Hello. I am a lead teacher at a childcare facility (part of the school district so not really a day care, more like school applied to kids birth-4. Still have curriculum, standards, and objectives to grade, etc) and I’m not sure this workplace is right for me. I started here in May 2022. There has been a considerable amount of drama but in summary our room is split in half, infants and toddlers. I was hired as the infant lead but the toddler lead was abandoning the assistant teacher to hold babies. So because I really like the assistant and didn’t like watching her get dumped with all the work I switched sides. Now that lead isn’t lead anymore so really nothing of importance happened but still a headache. Anyway. After having to deal with that was only the beginning. I am beginning to see the unfair treatment that the office staff has no problem displaying. There are 2 children of office staff in the room, one in my class and one in the other. The other day my assistant and I decided to put a few students in high chair seats (same height and type of seat just with a little buckle) during meal time. They are all less than 2 and we are trying to reduce children just standing up and walking away to rub their nasty food hands on everything. We immediately got an email from the office saying we need to stop immediately and that it’s unacceptable to put a child in a high chair. I know this must be against DHS or something similar otherwise she wouldn’t have emailed us, but it brought to light just how much they ignore if it doesn’t have to do with their children. Months ago I reported seeing numerous and consistent breaking of Safe Sleep protocols and blatant neglect for the infant’s safety. I can rant all day about Safe Sleep because I am extremely passionate about it but what had happened that really put me over the edge was when an item of clothing was balled up and pressed against a baby’s face to keep her pacifier in her mouth. That was months ago, I emailed the director the same day it happened, and to my knowledge absolutely no corrective action was taken. The staff member is still employed and in our classroom. I know for a fact that if that were an office baby they wouldn’t have spared a second in correcting it. (I know they didn’t because the behavior has continued, although that specific incident was isolated). What has made me consider quitting is seeing what my assistant teacher is going through. Her 3 year old son attends the program and yes, he’s a little ball of energy, but he is clearly being ignored in his classroom. He is not acknowledged when he enters the room. He is sent home with a soiled pull up incredibly often (It is a rule at the facility to check every child’s diaper before they are sent home). And today, one of the adults no call no showed and for some reason my assistant was given responsibility of her child (while she was on the clock and supposed to be in our room btw) instead of another staff member being asked. She told me she had put in her two weeks a few months before I started, but that they had told her she wouldn’t have childcare for her son and that implied she would be a bad mom if she left.
The call out procedure here is the worst I’ve seen at the 6 places I have been employed at. We are 100% responsible for finding subs (I was told HR said we are never supposed to be asked to find our own sub) and if we don’t find one, tough shit. The children’s health and safety is less important. If you’re an opener and need to call out in the morning, sorry! You need to come in anyway no matter what and the office will get you sent home “as soon as we can”. My boyfriend was sick in bed with a 103.3 fever and had been vomiting all night. I texted EVERY person I had in my phone but none where available. I get there before anyone in the office, inform them when they get there that I need to be sent home ASAP. I was not able to leave until 5.5 hours later, when a coworker offered to stay after her shift to cover for me. I sat in the hallway and cried. I was also later told several rooms had excess in staff. The office does not care about us, period. Also! You need a doctor’s note no matter what. So even if you have a cold that’s just too bad to work with you have to go to the doctor to say “hello doctor. I have a cold” and if you don’t have health insurance tough shit.
I am honestly so fed up with the way these grown adults show such favoritism and don’t care about their staff. The only problem is, I adore these children. These kids are the best part of my day everyday. I love everything about being their teacher. I hate my place of employment. (There’s also a program I could use to get an early childhood education degree but maybe Joey B is working on making it cheaper anyway?) Would I be the asshole to leave these kids for a better paying job that respects me more?