Got That Friday Feeling Back

The new job is great. It's hard work and long hours, but it's a proper job, interesting and challenging. It's definitely not for life, but for now I'm pretty happy. Most of my co-workers are a good ten years older than me, so there's plenty of time for other stuff; even if I do this for one year I'll still only be 23. But the best thing is that I have a regular job with a regular weekend in a place I love. At NOVA, granted I liked my Thurs-Fri weekend as it was quiet, but everyone's Saturday was my Monday morning and it felt gutting.

Now, nothing beats that Friday feeling I have.

There's even a little Irish Pub, the Grafton, around the corner from my apartment which we've been frequenting every once in a while to celebrate the weekend. It has a good atmosphere and, except for everyone else being Japanese, you could imagine you're sitting in an Old Man's Pub back home.
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As for NOVA, do I miss it? Not really. To be honest, the people I worked with were great and the 5% of students that cared made it worthwhile, but now that I don't work for the company I can be honest about my feelings:

The company is in a terrible state; they are losing court cases all over the place, regarding anti-socialisation rules and being sued by students who are dissatisfied with the service and refund terms and conditions. NOVA is only really concerned with having a Western person 'entertaining' some Japanese students; as long as you look presentable it doesn't actually matter about your teaching ability. In this sense, there's a very frustrating aspect of the job, namely that a good teacher that stays a year - the average time - is treated exactly the same as a bad teacher who stays a year. So why would you bother? And for those that do, there's no appreciation or reward; the whole place is based on threats: "If you don't do this or that, then...". On top of that, everything is so backwards - you can be praised by every student for doing a great job but that can all be negated by one thing the management think you did wrong. To put it simpler, the focus is on presentation and sales, not ability. Enough said.

Additionally, the Japanese staff are treated appallingly - forced to work ridiculous amounts of overtime for no extra money - but they are too timid and with little power to stand up against such a powerful Corporation. Out of the three managers that were at my branch during my time there, one was so over-worked that she had a nervous breakdown and was admitted to hospital. Unfortunately, this is common. Why would staff put themselves in that position? Because if you are a young female who wants to use English and work with Western staff, it's the best place for it.

And that is why NOVA, for all its problems and disgusting treatment of its workers, will always have people applying to work there. For the Japanese staff, the above is the reason why. For Westerners, there are two outweighing selling points:

1) It's a very easy way to come to Japan.
2) The company allows for a flexible work schedule, so that you can easily plan for a few days off if you want to go on a trip.

Honestly speaking, those two pros are so powerful that it's difficult to be bitter about NOVA; they helped me get to Japan, and around it, with few difficulties.

Would I recommend it? Yes, and no. If you want to come to Japan, then there are worse ways. But if, like me, you get frustrated when an organisation is a mess, then be prepared to put head to brick wall.

Finally, the above criticism might seem a bit severe, but I left NOVA on a really sour point. I asked for a letter of reference, and got a sub-standard three paragraph statement that everyone else receives. For all my hard work and attempts to offer something a bit different, interesting and (hopefully) inspiring to the students, this letter is all my year boiled down to in the eyes of my bosses.