Before the bankruptcy there were bunches of Nova veterans with salaries in the 400,000 yen region after multiple pay rises. They stayed as nobody would match their salaries and they would get fewer than the 20 paid vacation days they got at Nova..
Are there any of these creatures left accepting much lower salaries for the same work?
PS. FYI Innocent children of the corn – Nova used to offer annual payrises of up to 15,000 yen a month.
by Hot-Cucumber9167
20 comments
I assume they were forced into retirement. I know NOVA vets who have been there for 20 years plus and they are taking home less pretty much every year.
I think eventually they were likely let go of, moved down to part time, or retired. The bankruptcy was when, 2007? That was 18 years ago.
I used to work as a teacher in Kyoto but ended up in head office at JMA, that was crap money as well for what I had to do so asked to go back to teaching, left before the bankruptcy but I know exactly why that bankruptcy took place. Not many were on that kind of money unless you were an AMA or what ever the title was. They were a buck of assholes that would sell their grandmother if they needed to.
Oh the good old days. They pushed them out. I saw it happening back then, so I doubt there would be any left.
Did they get offered redundancies? I think some companies did that over covid at least.
NoVA restructured at the end of 2017. At that time, they handed everyone new contracts with lower pay and worse working conditions. They basically said take it or GTFO. Merry Christmas to us.
For me, it was okay at first because my pay was locked in since I was a full time instructor with full benefits.
However, the new contract made about 1/3 of monthly salary depend on per-lesson commissions, so the base pay went down significantly, but the overall pay only slightly decreased. At the time, my biggest concern was that the pay was going to be far more variable.
The real problem is something I didn’t see comming. They started whittling away at those commissions so they became more and more disadvantageous and difficult to get for long time instructors.
As a result, between 2017 and 2024, my salary went from close to 400,000 per month to just over 200,000 per month, and my attempts at negotiating for better pay were met with contempt and dismissal.
Students loved my lessons, and Ioved my students. It was a difficult decision to leave, but I’m better off now, for sure.
Make no mistake. NOVA does not want to pay you, and they are actively doing everything in their power to pay you as little as they can get away with. They’re operating so close to the legal limits that if the law changes even slightly, they have to reorganize everything.
Ya used to get I think ¥10,000 yen to be an AT, ¥15,000 if you were a trainer, I think ¥20,000 or more for head Trainer. I forget but ¥5,000 to ¥10,000 just for working Sunday. I had a sweet shift 10-6 on Sunday, 1-9 Monday, 11:45-7:15 Tuesday,1-8 Wed, 10-6 Thursday and Friday Saturday off. Pick up an extra shift twice a month and easily made ¥340,000. Good old days indeed 😀. Met some great people, worked with tones of idiots, students rarely improved but that was not the point in was a hobby club. Left a few years before the end. Now the eikaiwa world is pretty much slave labour
Haha 15000yen payrise, i never got those mine was always 5000🤣 guess they didnt like the cut of my jib. Anyone remember the fat wanker Ed or Edo as everyone called him ?. One of the big bosses in Osaka . He sucked😆
I know some nova people went to Gaba after the collapse. That didn’t turn out so well…..
I work with one and apparently there’s another instructor in the same area who’s also been there decades.
The one I work with has the same peanuts for a salary as the rest of us…
How’s Altia these days?
B
I came in 2000. This guy bill from Boston was at nova for 10 years before I came and he was making that much. He said they used to give signing bonuses and raises. Interesting guy.
I came in 2000 when the pay was still pretty good. This guy bill from Boston was at nova for 10 years before I came and he was making that much. He said they used to give signing bonuses and raises. Interesting guy.
There are about a dozen of them, as far as I know, in my home prefecture. Possibly a few more, a few less. I’m supposing that Tokyo must have much more than that still ?….
I saw a post on linkedin for their recruitment still being a thing. Shockingly I think they are retired.
I quit at the end of 2007 with my mate, then Nova collapsed months later. I feel obscurely responsible
I heard that many went to Korea. As the economy there was much better in the 00s. But the won aka their currency went down and many were angry that they were stuck there because their savings weren’t worth much.
Nova paid that much? When I was teaching back in 1995, the sellers are usually around 250,000, and my impression was that they went nowhere but down after that. I jumped ship and started an anime/hentai business and have been super happy for the last 30 years.
I knew a lot of Nova dinosaurs back in 2019. They lost all their benefits but kept their salaries.