There were signs even at the beginning...
Our head teacher's name is Mike and he is an odd man. At 40, he was the oldest teacher at our school, and having taught overseas twice before he was the perfect choice for head teacher. The role doesn't really have a lot of significance other than the fact that he had to MC morning assemblies, orientation and graduation. In turn he taught about a third of the classes we did so it was a cushy job, I think.
Before our school opened we spent a month in our freezing cold school planning and doing prep work. There were times that Mike would freak out over the smallest things, and he once stormed out of a meeting because one of the teachers turned the heat on. We didn't return to work for two days. He was always up and down. While we were hard at work making materials and powerpoints for our classes, Mike walked the halls grumbling about small details not being finished and just being generally unhelpful and negative.
On the third day the school was open he sent all the teachers an email suggesting that we quit, and gave us details as to how to do so. He loved to communicate by email (the day after we met him he sent us an email full of useful website links- including some porn links, "in case we got lonely"!) He also revealed that although he'd taught overseas before, he'd never completed a contract. Within days, teachers starting receiving e-mails calling them names, one email ordered a teacher to quit within three weeks even though Mike has no authority to suggest this, one male teacher got an email suggesting they 'hook up'!
One teacher discovered that he had a reputation in Seoul as being a creepy old man at the gay bars, who would sit at the bar, slamming back drink after drink while checking out the guys with a pervy look on his face. He wore tight shirts and his nickname was "wet suit"!! Hahahahahaha!!
In person he became ruder and ruder. He spoke in one word sentences or completely ignored you. His facial expressions were hateful. The way he spoke to our boss, Stella was disgusting. He talked to her with such contempt that it was amazing she hadn't bitch slapped him yet. His behavior around the kids got worse too. He bragged that he never learned any of his students' names, he screamed at them to "shut up" (inappropriate for any teacher anywhere), threatened to kill students and directed lazer pointers in their eyes to make an example of them. In their eyes!! And these were just the things we saw- who knows what went on when he was alone with them. Some of his students wrote on our website that they would never return to the school because of him. As our head teacher, he was supposed to be our role model?
Last month, the teachers staged an "intervention" with Mike. We wanted to deal with the issues as a group and not involve the YBM management. We wanted to be fair. I thought he took it like a man- it must have been embarrassing. He was quiet, he listened and he was humble. For a few weeks things seemed better. He talked to us, anyway.
Then it started again. We all got a couple of strongly worded e-mails. He grew silent and dismissive again. Old Mike was back. It didn't make any sense, because nobody had done anything to him. Monday afternoon he freaked out at Melodie minutes before her class because he couldn't see her in the hallway to dismiss her class. She was standing right there and that was not her fault. You could see the hate in his eyes. Nobody needs that minutes before a class. A few minutes later I went to Stella and set up a meeting.
We had a secret meeting in the storage room!! There are no cameras there LOL. I gave her the e-mails I received and a went over a list of concerns. The first thing she said (before I'd even said a word) was "He's so weird", so obviously she felt the same way we did. She apologized for not taking action sooner, but she didn't want to disrupt the group. She agreed that he was unhelpful and admitted that she regretted offering him the head teacher position. It was the e-mails that put it over the top for her, though. She went downstairs first, and I followed a few minutes later to be low-key about it.
About an hour later she came to me and asked me to tell her who should be the new head teacher. I was surprised. I just wanted her to speak to him, but it appeared he would be demoted. Then she asked if Dayna would like to come work at our school and it was obvious that Mike was going to be fired. Over lunch I told all of the teachers (to which there were many "yippees!") and we decided to nominate Mel and Chris to be the head teacher, and Stella could make her choice between the two of them. Dayna, of course, didn't want to move all the way down to Suwon, so we're going to be short a teacher for the indefinite future but it's for the best. We still don't know whether Mel or Chris will be the head teacher, but they'll both be great choices.
Oblivious, on Wednesday we got an e-mail from Mike in which he wrote that he "couldn't stand us teachers because they're young, inexperienced, unfocused and boring". Sorry for being so boring, man.
As far as I know, Mike was fired after work on Friday. I feel kind of guilty, but it was out of my hands, and I know he would not feel any guilt if it were me. In true Mike fashion, he spent his last minutes at work isolating himself in the corner of the faculty room, headphones on, laughing hysterically to himself at old Rat Pack skits. Annyong, dude.
There are a few Ho Lee Chows in Seoul, so we decided to go to the closest one, which is in Seolleung. When we got off the subway and noticed the lack of people in the streets we got to thinking.... is the Chinese New Year the best day to find a Chinese restaurant that's open for business? Answer: no. The place was closed, just like every other shop on the street, so we headed back to the subway station in the direction of the one place in Seoul that refuses to respect any culture or tradition: Itaewon! 
Ghostbusters bar near Suyu station. Who ya gonna call? Beer!
