Many cons. The managers and administration will find ways to work against you if they want to based on their personal feelings. Most days feel unorganized and unexpected with trainings that you must complete during work hours. You have to spend a lot of time with an iPad vs the children. They make teachers with very little experience do a lot without hands on training. The admins haven't been in a classroom usually for multiple decades. The family of the company gets to move up the ranks almost immediately while senior teachers stay stuck in the same position with low pay. It is also true that everyone is getting paid differently no matter the quality of care. Often, the entry-level educated workers had the most to deal with and the least pay. Admins would get close to specific workers, and they would talk bad about you behind your back. I have walked in on my bosses and a coworker talking down on me (I can't even explain how bad it was) and there is bullying from certain workers. Admins will admit when coworkers are toxic, but won't do much to change it until you are on your last rope. They will never take accountability for anything because of HR purposes with protecting the company. Yelling matches between this worker and other co-workers, constantly moving her to other classrooms because of their issues with other people, making multiple new hires cry and become mentally unwell through terrible treatment that the admins did note but because she always showed up for work on time, it did not matter how this person treated their coworkers. There were legal issues in my opinion with how the managers and regional managers approached workers, and I am glad to have gotten out of this company. They ran me down emotionally and physically. They use corporate rhetoric and language as well as not recording meetings to hide behind accountability. If you are a first year teacher, they do not give you much leeway with learning and especially getting sick. They will blame you for "mental health" of the children if you call out because of this despite it being a trend for new workers to get sick constantly throughout their first year. They expect you to come in sick, and to ignore your health even if you are on the level of emergency-room sick. If you are sick to this level, they will not allow you to go home because they do not have back-up care and the admins cannot provide bathroom breaks usually for hours which causes extreme stress as well as a neglect to your bodily functions. They ask you to do the impossible to keep on schedule even if you are on your own at max ratio. The admins often will sit at their desk eating snacks and talking to their girlfriends/boyfriends/partners/friends on the phone while you wait for help or bathroom breaks. There is no one to report to because they are the ones you report to, and if you try to contact higher help, they are often more worried about protecting the admins than the teachers. The center does not follow requirements day-to-day, and the way the classrooms are set up causes injury and stress for the teachers. You are constantly stuck in a rock and a hard place in this job. There is very little positive feedback to the workers, and a lot of blame placed on them with little pay and little support. Coworkers create cliques and WILL be mean to you if they want to as well as using abusive and manipulative techniques to harm your mental and physical well-being at this job until you are pushed out: even if you are a great teacher to children. When they try to do things throughout the year to boost morale, many teachers are left out if they are new or do not integrate socially well into the existing staff. This is a very hard job for someone with mental health issues, and you will experience a lot of gaslighting and ostracization. If you are lucky, you may find a good center, but it is highly unlikely. They will ask you to take on burdens for the center without proper pay and support. You will be asked to skip breaks/meals to cover for other people. There often is not a break room suitable for people depending on the center so most go in their car for a break. This job is disorienting but wants you to put your entire soul into it. Those that fake niceness and are inauthentic get the most support and attention from upper management. I have watched coworkers talk down on parents, as well as their children while the child is in earshot. Since many of the workers are not experienced in childcare and the psychology of children, they treat the children badly and with old-school methods. The senior workers that do this lead the new workers astray often. Being stuck for hours with children with no support is extremely hard. The children often got hurt from the automatic sinks in the classrooms that are a requirement for the classroom. It was one of the most chaotic and underpaid jobs I have ever had with the most pressure.
