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I received an insane message from my boss last night. I work in a daycare/preschool and we have 6 staff total caring for 20+ kids with new kids joining every week. We are at our maximum limits for ratio so even one person calling out really tightens things. Two people calling out shuts our center down. We are severely understaffed yet out of 5 interviews in the past two weeks, not a single new staff has joined our team. The director herself put her notice in recently too. Every one us of is pulling the weight of two jobs, and yet we’re highly discouraged from staying late because the owner doesn’t want to pay anyone overtime.
Due to this, our staff has come in to work sick with low grade fevers and vomiting only to be told to stay as long as possible. We care for children as young as 6 months old. I guess someone called out and they thought it was a good idea to text us this:
“Unless you have a fever off 100.4, uncontrollable diarrhea or vomiting, you must come in to work. You can wear a mask and wash your hands if you’re contagious. We have to stop illness from spreading or we will continue to have staffing issues. Then, families will drop out because we’re not reliable and their kids are always ill.”
Umm, how is that the staffs fault??? We’re doing our best and everyone knows childcare is a hot spot for illness, of course staff is going to have to stay home every once in a while. It’s safer for us to do so anyways. I would be outraged as a parent if I learned my child’s caretakers were being forced to come in sick. And to put the blame on us? Our center is unreliable because we’re short staffed, not because the staff we do have get sick sometimes.