Lots of weird things happening with ALTs in the 2010s and 2020s with companies like Heart, Gaba and Joytalk Interaction and Nova, Shane etc.

“How to Manage Employees at an ALT, Conversation Eikaiwa, Corporate Trainer or Test Preparation School in Japan: Secrets of Success

Dealing with Perceptions of your Business

Make sure you tell the managers and employees that they are valued and doing “important work” for the people of Japan. Encourage them to tell everyone they are working for your company, and to put it on their Linked In and other social media pages. You should do this even more for your foreign managers. Never disclose to them that you value the contract with the BOE or students higher than them, or other aspects of your business plan.

Never tell them anything about your work history or background. Always ask them about their background and emphasise their background as being the most important thing. Put them on the spot. Get every last detail about them and make them feel like they are under the microscope but at the same time be hazy and vague about your own. Get their addresses, school and college, work dates and salaries. Make sure you are always able to know where your managers and teachers are, so you can follow them and find out their daily activities and habits where they live and make contact in their networks to ensure you are able to better enhance and control your own reputation and diminish theirs. Remember, most of these foreigners think that what they do for you in Japan has a huge impact on their careers here and overseas, even if they are working for you. Play on these fears and never let them think it doesn’t actually matter or that your own reputation is already tarnished and how it is known among the Japanese business world.

Always use titles like “manager”, “campus manager”, “branch manager”, “ALT manager”, “director”, academic manager, and so on for your foreign staff so that they look like they sit in a position above the teachers. Emphasize the number of years you have been in Japan such as “25 years experience”. Do this even if you were teaching English as well. When this doesn’t work, say things like “This is Japan - you don’t understand” and do your best to disguise the true situation. Always wear suits or ties and try to appear to be higher status than the teachers. As a last resort, always tell the teacher that you might call the police, immigration, the labor board, and try to evict them from the apartment arranged for them.

Never let them get away with renting their own apartment and gaining a foothold in the community they are working without you having the ability to pull the plug on them.
Cast your business as doing a public service for “international communication”. Never admit that you are obtaining welfare money from contracts with the government. When asked just tell them it is “for the Japanese public’s good”. You should never allow yourself to be seen as a welfare dependent business. You should cast yourself in the same light as a Harvard, Oxford or other institution. Use words like “campus” and “methodology” and “professionalism” to convey this sense of grand scope and importance in society and at the same time, have the psychology-effect of diminishing in the mind of the teacher or manager their size and importance.

Always remember to use the best techniques to conquer divide isolate. C-D-I! CDI is the key to success. Isolate managers from each other and from the teachers. Hire different groups of people from South East Asia, other English speaking countries in the developing world, and minorities from the developed countries so that these divisions among your managers and teachers stay strong. These people also are more inclined to take a lower salary for the work. Their quality will not be seen to be lower even if it is. If you have a few white faces, it will be enough for your BOE or students. Remember, the teachers are struggling to get by, so never let them overcome these struggles or they might start to understand the business model, and try to gather resources and networks to compete with it.

Online Reviews

When your managers post comments online, they should never show that they have any connection with the company or use anything other than your brand name (as an example and without reference to any specific company the basic name such as Peppy, INTERAC, Gaba, IES, Aeon, Berklee House, Owls, KB’s, NOVA, RCS, Borderlink, Shane, Altia, Joytalk, Heart) without any other words to describe the company. Never acknowledge terms like “Black Company” even exist, but if they do, they belong only to companies that cause the death of their employees through overwork, and that you should never be considered other than as a first class company among, one of the best and most respected in the Japanese business world.

Try to find points that make you better. For example, if your school pays more pension or insurance money than the other company, or has a higher “monthly” salary, then spell that out. Make sure your managers are writing glowing employee reviews of your company, because they are employees too. Publish blogs about moving to Japan and have the writer “mention” your company being a “great place to get a start in Japan” in them. Point out that teachers are generally engaging in shady things and are “bad apples” and that this can never be your fault. Downvote other less complementary reviews and comments.

Never acknowledge that terms like “Black Company” or similar terms exist. Make the people less experienced with the industry think that nothing in Japan goes wrong. and if it does it is the fault of the foreign person. If a website has been established to review schools and individual company CEOs and managers, then use all means necessary to take it down. Use private investigators the threat of police investigation to crush any dissent of opinion online, however true or fair.

Dealing with Employees

Make sure that if there is any complaint at all about them by a student, even one who wants a refund, however spurious, you have blamed the individual teacher for it. Get them to sign a document. Take them into a room and isolate them. Never admit that they were not trained adequately, or given work they were not prepare properly for. Never admit that it is your role as employer to do this.

Ask them to come to meetings, but don’t inform them of its purpose or content. Send messages or communicate in a form which can be easily deleted or retracted instead of using emails. Call them or speak with them. When you show the document, don’t let them respond, and just make them sign it before they can leave the room. Even if they find problems with it because it’s not accurate, don’t acknowledge them. Just make them sign it and make them think it was entirely their fault.
Remember, your lifestyle and status in the community depends on the BOE and student contracts, and not a person who does not deserve your respect. Remember, they are asking you for work, not the other way around.

There are hundreds of teachers from many countries around the world who can be used to replace any of your teachers. So if there is any complaint or trouble, however spurious, you may dispose of the services of your teachers, Generally, when you take them into the room, and show them the document, try to write as many bad things they did, even if they didn’t do them, and leave space on each page for their signature. If there are Japanese teachers who don’t like the foreign teacher and start showing this, you can always replace the foreign teacher and you should do so. This happens when the local teachers have family or career issues, mental or individual issues, or are simply envious of the foreign teacher, find something else that they don’t like, want to show their power or prestige or simply let off steam at someone against whom they believe they should rightly get away with it.

You can never easily replace a lucrative BOE contract or student contract but you can always replace your teachers. Further confuse the teacher by lying to them if you have to. Remember, they won’t be able to tell anyone if you make them think they did something wrong, and will not easily be able to tell the Labor Board or other people about how you managed the situation.

Above all make sure you train your foreign managers to handle these situations. Never ever deal with them directly. Have your foreign managers write all documents and letters. Don’t put yourself in the picture or allow direct communication. When the time comes, you can make it look like it was the action of your foreign manager who did it.

Conclusion

Your status in society and lifestyle in Japan depends on the money you earn from contracts from students and BOE. You don’t have the respect or expertise of a doctor, lawyer or diplomat, but you can make up for it with money. Never let anything get in between you and this. Always remember to hide the true purpose of your business from the teachers, managers and everyone else. Keep this model working at all costs.