UPDATE : I QUIT!

read my previous post for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/ECEProfessionals/comments/1p0rcyp/worried_i_was_too_harsh_on_my_preschool_students/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

After almost 3 horrible weeks, I finally left that dumpster fire. There were so many red flags at that job and multiple days, i cried from feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. This is a list of all the red flags:

1. The training process was ridiculous and I felt like I was set up to fail. My first week, my training consisted of watching videos about the companies policies for the first 4 days. Then the 5th day, I had my first hands on training, which was literally just me being an assistant teacher for one of the floaters in a classroom. She's a nice girl but I felt like she wasn't a good trainer. There were multiple instances of her telling me I could do something and then another teacher telling me I'm not supposed to, which made thing very confusing and irritating for me. My 6th day which was the Monday after the weekend, I was not supposed to be in a classroom by myself yet and I know this because the director told me that herself the week before. She said I had to finish another portion of the training, which consisted of traveling to another center location for training for new employees. (by the way, the training over there was literally just watching the same videos and taking a quiz. I literally could've stayed home and did all that in my ipad). So anyways, I was thrown in the classroom with at least 10 two and three year olds which led to my first post on this sub.

There was also an instance that a parent was upset with me over something that nobody told me about during my training!

2. Because I was not given proper training and not given enough support, there were many instances where I literally had to figure out things by myself. I kept having to ask the other lead teachers for assistant if they were available and I could tell I was pissing them off because they have their own classroom to focus on and their job isn't to train new employees so I didn't blame them. It was just annoying that if I did something wrong like not use the proper attendance sheet or knowing how to check in my students, I was made to feel like an idiot for it. I just feel like that would be avoided if I was actually trained before just letting me figure things out on my own.

3. The center is DIRTY! First of all, the teacher that left the company, who I ended up replacing when I was hired literally left her classroom bathroom in a filthy mess. The center has the kid's bathrooms inside the classroom btw. There was literally dried up pee on the bathroom floor and I was responsible for cleaning it up even though it had been there since before I got hired! Also more than half my kids were not even potty trained so they were in diapers or pull-ups the entire day. But none of the bathrooms had a diaper genie. After changing a child, I had to throw away the dirty diapers (full of BM and pee) in a huge trashcan that was in the classroom. What makes it disgusting is that the kids also are expected to eat their lunch in the classroom. So when a kid is throwing their trash away or when I'm helping the kid throw their trash away, we have to deal with the disgusting poop smell which fills the room while the kids are eating! That is so messed up and disgusting to me.

4. Coworkers and directors suck! One of them is just plain rude and I don't like the way she screams at the kids faces. She says I need to be stern on them but I realize her definition of stern is like borderline abusive. There was also an instance when the assistant director came in to watch my class while I go on my lunch break. I left my clipboard on the table before leaving. When I came back from my break I saw her sitting on my chair then left to go resume a task she was doing. I did not have an issue with her sitting on my chair but guess what I found that she left on my clipboard... HER DIRTY FINGERNAILS!!! She literally clipped her nails on my clipboard. Idk if she was in a rush or something but it doesn't matter. It is flat out disrespectful to clip your fingernails on someone's belongings but the fact that she just left it there even if it was unintentional is just incredibly disgusting!! She was a nice lady to me but after that, I did not look at her the same way. I am a very non confrontational person so when I noticed I just threw it in the trash. I did tell the head director about it and showed her the nail clippings and she just said "oh" then walked away...

Also a few days after, during my lunch break, while I was driving home for lunch, the area received a tornado warning. (for context: we get an hour lunch break, and my house is only 5-7 minutes away from the center). So soon as I enter my house, I texted my director that I might not make it back from my lunch in time due to the bad weather/ tornado warning. Her response was literally "the warning should be over at 1:45, try to be back by 2:00"... are you kidding me? I understand the annoyance of an employee coming back late from their lunch break but to not even at least pretend to care about my safety is messed up to me. She could've at least told me to drive safely.

5. THIS ONE WAS THE FINAL STRAW AND IT HAPPENED ON MY LAST DAY! So some of the teachers called out and I had to take over one of the classrooms of the teacher that called out. And half of my students did not come to the daycare that day because of the holiday which left me very under ratio and I guess the next teacher to take in students from the twos class since their teacher called out. One of the kids from the twos is this child that is clearly on the spectrum. I don't know if he ever got a diagnosis but his teacher said she thinks he is and I have worked with children on the spectrum in the past and he literally shows signs (non-verbal, elopes, mouths non edible items, etc.). What pisses me off is I had no idea about his elopement until an hour after getting him because apearently he eloped and I had no idea because I was so busy focused on one of my students that was causing property disruption and a handful of other kids that were fighting each other over a toy. One of my coworkers found him in the hallway and returned him to me. I immedeatley apologized and she said it's okay that it's something he does. She also mentioned that he should not be in my classroom because it does not have any "enclosed doors to prevent him from running out the class". IS THAT NOT SOMETHING THAT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOLD BEFORE?!!! So we had to move my students back to my classroom because it has doors that can close, which I did not mind. Totally understandable. The thing that bothered me was that I basically had to shadow this child the entire day while also being expected to watch 10 other little kids. How on earth did they expect me to do that?! The most help I got was the assistant director coming in every hour to check on the class but that was it. Most of the time she was busy in the front and talking to parents.

Overall, this center was a literal disorganized, unprofessional, and unethical MESSY DUMPSTER FIRE. There are so many things that I experienced and witnessed from working there that I did not add just because my fingers got tired from typing too much. The reason I took this job was because, I needed money to pay for my classes out of pocket and I am interested in becoming a teacher. But I never even got to teach. I was just babysitting basically, which was no surprise because at the end of the day it is a daycare. Also kids under the age of 7 was not in my ideal age group when I considered teaching so I already knew working at a daycare was not the right path for me. I did go to some interviews and got 3 job offers at much better paying jobs which led me to quickly text and email the director that I will not be coming back. This job made me lose my mind so many times. It has not discouraged me from pursuing a teaching career though. I just came to terms this was not a good place to gain experience in a classroom.

Just to set things straight, I did not leave because of the kids. I left because of the lack of support and help. I felt that as a new employee with no experience, I was not set up for success. And I also was not getting paid nearly enough to deal with it.

But anyways after sending my "i quit" message, I felt so free and relieved and like I could breath again. I did feel a bit guilty before officially making up my mind because I am aware they are very understaffed, but that's honestly not my responsibility to worry about. Yes, that is selfish, but sometimes it is best to be selfish than let a job mentally drain you and burn you out in just a couple days working there.

I hope my post made sense. I type too fast when ranting so my apologies if some of my sentences were confusing.