I work for a daycare, where my young child also attends. This place, like MANY other childcare centers in the US, is severely understaffed.
My child has been sick twice since she started attending this daycare (right around the same time I started working there) the first time I had to leave my class where I attend part time in the morning to pick her up. The second time I ended up needing to leave work with her early because she had a fever.
We ended up going to the emergency clinic two nights ago and got notes saying we could both return to work/school 9 days later. There was no formal diagnosis (negative tests for COVID, Flu, RSV, etc) but we were advised to not return to the childcare facility until all symptoms were cleared.
Despite having already sent the doctors notes and confirming that we would not be returning until the 9th, I get a text from the director today (my boss) asking me if we’re feeling better (wanting us to return sooner) and claiming that a virus will “run its course either way” and an ear infection “usually feels better after a few days”
On Friday of last week I felt like shit my entire shift. My head was throbbing, I couldn’t stop coughing, and I knew my temperature was rising. I asked my coworker what the protocol would be if I ended up with a fever and she told me that a fever is no reason to not come into work.
Please bear in mind that I work as a CHILDCARE teacher. I directly work with up to 15 kids in my class at a time- completely by myself thanks to the bullshit student/teacher ratios.
We are already being asked to return less than 4 days from the point that we were asked to leave due to illness. Although, if my daughter hadn’t come down with a fever I can almost guarantee they would have tried to make me stay on Friday and come in yesterday/today.
Honestly this all just feels so shitty and I can’t believe that they would actively ask me to come back to work sooner than my doctor advised, just to pose even more of a risk to the other children and families that I come Into direct contact with. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t mind the huge ask if my wages even remotely reflected the amount of stress and physical illness the job entails on a regular basis.
I know that part of this was me just needing to rant, but in all seriousness, how should i respond? I’m already seeking other positions and hoping to quit as well as pull my daughter and find a different facility for her to attend. some of the things I’ve witnessed here are just unforgivable in my book as a parent and employee. It’s taken everything in me to not just completely ghost this place and never return. I am however trying to be more professional this time around.
What do I tell my boss? Would it be wrong for me to quit over text and without any warning, given their dire need to maintain ratios? How should I be approaching this situation as a whole??
To clarify: I’m not sure I made this entirely clear but we ARE both actually sick right now. The doctor told us it is likely just a virus. The problem is that we never fully recovered from the last time we got sick just a couple of weeks ago. My daughter was prescribed antibiotics for her ear infection two weeks ago and ended up missing several doses thanks to the daycare facility not giving it to her multiple days in a row. Fast forward to this time, we both have ear infections and off and on fevers as well as congestiona and coughs. In other words we are absolutely not well enough to return so soon lol.