ECC Japan Employee Reviews about "vacation time"

Pros

Fun to teach students and learn about other cultures. Fairly easy job duties. Everything is printed out for you and all you have to do is follow the plan. Coworkers are usually a lot of fun to be around. Solid starting pay and tons of vacation time (6+ weeks)

Cons

Salary rarely goes up any more than 30 cents an hour per year. Many years you get 0 or 10. Upper management on the J-side has a severe disconnect with the average worker. Ongoing strike actions (as of 2015-16) No bonuses, very little incentive to work hard (other than your own work ethic) EXTREMELY limited to non-existent routes for career advancement.

Pros

Opportunity for young people to travel and live abroad, lots of vacation time. Pay is pretty ok for new grads.

Cons

Hostile, ego-heavy, domineering and abusive work environment. ECC was pretty candid about its enmity towards staff. The personnel department is staffed almost entirely by troubled white guys who peaked a while ago. They pretend to be HR - with no formal training - they're self-glorifying resource managers who, with little accountability, frequently indulge in threatening instructors. Their behavior towards female employees was particularly troubling, crossing the line into harassment. If any of these individuals ever returned to the English-speaking workplace, I doubt they'd be able to maintain long-term employment. School directors are given free reign to run their offices like tyrannical fiefdoms, if they want to. Some are nice but a lot are truly awful people.

Pros

Good pay and job security for the industry; Really great students (you will teach both adults and children, but both are great); More trustworthy than most eikaiwa companies; Good support from HR and training staff. Good place to get your start. A good amount of vacation time. Several weeks during the school year are "adjustment weeks" where there are special events and fewer classes. Many people working hard within the company to make it a better place.

Cons

Stressful workloads (I had anywhere from 35-40 classes per week) on top of additional staff duties at the school with very little time in between classes. Break time might occur in the first (or last) hour of your working day depending on when the school director schedules it, leaving you to work 7 hours without a break. Do not expect to have much energy left over on your days off- burnout risk is very high. You will have no input in the material that you teach, which can be difficult if you don't find it to be effective or useful for the students.

Pros

Lots of Vacation time, helps you with housing, livable wage

Cons

Only 15 minutes in between classes which is not enough time to prep, they just throw you into teaching with very little training.

Pros

- Comparatively high salary - Flight Stipend (about $700) and bonus ($1000) - Great vacation time. About 5 or 6 weeks total. - Pretty good training - The adult students are nice and really want to meet foreign people. I have never seen one act badly towards a teacher. Kids are kids. - The biggest positive is that they aren't a horrible company. This industry is full of horrible "blacklist" companies, and ECC is generally fair and decent in comparison. For example, you don't have to work any unpaid overtime and you will always be paid on time. Sadly these things are not a given in this industry.

Cons

- New contract introduced in 2017 is worst than the old one in just about every way. This was mainly a con for people starting just after the change, but might not be such a big deal to new people in a few years. - "Make up" work days for national holidays. Expect around a weeks worth of these extra work days. - Schedules vary, but you can expect to be in a fairly high stress environment. Your days may be packed to the brim with classes, with only 10-15 minutes between them. This can be up to 4-5 kids classes in a single day. - Commutes can vary from great (under 40 minutes) to horrible (1 hour, 15 minutes+) completely dependant on luck and HR favour. - People have different experiences with Japanese staff. Some can be very nice and accommodating. Others can be domineering and cold. I found many of them to be bossy towards me, even though they are not your boss on any level. Your manager is the school director, not the staff. - If you have free time, expect tons of pointless busywork like stuffing tissues and folding flyers. - Almost zero career opportunities. It's really a 1-3 year gig. They don't want you around for longer than that.

Pros

- good amount of vacation time - extensive training for FTL lessons (fabulous trainers!) - a mix of classes (children, adults, different levels) - opportunities to pick up extra shifts, branch out to ECC Junior or university work.

Cons

- new contracts are not very teacher-friendly. - travel time to different schools - there is a fair amount of "make work" projects such as mindless tissue stuffing, cutting paper - management and union relationship is atrocious - management communication with issues can be both dishonest and unethical

Pros

Vacation time and actual work is pretty nice.

Cons

an HR employee directly stated "we won't fire you, but we can make your life miserable enough as to where you are forced to quit" This has been shown as some teachers that have expressed concerns or new job opportunities are now being sent on extreme commutes that accumulate to easily over 3 hours a day.

Pros

Vacation time is really nice as you have enough time off to see places in Japan. Work isn't so difficult if nothing else a little mundane. Provided training gets you ready for the classes.

Cons

Well there is no advancement, or any pay raises in 2017. You will quickly fall behind in your second year with the increase of taxes. So plan on making less money. If you are lucky to fall in favor with the HQ staff then you will have a decent schedule. If not the you will get a schedule that is less than preferable. The best thing to be is a yes man and you will be fine. Don't try to offer any advice for improvements. The company thinks it knows what is best in all respects. If that is true then why is the Tokyo area always in the red financially? The company isn't looking for long term employees from its foreign staff. Consider yourself as a disposable commodity. The companies philosophy statement is a total joke. If helping to contribute to work place means being raciest and sexiest then I would guess they are doing well with the philosophy. I know of situations where the color of a person skin isn't approiate or that a woman teacher is required to motivate the students to come to class. Usually they prefer you not to incorporate your cultural aspects into any part of the curriculum. So how can you create international awareness????