As an ALT, you can negotiate two things: working hours & vacation “nenkyu”
Unfortunately, you can’t get paid anymore (overtime) or any less (missing work, but it’s not normal) as a JET. That’s already stipulated by the JET Program terms and conditions that CLAIR, BOE, and everyone else follows.
Working Hours
From the JET General Information Handbook 2022 (GIH).
4) Work Hours, Holidays, Leave, and Additional Leave
“Your work hours are set at 35 hours per week.”
You can negotiate your start and end time at school. When you come into school and when you leave school. You must have the correct amount of working hours, though.
First-year JETs always make this mistake. I almost did it, too; however, my tantosha was proactive and gave me set times of when I would like to start, stop, and have lunch at work (school).
I liked to be at school earlier, so I could leave earlier in the day after the last period.
My working hours were from 8:15 pm to 4:00 pm.
If there were events at school, for example, Sport’s Day, I would attend that for the same working hours. Anything over that time was voluntary like Speech Competition practice or English Club where I stayed behind an extra 30 mins to 1 hour.
Do NOT stay after school every day unless you have something that you are volunteering to do (at your own free will) like clubs or circles. Remember, you are not paid over time. Leave at your designated time and do not make a habit of staying after school!
You are not paid for overtime work, nor are you anticipated to be after school every day like a Japanese teacher. Staying afterward for nothing will waste your time and stress you out. You will be bored. Go home, play sports, study Japanese, shopping, whatever you want after work.
Do NOT make it a habit to stay after school and look busy. IT IS NOT YOUR JOB! Sorry to sound like a broken record, but you would be surprised how many ALTs don’t understand this.
Negotiate your working hours and stick to them. Don’t let your guard down that you are required to work more than you really are. After all, your time is limited in Japan and on the JET Program. Take advantage to explore and be part of your community.
Vacation or “Nenkyu”
Every year, JETs receive 20 nenkyu (vacation) days. 12 days can be rolled over to the following year, but you can have no more than 32 in one year!
You’ll find that 1 vacation day is worth 7 hours! This is very convenient whenever you need to leave school early for some personal reason. Below is a great reference picture of how nenkyu works.
Note: some BOEs give you your 20 days right from the start. Mine did in Kumamoto City.
Nenkyu days are the pride and joy of all JETs because it gives you a lot of free time. It’s especially useful to make 3-4 day weekends without any stress.
BOEs prioritize how you go about using nenkyu. For example, I was allowed to use 2 days a month with my BOE. If school was out for vacation, I could use more or ask for special permission, and I could use more than that a month.
In my Kumamoto BOE, we had a survey for my tantosha. Here are some brief rules below for my city; however, ESID… Some BOEs are super strict and will haunt you about taking any nenkyu or want you to take it as byokyu (sick leave) in other circumstances.
When to Take Nenkyu
This is very intimidating as a first-year JET. You’ll be overwhelmed at when is the best time to take it. At first, I took a few random three-day weekends during my first school semester in Japan. I picked out some fun weekends where I could relax because I was hyped about the number of days offered. It wasn’t a great decision, but not the best because I couldn’t cancel mine. My BOE pretty much locked in our nenkyu into the semester school schedule.
Adding nenkyu also took communicating with my school in advance if my nenkyu wasn’t on the schedule. Yes, using nenkyu can be confusing depending on your BOE rules. Some are flexible, others want you to hoard it. It’s best to have the rules communicated to you early and to your school supervisors.
When you go to use nenkyu, just make sure everything goes as smooth as possible with it scheduled in advance and your schools knowing you won’t be there. Most schools and teachers are fine with you taking time off as long as it doesn’t impact their schedule or event(s) that they really need you for or want you to participate in.
Be mindful but do NOT let BOE or school take advantage of your PTO. It’s yours! Right? Never let it go to waste. Always use at least 8 days a year and all saved up time before you finish JET! Before I finished JET, I took one month off to pack things and do my own thing. One winter, I took 10+ days off to visit home for one month. Being strategic and mutual with your BOE and schools will go a long way when it comes time for vacation and personal time off.
