Crime and Punishment

I was employed at My Very Worst Job when I was 18 and finishing up high school and going off to college. I was hired at a large, well known daycare as a float, which basically means that whatever classroom they needed me in, I would go and help out. So I’d work during people’s breaks, filling in for sick teachers, helping out at lunch or nap time or when things were just really crazy. I worked 10 hour days, usually without breaks, sometimes with only half hour lunches. They let other teachers go home early and made me stay late and miss class. They had me closing the center with the assistant director since the first month I worked there, which is illegal in the state I live in because you have to work in a certified center for a year before you can be alone with children. The assistant was always running off to Starbucks or holed up in her office on the phone, leaving me with the kids.

We were also always over ratio in our classrooms with more kids then we could handle (also illegal). The management did shitty things like making teachers work even when they were throwing up sick, leaving the center to go smoke in their cars (there was supposed to be management in the center at all times in case of emergency) and just generally making everyone so miserable we were all looking for new jobs. When they found out someone wanted to leave they either made up an excuse to fire them (child abuse, insubordination, taking too many sick days, etc) or made them so miserable they quit without another job lined up. I was one of those people, I quit before they could fire me and am now happily working somewhere else. I also just found out this week that both directors were fired for forging paperwork for licensing requirements!