file for unemployment and get last month's pay back. They were supposed to arrive before the 15th but they arrived on the 20th.
News from the new G-Com/Geos monster is that they're bleeding teachers left, right and center. Kashiwa school only has 1 out of 3 natives, Ginza losing a native this week with no replacement in sight... I'm sure there are more stories like this and anyone looking for employment with any sense will be steering well clear.
Paperwork from Geos - still waiting
I'm still waiting for my paperwork... does anybody have any info on where I get this from?
G. Com stinks
People are starting to see what a nasty company G. Com is and how they treat teachers, staff and customers. I worked for old-Nova and G.Com and they pratically run the same in everyway, but G. Com is run worse in terms of shitting on its teachers.
I wrote a post a few weeks back detailing the near impossible vacation requests...the contract says you are entitled 10 days of vacation after 6 months...but they make it near impossible to take any days offs...YOU the teacher is 100% responsible for finding teachers in other schools to cover your shift on your vacation...BUT most teachers are off Tuesday and Wednesday OR Wednesday and Thursday...and thats it...so its almost impossible to take off more than 3 or 4 days at a time and thats including the regular 2 days you are off in a week.
You also have to save at least 4 days of vacation to cover the New Years holiday when the schools are closed and you wont be paid for it...unless you use your vacation days.
You better not miss one day of work...or you will get hit with a 40,000yen penalty. They say you receive a 25,000yen bonus for not missing one day of work in a pay period..BULLSHIT..that "bonus" is part of your salary....its been deemed illegal by the government and labor union...but G. Com has brushed that aside. If you are late...you just lost your "bonus" and 25,000yen will be deducted from your salary.
The school manager will be under enormous stress to fill the classes up to keep high student-to-teacher ratio. The school manager will receive more than 50 phone calls a day from head office to pressure the manager to fax in class schedules for the day or coming days and call students to come in and use their points, so that when the student is nearing the end of their points...the school manager will pressure them to buy more. If the student-to-teacher ratio is too low for too long...then teachers get forced transfered, fired or their contracts dont get renewed. G. Com is all about cutting costs. My old G. Com school in Mie had 5 permanent teachers in Feb. 2008...today there are NO permanent teachers as of 2010....all teachers are from Nagoya on help-shifts.
Another major problem is the "help-shift" requirement of the job..you can be sent up to 90 minutes one-way and not be paid for your time...just for the train fare....and if you have to do that 2 times a week for months on end...it begins to wear you down hard. At G. Com teachers live in shared apartments...no private apartments...unless you live in the countryside and then its a cheap-ass Leo-Palace.
If anybody has any fantasy of G. Com hiring all those GEOS teachers in June...they wont. They pulled that shxt on us back in Nov.2007 when they promised to hire all the old-Nova teachers and eventually leaving 50% out in the cold by rescinding job offers during the Christmas holidays. Expect the same with GEOS teachers...G.Com will state "do to a harsher than expected business climate" they cannot hire everyone. G. Com is cold hearted and dont expect anything different from that.
Also note, G. Com makes a decent amount of money from screwing the teachers, staff and students out of their hard earned cash....its like a "cash cow" for them.
Dont ever consider working for them.
Geos Paperwork Info
For those of you who didn't receive the info (probably due to G-Com/Geos incompetence):
A letter was sent April 30th with information regarding those living in Geos housing etc... Also included in the letter was a designated telephone line
They are supposed to send "The Letter of Release" and "Separation Notice for Unemployment Insurance" upon request from the ex-employee
I didn't receive my documents by the 17th, so I called them that afternoon, and demanded my documents. They said they would arrive the following day. They didn't arrive, so I called again on Wednesday the 19th, and was extremely snotty with the Japanese woman on the other end. The documents arrived the next day by special delivery.
The address is:
Re. G. Com stinks
It sure sounds pretty horrible the way you describe it.
I am just wondering about the students. It certainly does not sound like it would produce a good study atmosphere. Do they really get that many new students or students renewing? Are most of the students just holdovers from the old days?
I heard they are not cheap. I just cannot understand why many Japanese would choose a school like that with so many out there. Then again, I often cannot understand what in the world the Japanese are thinking....
Re:Re: G. Com Stinks
I worked for old-Nova for 7 months and worked for G. Com for about 15 months and finally left G. Com about 1 year ago.....and when I worked for G. Com...my school rarely ever got new students at all. All our students were hold-overs from old-Nova, as they took advantage of the 75% discount on lesson tickets being offered to former Nova students to return or renew. Im not sure if they are running the same discount anymore or not...most likely not. When I was there the 75% discount was killing the bottom line with G. Com...but the students refused to pay more...as they felt G. Com could not offer the quality that old-Nova did and didnt feel they would be getting their moneys worth with G. Com...for example the G.Com Nova schools are generally dumpy and run down, and the schools were located in places that have no free parking available. The old-Nova school I worked at was located in a shopping mall and had free parking available...but the new G. com Nova school was moved somewhere cheaper with no parking whatsoever and students bitterly complained about it and that affected the number of students who would renew or show up for classes...as it was hassle to pay for coin parking and walk 200 meters to school. Having no reasonable parking options damaged student-to-teacher ratios...so classes were often half-empty...as it was no longer convenient for students to come to class....so our student-to-teacher ratios were super low.
Just before I left G. Com they came out with new rule...No More "Lucky" Man-to-Man lessons. Meaning students who happened to reserve a class and it so happens no one else reserved as well..the student had a man-to-man lesson on their discounted lesson tickets at one point (something like 900yen to 1,800yen a point depending on point plan)...that was not profitable for the company...so, that was discontinued and that pissed many a student off. The new rule stipulated that any man-to-man lessons required 5 points at almost 10,000yen for a 40 minute private lesson.
G. Com was desperate to get students to use their points...offering "weak point" lesson of grammar, reading, listening, etc....designed by the teachers for man-to-man lessons. The problem was the schools did not have grammar books or specialized books to teach such lessons and zero materials and no training, and a half-baked memo from head office giving us incomplete instructions...we had some books that were hold-overs from old-Nova for TOEIC or TOEFL and used those, as the teachers had to make something on the fly between classes often with little or no notice...it proved to be a disaster with no materials and little preparation. The students who wasted 5 points on a "weak point" lesson was gravely disappointed and the program didnt work.
G. Com also had a plan to let higher level students use their points and take lower level classes. That didnt work either. Who the hell would want to take a class 2 or 3 levels below their ability?? Another unsuccessful scam.
I could go on and on about G. Com. The bottom line is that students knew G. Com was scamming them and they didnt put up with it. I talked to a former student of mine at my old school in Mie and she told me she no longers goes to Nova anymore and neither does her friends...as there are no permanent teachers at the school, point scams every month, and the lies from the school managers and head office has made them search elsewhere for lessons or quit learning english all together.
When I worked for old-Nova we had over 400 active students in my school with 5 full-time teachers and one part-time teacher. In January 2008 when G. Com was running the show...all the schools in my area were consolidated to one school (my school) and we had over 600 students and 5 teachers...most of the students just wanted to use their old-Nova points at G. Com, because they couldnt get a refund. It was fine and doing well until the school moved in May 2008 to a poorly located and run down building with no parking, thats when we saw a large drop in students coming back.
Today, at the same G. Com Nova school, there are about 50 active/paying students and no teachers, besides the teachers on help-shifts from Nagoya. Just shows you how "satisfied" the students are with G. Com.
Re: Anonymous Orgasm's post
I agree with everything you said except:
I've never heard of that happening, as I still get plenty of "lucky Man to Man" classes. I'm sure it does go on just like you say, but I'm guessing it's up to the management in different areas whether to follow that policy or not.
Re:Re Anonymous Orgasm Post
When I worked for G. Com that was the rule for the Kinki area..maybe they decided to rescind that rule..I dont know. The rule was if a student reserved a class and no other student reserved for the same class or the manager could not find a student to commit to that certain class one hour before the lesson started...the class was canceled and the teacher was to fold advertisements and stuff them into tissues packs or handout tissues at the station or street corner. This happened quite a bit the last couple of months I worked at G. Com. Students bitched alot about the Lucky Man-to-Man rule.
If you work for a franchised school...then the rules are different. My school was originally a franchise school, but G. Com bought it back after 12 months as the owner could not or would not meet G. Com standards. When it was a franchise, it was laid back and comfortable...but when G. Com bought the school back...then they instituted harsh rules on the students, staff and teachers. When my school was a franchise...there was no worries about student-to-teacher ratios or anything like that.
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