A bit of a messy long weekend. It reminded me of the early days of JET, when I saw 'ESID' comments on discussion groups and wondered what my school would be like.
Every Situation Is Different.
To clarify, my school (X) is a very good situation. If I need to speak to someone, both my supervisor and my department head are friendly. For example, they helped me a lot while requesting a fortnight's study-leave last August. With their support, and a little reciprocity, I've usually been able to make my case without involving the school administration.
So it was surprising to get 3 days of holiday docked.
1 Day: because it turned out that my half-day of sickness counted as a day of holiday. The JET General Information Handbook mentions sick leave (byoukyuu) if we obtain a doctor's certificate (shindansho). But, as I've now found out, individual schools have discretion. My school doesn't offer it. My contract is silent, so I should have checked with my supervisor; I would have weathered out rest of that day, if I'd known.
2 Days: this long weekend was unveiled as a "marking weekend". But the unveiling, for me, came on Thursday, just as I was about to go home and pack for skiing in Niigata. In this case, there was notice: tiny Japanese print on the schedule for back in January winter holidays, when days-in-lieu were given. A spice of guilt for letting the side down. Should have checked.
Still, in general, the terms of work and the actual conditions of work have been very different things at school X. A thought which makes me wonder how to judge the offers I'll be applying for over the next couple of months.