Nova Employees: Their Voices, Their Stories
EDIT: I have added links to blogs where current and past instructors are discussing the Nova situation. The links are after the ‘more’ cut.
Back on September 20, we asked that any employees of the Nova Corporation who were willing to talk with us about the company’s current situation get in touch. I was surprised at the response we received, and was able to conduct phone interviews with many of them towards the end of last week. We heard from new instructors, long-timers, former employees, and titled instructors.
What follows is their description of the state of the company - their worries, discoveries, fears and predictions about the future. What struck me was the continual mention of an ‘blackout’ on information coming from the management level. The people I spoke with seemed confused and upset that they were unable to get any information directly from the very company they not only work for, but entrusted to have their best interest in mind when they recruited them to live and work in a foreign country. Some seemed unsurprised by this, with one instructor describing communication within the company as having gone from “bad to worse.”
This article is not the place for me to state my opinion, but rather is a forum for instructors to describe what is happening where they’re working.
Thank you to all Nova employees who contacted us and spoke with us. We apologize to all those whose interviews were cut short or not included due to constraints of time and space. We appreciate that you have gotten in touch with us. We also doubt that this will be the end of our ongoing coverage on Nova.
Here are the links to blogs where people are writing about the Nova situation. They’re in no particular order (really, I’m not that organized).
Jeff in Fukuoka has a post speculating on what might happen to teachers if Nova goes bust at his blog, Adrift In the Happy Hills. He also has a good post on Apple that I will comment on when I have time.
When you see the title, “Well, the Titanic has finally hit the iceberg,” you have a good idea of what Sakura_Breeze is writing about at Through the Looking Glass.
A. at Memoirs of a Gaijin has been putting together a string of posts on Nova’s current situation, and providing a window into the world of Western Japan, where I typically only go for funerals and takoyaki (not at the same time).
Shawn’s blog at Let’s Japan is an invaluable source of articles, translations and full-on opinion. How it should be done.
Adelle387 from The Poetist has been in touch and is writing on Nova. She’s blogging over here as well.
Chris Salzberg of Global Voices is one of the best bloggers on Japan there is. His recent post on Nova is a (very) short one, but there are a lot of comments and links to other information.
Gaijin in Japan has a totally out of control Maxim-esque image at the top of the site, which might be a good thing. Even better is the writing. I should have had this done by now…
Brokendrums over at Soju, Sake and Canadian Beer (what do you call when you mix them together?) has posted a bit on the Nova debacle.
Jack sums up the Nova situation with four words: This is horrible shit.
Once you get past the title, the rest of “Jim Jiminy’s jivin’ Japanese journey journal” is much easier to read. It’s good, too.
You really get a sense for what’s going on when the only comment on a post about Nova entitled “The Future’s Not Bright, The Future’s Not Nova” is the dude’s mom telling him he got out at the right time. This company’s so $#*@#* up that even parents get it.
This last one is not a blog, but it’s worth it. Here’ the URL: http://sankei.jp.msn.com/affairs/crime/071001/crm0710012102024-n1.htm
That’s right. Stories about Nova are finally making the crime section of the Japanese media. And this is Sankei/MSN (the first day of their new business partnership, no less). I generally get the feeling that a company’s prospects for finding a (reputable) buyer tend to evaporate once stories start hitting the crime section.
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