Bye Bye Nova Pie

NOVA, the first company I worked for in Japan, has filed for court protection from creditors.
It seems to be the all too common story about a bad business model, a conniving CEO and lots of screwed over people, including hundreds of teachers now homeless and jobless in a very strange land.

I can't help feeling a certain sense of glee at NOVA's demise. When I worked there it was more than fun to hate the company. It was a common element that most of the teachers bonded over. NOVA was my first serious job, which meant waking up every day, putting on a tie and going to the office. It meant putting up with brain-dead management decisions (suddenly Dilbert made sense) and structuring your day in order to avoid the most amount of work -- all of which being good training for future jobs. It was the kind of job where innovation and forward-thinking were actively discouraged and coming to work with way wicked hangovers was acceptable. (I always felt sorry for my students on Monday, since Sunday was the big night out)

I also met a lot of great people there, some of whom I still keep in contact with. And of course I met my lovely wife there, who used to be staff and threw away a chance to become a manager to run away to Canada with me. (She also passed on the chance to do a working holiday visa in Australia to do one in Canada instead. Damn, it must be true love)

In my last few years at in Japan (working for a different English teaching company) I saw the English teaching business (such as it is) take a sharp downturn. (You know things are getting bad when they company takes away your free coffee and cancels the newspaper subscriptions) My prediction is that in 10 years it will be down to two companies, and the students will be mostly children. When I was at NOVA I met a few teachers who were there during the Bubble, and if they were to be believed you couldn't help make money teaching English in Japan. (NOVA, surprising to anyone who has ever worked there, used to have the best benefits package and lots of perks. When I worked there you were referred to by your employee number and had to buy your own pens) 10 years from now the late 90's/early 00's will look about as good as the Bubble did.

Still, I had a lot of fun when I worked at NOVA. I was just out of university, I had no responsibilities, and I was flush with the most cash I had ever earned (up that point). I also mastered I'd Do Anything For Love on karaoke, which has been a benefit for all humanity ever since, and has been credited with bringing peace in Northern Ireland and ending the destruction of the Brazilian Rain forest.