Is this a 'win', or am I being unfair? · Brojo: Confidence & Integrity

Is this a 'win', or am I being unfair?

Something that happened recently...

I sometimes teach chess at Russian kids summer camps here in Japan, and have taught two so far (a long summer one in August, and a short winter one in early January).

I love working at these camps. The kids are good for the most part, the food is great, the colleagues are nice, the mountainous town has great outdoor activities, and reminds me of my hometown in Canada. Also, I have been motivated to slowly learn Russian to improve my communication with them (I like langauge learning anyway, so it is a nice side hobby, but not a priority or requiremment), and I look forward to doing more camps, despite the slightly low pay.

I've had some issues with the owner / manager though. For instance, she told me that we'd be paid in September (the summer camp ended August 24 or so), and despite her knowing that I badly needed the money at the time, and my semi-frequent reminders to transfer it to me, I didn't actually get paid until mid-October -- after she and her family got back from a trip!

"Oh, sorry, I'm in China at the moment. I'll pay you as soon as I get back."

It still took a week or two, even after she got back...

Then, in December, I sent a message asking about the salary, and literally two days before the start of the camp, she said what it was, and she wouldn't negotiate... So, needing the money, I accepted it again. Of course, I wanted to go as well, as I enjoy being there and wanted to go snowboarding again for the first time since high school...

She let me borrow a snowboard and boots from the camp, as they have plenty. I went snowboarding alone, not with the kids, as I am not a snowboard instructor. So far so good...

But then in February, when she transferred me my salary (two weeks late again, by the way), she explained that 3500 yen (not much money, but still, and it's an arbitrary amount as well) was deducted for the snowboard rental. I explained I had no idea about that, and thought it was covered by the camp, to which she replied that the camp only covers the costs for the instructors, not for teachers who snowboard alone... (this was all through texting, we haven't had a call about it yet).

Fair enough, but these costs need to be explained up front. Furthermore, she could have charged me any amount for the rental, and just taken it off my paycheck. What would I do about it? It's not like some regular job where we have a contract, etc.

I said I wanted the rules regarding what's covered / not covered by camps in writing, prior to the camps, in English. I don't know if she'll remember to do that, but at least I put it out there, and explained how it's the right thing to do.

I was also annoyed that she would charge me anything because I had already agreed to work for a lower-than-deserved salary (and likely lower than most of the Russian instructors of other subjects).

Within the same conversation, she noticed that she had sent me 10,000 yen too much, and asked me to transfer it back.

I said "I'll think about it, as I am not happy about the surprise 3500 yen charge."

She said, "it'll be credited towards payments at future camps" (she knows I'd like to keep going, haha).

I have no intention of sending it back, but I thought of sending back 6500 yen as a way of saying "I ain't paying your 3500 yen surprise fee."

Am I in the wrong here? I think she is a good person, and we get along well, but she's so busy and scatter-brained during and before these camps, that I think she honestly just forgets to explain stuff to new / non-Russian speaking teachers, like me. I don't think she had any bad intentions...

At the same time, I think this sort of nonsense needs to stop, and if I don't confront her about it, who will?

Thanks for reading! 😁

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