I am an assistant daycare teacher in an infant room. My room has babies from 6 weeks to whenever they walk. I have never worked a worse job in my life. I was really excited about this job when I got it, because I love kids and I had been a nanny for a while and loved nannying.
The disregard for children’s health and well-being at this daycare makes my stomach churn. I have had a three month old baby in my hands, covered in red spots the size of grapes, with a fever of 99.9 while screaming his head off, and I was not allowed to contact the parents or send him home.
I have been laughed at and made fun of my center leadership for asking them to come in and look at a rash on a child’s face, and then calling them back in twenty minutes later because it had gotten bigger.
I have taken a temp reading of a 11 month old, gotten 102, and been told to wait half an hour and take it again before calling parents and to only take it in one ear because “we don’t want too many temp readings.”
We get yelled at and berated for being sick, doors slammed in our faces when we say we aren’t feeling well and have to go home, as if we don’t work in a Petri dish environment of illness and as if we aren’t caring for people with very weak immune systems. We also have to call for bathroom breaks and if the staff at the desk doesn’t feel like coming, they’ll make you wait 20-30 minutes. Or just not come. All of this for 13.50 an hour.
It’s by far the worst job I have ever had and it’s so disappointing. I got a job offer at an art gallery that pays much better and I think I’ll be much happier there. My new job starts May 12th. Should I keep working until the 12th, take all the money from them I can, then text on the 12th that I’m not coming in and head to my new job? I kind of want to