Please be on the lookout for foreigners trying to escape!

I always report you guys to immigration or call the police when I read you don't fulfill your mandatory contract hours.
I even hogtied and ball-gagged myself once before calling the police to arrest me for leaving early during a desk warming session (I couldn't live with the guilt)
All these 'ghost' teacher classes and 18 hour work weeks are going to have some serious repercussions for you lot.

I admire your commitment and respect for Korea as well as the job. I have never had to take it that far. In the past, I've found emailing my MOE solves the problem. They apply pressure on the school to make sure I fulfill all 22 hours. I don't respect the teachers that keep quiet and enjoy their sparse timetables. Why don't they respect the profession?

i for one am a proud slacker and will continue to leech off the kindness and generosity of korea as much as possible, catch me if you can

I admire your commitment and respect for Korea as well as the job. I have never had to take it that far. In the past, I've found emailing my MOE solves the problem. They apply pressure on the school to make sure I fulfill all 22 hours. I don't respect the teachers that keep quiet and enjoy their sparse timetables. Why don't they respect the profession?

Unfortunately, although my office of education agreed with me, they said they can no longer accept my reports on teachers that don't follow the dress code.  What is the general public going to think of us westerners when they see us going to work in a polo shirt and a pair of khakis?  I don't care how hot and humid it gets in the summer, I don't leave the house on a workday unless I'm in a suit and tie.  I also have two briefcases to match my shoes.  Respect from others begins with respect for yourself.  When people see me they don't think desk warming slacker.  They think upstanding foreign citizen who should be treated with dignity. 

I also don't smile on the subway as I want to look focused on the day ahead.  Unless, of course I see some students acting unruly. Then I shake my head and give my somewhat rueful smile.  As a teacher, I'm always on. 

Unfortunately, although my office of education agreed with me, they said they can no longer accept my reports on teachers that don't follow the dress code.  What is the general public going to think of us westerners when they see us going to work in a polo shirt and a pair of khakis?  I don't care how hot and humid it gets in the summer, I don't leave the house on a workday unless I'm in a suit and tie.

There really is no excuse. A well made linen or seersucker suit will offer sufficient breathability during the hot summer months.

will continue to leech off the kindness and generosity of korea

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I miss the old days when you had to go to open classes at other schools in your city.  All the foreign teachers and their Korean counterparts would be there.  I would dress to the nines that day, I tell you.  My elderly Korean co-teacher at the time always told me I looked more professional than the other foreign teachers.  They knew it as well.  I could see it in the way they wouldn't meet my eyes or engage in any small talk that I had embarrassed and shamed them in front of their co-teachers.  Principals were likely told of how I carried myself. 

As these classes were always scheduled on a Friday, a number of the teachers seemed eager to leave after the open class as they allowed you to go straight home and start your weekend.  For this reason, I always made sure to say in an extra loud voice, as if my co-teacher had asked me a question, "They pay me until 4:40, so my that's when my weekend begins."  I would then continue to ask questions for an hour to ensure we all remained at the school until 4:40.  It wasn't as easy as it sounds as the other teachers again were shamed into silence and were too timid to ask any questions, and the teachers in the hot seat were surprisingly monosyllabic with their answers. 

I miss the old days when you had to go to open classes at other schools in your city.  All the foreign teachers and their Korean counterparts would be there.  I would dress to the nines that day, I tell you.  My elderly Korean co-teacher at the time always told me I looked more professional than the other foreign teachers.  They knew it as well.  I could see it in the way they wouldn't meet my eyes or engage in any small talk that I had embarrassed and shamed them in front of their co-teachers.  Principals were likely told of how I carried myself. 

I went to one of these and there was another foreign teacher trying to play the same game. But his suit was obviously off the rack. It was embarrassing for him when I showed up.

True story...I used to wear a suit, or at very least a tie and jacket, to work. One day a couple of Korean colleagues pulled me aside and asked if I would stop coming to work dressed like this because it was making them look bad. They were dead serious.

I wore a tie every day for at least the first month every semester, then moved to just button-downs and then polos by June, or sweaters in October.

Remember, it's all about first impressions (and second and third).

Then Covid came along and I couldn't be bothered.

I notice that they were being hired through sub-contractors.  So those guys would be taking what they could off the top and giving as little as possible to the workers.  I just read an article the other day in the Bangkok Post that Korea is looking to get around 1500 skilled Thai workers for its shipyards.  Better shape up if they hope to meet that number. 

Yes, they'll need to meet the famously high standards and expectations of people from Thailand. That country is in no way famous as a haven for bottom-feeders, native or lolx-pat.