Keeping a job

I don't know what's so hard about keeping a job, but this week, 1 person at my language college job, and 2 people at my part time job quit without notice. I don't know what's going on, but is it really that hard? Shouldn't you know what your getting into before you start? Shouldn't you know whether or not you have the time for it?

The guy at my college job, I'll call him J, no.. how about -eremy? What the hell... His name is Jeremy, and he's from Eugene Oregon, and if you know him, tell him I said he has no spine. He told the administration that he would be gone for 2 weeks starting in Golden Week, but after one week, he called (or probably sent an email, it takes less spine) and said that he was not coming back. Is it just my misunderstanding or does signing a one year contract not mean that you intend to work somewhere for one year? Both the contract (and I think national law) say that you have to give 30 days notice before you quit a job. So now we're left one teacher short, which is requiring some classes to be doubled up, and some teachers to take on extra classes. Now I know he was just a Nova teacher, but it's really not a hard job, and he students are really pretty fun. What's up with leaving 3 weeks into the school year? Too bad work history doesn't add up like a credit history, he wouldn't be able to get a good job for a long time after this one. Apparently, after being home for a week, he decided he didn't want to go back. I don't know how he's going to get all his stuff back, and even if he does, he's going to loose half the property and savings he has.

At my other job, teaching a high school class two afternoons a week, two teachers quit after the first day. There was one girl from Australia who I didn't like from the start after she was bitching about having to walk up and down an extra flight of stairs or two when the head teacher was lost in the new building. She could use the extra exercise anyway. The other guy seemed okay, but when I came for the second day of class last week, they had both left the country, and there were two replacement teachers (one of whom they seemed to already be having problems with). The other guy seems pretty cool though. He's half Japanese, born in the US and has been living in Japan for the last eight years. He's been working for this company for seven years, more than just about everyone at the company.

Today I spent a few hours at the immigration office. It's always an interesting experience. The immigration offices are never air-conditioned, and they have what seems like the old furniture from other government offices that was taken out in the last remodel. It's always pretty dirty, and there are always screaming kids wandering around destroying things.

The purpose of my visit was to renew my residence permit. I got a one year work permit when I came here last year, and that expires May 28th. This time, I'm trying to get a 3 year one, mostly so I wont have to worry about visa deadlines and stuff for two more years. That was one of the main reasons I couldn't spend more time looking for a non-teaching job this year. The renewal process isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. You don't actually need a company to sponsor your visa anymore. All you need is a contract or two showing that you will be making over a certain amount, and papers showing that you have paid your taxes for the previous year. In two weeks or so, they will send a post card saying that your papers are ready, and you come back to get a sticker in your passport. Even if you have he work permit, you can't leave the country since it's not a visa, so you have to get a re-entry permit too. So next time I go, I will have to pay about $40 for my new residence permit, and $60 for a multiple re-entry permit. So hopefully, I'll soon be a new legal three year resident.