There were so many horrible aspects of working here, but I will start with my employment offer from one of the 4 managers at this location. Based on my experience (over 10 years) and education level (bachelor's degree, which most of the staff did not have), I was given my hourly rate of pay during my second interview when I accepted the job. After receiving my first paycheck with an hourly rate of a dollar lower than what I was offered, I was told by the owner that this was the rate "she would like to start all her Assistant Teachers at" and that I would be given my raise with the understanding that I would not be receiving another one for a very long time. She made me feel as though I was being rewarded for getting a "higher" rate than the one she wanted to pay, despite the fact that my higher offer was based on my education and experience! That should've been a sign, but I was optimistic.
Unfortunately, my experience continued to worsen day by day. The brilliant designer of this school decided that 20+ adults would do just fine with one bathroom among them. That's right, one. I realize this situation was beyond management's control, but what was well within their control was their ability to allow their teachers to use (stand in line for) this one restroom. In order to maintain state mandated child-to-teacher ratios, teachers were required to call management on a loudspeaker in the classroom to be able to leave the room. About 80% of these calls went unanswered, and simply leaving the room out of desperation was often required. Being on your feet with tiny humans all day long requires hydration, and hydration means that bathroom breaks are inevitable. The most infuriating thing about these unanswered calls was that the majority of the time management could be found in the office eating, apparently unable to be bothered.
The complete lack of concern for the teachers at this location did not end with the inability to walk down a small hallway and stand in a room for 5 minutes to allow someone to use the restroom. As these "schools" are franchised, money was the only thing that mattered to management. After a colleague asked if we would be paid for a mandatory Saturday "room clean up," the response from a manager was "only because so-and-so (a former employee) reported us to the state." I'm assuming what she obviously meant was, "of course, we value your time outside of work and appreciate you coming in to do this!" and the words just came out wrong. The "curriculum" was a genius invention by the founding couple to suck the maximum amount of money out of parents while pretending that their children are receiving anything more than daycare services. If you want to call an establishment a school, the "teachers" should have teaching licenses and the children should not be under the age of two. I don't deny that teaching the children sign language and music was not beneficial to them as developing humans, however I don't think that anything that went on in that school could truly be described as teaching.
The list goes on and on. Forcing people to pay for the required (hideous) polos, providing absolutely no support to the staff, and being completely in support of parents so long as their checks cleared was the final straw for me.
I was the 8th person to quit the week I did, and while I miss my kids and a few staff members, it was a fantastic decision.
