Finito

I'm sure everyone who reads here on a regular basis knows how hurt and horrified I was after quitting my job.

I know, horrified seems like an odd choice of words, but in retrospect, that's really what I felt. It was like a scary movie there for awhile. I had NO idea how hard it would be to leave my job and start over somewhere else. I'm not even sure why it was so difficult.

I know how to run a good program, I know how to relate to children, I know what they enjoy doing and how to spark their imaginations. It's not difficult to do what I do, but on the other hand, it's not easy to do it well.

It was painful to start over because my heart was so sad. I do realize how stupid it is for a person to be so invested in a job that it affects every aspect of life, but that depth of feeling and dedication is also what makes me so good at it.

And kids know if you really care about them. They're the toughest audience there is. If you're not genuine from the start, you don't stand a chance.

Anyway, my equilibrium was off. If I had known how hard it was going to be to quit... how long it was going to keep me off balance and sad and angry and upset and obsessive and just sick over the whole mess, I don't know if I'd have had the courage to follow through.

Good thing I didn't know, I guess.

I kept intending to send an email to the boss of the whole company. And kept not doing it. I wasn't ready. I had to get situated where I am now. I had to get my mind in a better place. I couldn't say the things that I needed to say until I got my balance back.

Well, it finally happened.
Last week, I got a phone call from someone I worked with at my old job. She informed me that the big fish has been terminated. She didn't know details, but he is no longer with the company. The asshole got fired.

And for some reason, that was the catalyst I needed to finally send that email.
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Dear Fishboss,

I'm one of the 12 long term, dedicated people who quit over the past year due to the horrendous situation in XXX programs.

I left at the end of August 2016 because I could no longer tolerate the disrespect. It broke my heart to leave (yeah, my job was that important to me).

I wasn't the only person who had a hard time with it, I had to leave families who'd depended on me for seven years to care for and about their children and their lives.

Fortunately (for me at least), I am very good at what I do. I was offered a position within a week of making the wrenching decision to leave.

I worked there twelve years. I did an amazing job. It's too bad that the nasty individuals who were placed above us used their positions to ruin our programs.

There are many parents in contact with me still, as I made sure they had my contact information when I sent them a letter to let them know that the person they'd depended on would not be returning to xx.

I have heard how lousy summer program was this year, I have heard about the people who have been hired to fill the positions of those who have left.

I find it utterly appalling that nothing has been done to rein Fluffy in.

Fluffy is a manager who displayed blatant favoritism to friends she hired over senior staff. A manager who, when informed of emotional and verbal abuse of children by one of those people, chose to pretend it wasn't happening and did nothing.

I spent about eight hours writing up what had been going on back in March, and sent it to Big Fish.  My understanding is that Big Fish is no longer with the organization.

That's a good start.

But Fluffy and her little circle of friends are also responsible for the drop in enrollments, the parental dissatisfaction and the unprofessional things that are still going on.

I originally emailed BF after finding out that Twatwaffle was emotionally and verbally abusive to the children she was charged with caring for and protecting. Ann Onnymous, who I think is still working for the company, sent a letter to HR to let them know what had happened during the brief time she worked with TW.

We also discussed the bogus summer 'application', which contained questions that were ILLEGAL under ADA. He told me the application 'had not been vetted' and that we didn't have to fill it out. Fluffy and Fluffy Jr told us self-righteously that, "They pulled that application nationally." She thought we were stupid and that we'd actually believe the conglomeration of garbage that she and Fluffy Jr came up with to discriminate against us was something that HR had sent out.

Twatwaffle asked Sally for narcotics within five minutes of their first meeting. She also invited her to a sex toy party. She used the restroom WITH CHILDREN. She allowed her husband into the program space while children were still present.

While BF 'investigated' the allegations, Twatwaffle was allowed to continue working with children. My understanding is that company protocol would have had her taken OFF the job while she was being investigated.

And after Fluffy protected her good friend, nothing was done except to put Twatwaffle in charge of more things for summer.

I tried to salvage our once-thriving and dynamic team by meeting with Fluffy twice on my own time, trying to make her see that she was dragging us down a really bad path.

I use dragging because she is no leader.

I'm not the only person who talked to BF, either. And in retaliation, they offered Carey a 3 hour shift per day over summer. Carey asked Fluffy Jr for the hours I'd been offered once I learned that I would have to take summer off, and Fluffy Jr told her that she had 'worked really hard on scheduling'.

During Spring Break, which happened right after Carey met with BF, Fluffy's little friends were very unprofessional to her, saying things that led her to believe that Fluffy  had told them about her going to BF.
The work environment was so hostile that Carey chose to take the rest of the week off.

And she's no longer working for your organization, either.

Fluffy lied to the school staff at Main St. School, telling them that Sunshine and Carey 'stole the hours' from other staff in previous summers, so she *had* to not allow them to work over summer. (what really happened EVERY SINGLE SUMMER was that ALL of us agreed to cut our hours and share them among everyone who wanted to work... there was no theft other than Fluffy stealing our programs from us.)

Even though I took summer off for surgery, I wrote curriculum and procured supplies for summer program, (as it turned out, I didn't even get paid for a great deal of it) so I had occasion to visit the site four times over this past summer. I found it very interesting that Fluffy's friends were there out of ratio. Two of the times I visited, there were eleven to fourteen kids on site... and four adults. All friends of Fluffy. It would take an exceedingly stupid person not to call that favoritism.

Summer site was drab, unimaginative and so different from what we spent years building that the kids felt cheated. And they told me so, asking why they weren't getting to do the fun things we'd always done, telling me that no one was singing with them, no one was doing good projects, begging me not to leave and telling me that they didn't think 'Mrs. B' liked them. I think they're right. She's so proud of being a teacher that she has no liking or appreciation for the learners. Makes me sick.

That same Mrs. B  posted program pictures taken with her own phone on Facebook (easy to find if you want to).

Upon her arrival at the site during summer, she lined up cans of Dr. Pepper and packages of candy on the edge of the stage and walked around eating it in front of children all day long.

I'm really not sure why I'm bothering to send this now. I had considered contacting you after BF failed to address so many issues and decided that I'd had enough instead. 

And after the abysmal failure of my efforts to get things fixed, I was sure that going over his head would have been a pointless gesture anyway.

Instead, I found a company that had more respect for me to start than the company I'd devoted 12 years to and I'm utilizing my talents with children and abilities to grow an amazing program for a different organization.

There's a lot that isn't in the letters I sent to BF and Fluffy.

Fluffy straight up discriminated against people with physical handicaps, treated them horribly and they quit. You can contact XX or XX or XX and ask them what happened. What a horrible individual.

She hired her friends and gave them extra hours and placed them over long term staff based on her relationship with them. She is not well thought of in this area, too many people are familiar with her job-hopping and reputation. When she took over, three of the people in my school already knew her and told me some very interesting things. I won't put them here. I'd rather let you investigate.

I have found a new job. I'm attempting to move on.

But the families who are still in contact with me have kept me informed of what's going on in several different programs.

From the horrible treatment of an autistic child at Main St School to the nasty tempered person who's at Hilltop, the once-stellar reputation of XX company  has changed. My families at my old school have been quite vocal to me about what they think of the program now that I'm gone.

When the contract with the school district is up for renewal in two years, expect a lot of negative input from families and principals unless something happens to fix this mess.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't expect to hear anything back from this person.
I'll be very surprised if I get any sort of response.

But I feel so much better now that I have sent the email.

I sent a copy of it to Sunshine. She told me what a mess things are now. The children are 'allowed' an art project every 10 days. The rest of the time, they're expected to come to the formerly exciting and fun programs and do school work. The site directors are expected to maintain portfolios of student work and have conferences with the parents.

Gone are the days of tons of choices, the sense of fun, the open art table and the CARE in childcare. It's turned into a sort of school annex. I'm sure that Twatwaffle is in heaven, after all SHE was a classroom teacher for seven years!!

I'm glad I left. I would not be able to do that to children.

I've heard about how many families have left the programs, too. Numbers are down. That makes me really happy, even though it's not nice to gloat when you win... or so my mom used to tell me.

Anyway, I do feel better in general after sending the email.