This is in the state of Texas. My friend moved here from out of state a few months ago for a Montessori teaching job. It's a private Montessori school, and she is one of the most impressive people I've known in youth development (also my field). Since she started this job 2 months ago she has been sleeping 4 hours a night. They place demands on her that can't be fulfilled in the hours given. The hours in school are already requiring unpaid overtime by design (total of 45 hours/week) but she spends the remaining hours getting classrooms ready and purchasing supplies that they haven't reimbursed her for.
She also has health conditions so I'm amazed she can do this at all. She told me she doesn't have time to take her break at work, so her intermittent fasting has been pushed to the point she eats once a day late evening. She told me by afternoons around 3p she gets dizzy, tingly and realizes she hasn't been breathing for a minute, or was breathing shallow.
She had an assistant in the classroom that was yelling at the kids and acting like an authoritarian. This is completely opposed to Montessori standards. My friend understands how to work with very young kids so they understand what you're communicating, and it brings out their natural motivation, caring/teamwork; she should be a shining beacon saving this school from understaffing and getting set up properly. But she has been degraded, bullied, verbally abused and slandered. The assistant started yelling at my friend and would lie about her to upper management of the school. Recently the assistant refused to work with my friend at all, so a sub was brought in who is not Montessori trained at all. A very minor situation today blew up all based on things that didn't happen, with the head director and the new sub yelling at my friend. Then the director demoted my friend to assistant because they “keep losing assistants”.
I've tried to find a way to intervene, like telling her to call in sick and I'll take her to a doctor to document evidence of the abuse affecting her health. Her health insurance doesn't start for another 30 days. Today I finally just told her to start video and audio recording EVERYTHING. But then what? Do we turn it into the Department of Labor? Who do we go to?