Pros. Cons. Shit.

Remember the trick to deciding if something (Like buying house A or house B
Taking job A or B choosing to visit destination A or destination B on your annual vacation) is a good or not so good idea?

Take a piece of paper.
Divide it into two columns.
Label one column 'pros' and one 'cons'.
Or 'yes' and 'no fucking way'.
Whatever works.

Then list the things in their appropriate categories.

Like this:
Pros:

• it's a six minute commute
• the school has made me feel welcome
• the kids are really wonderful
• their parents are equally wonderful
• I will be in the cafeteria this year and will have a lot more space for the kids to spread out
• I feel appreciated and supported in the school, the school secretary always makes room in the newsletter for a little blurb about my program
• The reading teacher and other teachers who used my space during the school day have been very complimentary about how things look and how much fun the kids are having
• The principal is brand new to the school district and plans to stay a long time. This district differs from the one I just left in that they like to place their principals and leave them in the same school for a long time. So the relationship I've already established with him will be a help in the future. He's already offered me my choice of spaces when the new school is built.
• There's a new school being built.
• The company that signs my paycheck pays me better than the company that signed my paychecks this time last year.
• I still work for the kids, though, that hasn't changed.
• I've been allowed to run my program the way I want to. We do a ton of educational activities. But the kids have a lot of freedom to choose what they want to do during their time with me.
• The parents who have their child(ren) enrolled in my program have made many calls to our company office and said wonderful things about my program and about me personally.

Cons:

• When I applied for this job, I sat in a long interview, during which I talked about waiting the requisite 90 days for my family's health/dental benefits to kick in. We discussed it at length.
• I was not happy at having to leave the old job, but expressed appreciation that I would be able to get health benefits through the new job.
• When the 90 days were over, I got a piece of paper in the mail that informed me that as 'only' a part time employee, I was only eligible for two crappy insurance plans.
• And no dental.
• I don't get paid holidays.
• I don't earn vacation pay.

All of those things are incidental, I have a shitty government insurance plan right now and gee, with all that extra money I can pay for dental out of pocket, right?
::sigh::
When I interviewed, we talked about my ability to grow a program. I explained about how small my program in my old location had been and how it grew under my management.
But last week, when I suggested that since we're moving to larger quarters that we could increase our capacity, I got a very discouraging email from the 20-something manager assigned to me.
"Currently we are not looking to increase capacity at that school. We aren't even full at 15 yet. Generally we only increase if there is a substantial waitlist which we do not have."

In answer to my response about the number of people who have expressed an interest in getting their children enrolled (what is a substantial waitlist?) she said, "Obviously we will take into account the number of kiddos who enroll for fall, but at the moment we have sites that have waiting lists (with upwards of ten kids) we cannot open due to staffing."
I don't really care about their problems keeping people at their other sites, either. Does their inability to retain good people mean that my site isn't worth expanding?

I'm sure there are many reasons for it. People like to be treated with respect rather than being thought of as disposable. Several manager-type people have left this year. Our curriculum and purchasing person. A couple field coordinators. MANY site teachers/directors.
They just can't keep people.

Why? Well, other child care places are hiring people at a comparable rate, offering decent benefit plans and paid vacations and holidays.

Apparently their inability to keep employees is causing them issues. Duh.
They offered me a signing bonus when I took the job. $300.00 to sign on, then another $250.00 to stay through the school year. $550.00 to take the job. Not that I don't appreciate it, but what does that tell you?

When we had all the snow/ice days, they continued to charge the families whose children are enrolled. And did not refund any of the money to them.

They continued to take in the same amount of revenue.
I know of at least two other companies who paid their employees for the time missed during the ice and snow, including those paragons of virtue that I used to work for.But did my current company continue to pay their employees?
You guess.

So I found out not too long after I started this job that they'd be bulldozing my program area at the end of the school year. I asked for some people to come and go through stuff, as I really don't have any idea what belongs to the school and what belongs to the program, wouldn't have room for all of it, and hadn't used a great deal of it anyway. Better to send back to the office so other programs could use it. With what was on site and what I brought with me, I have been running a very nice program. Lots of activities for the kids, many creative pursuits as well as science activities.

But it's a big task, I don't know what's what, and I asked for help a couple months ago.

This last week, in addition to being told that my program isn't worth supporting through any sort of growth, I was informed that my program also isn't worth any kind of support to help make it portable. I will have to have my program put away daily because we're using the cafeteria, so I asked for some rolling carts.

I got this gem in return. Here are the parts that made me aggravated...
"Realistically what is probably going to end up happening is that we will bring you out one big cabinet and potentially another smaller cabinet. Rolling isn’t really an option at the moment, as we already have many cabinets in storage that need to be used before we order more."So someone ordered a bunch of cabinets that won't work for me and this means they can't get me what I need to run a program in the fall?
No one has been out to see the space we'll be using, no one has any idea of what it's going to take for me to move everything (and I'm NOT moving everything, I am only moving the things I need. They can figure out the rest, I asked for help and they haven't done ANYTHING to help me so let them sort it out)

Also in that email, this cute little excerpt."I would make sure to keep all licensing essentials and kid favorite stuff out there." Because I need to have it explained to me that I should keep the components necessary for licensing and you know, things the kids like.
'Cause that's important somehow? Gee, I had no idea.

Good thing I'm a trained professional.

So add this to the list of cons:

• They don't want to help me grow my program. Even though they pretended like they did when I applied for the job.
• They won't support the move I must make for fall by getting me the things I need to run a decent program.

This is, without a doubt, the most disorganized company I've ever seen.

Another couple cons...
Summer training is spread out over about two months. And without exception, I could teach every damn class I've had to attend. I get it, it's a licensing thing and everyone needs to have paper to show they're trained. But for shit's sake, have the training on a Saturday and stop having us drive all over town at least once a week for two months.

Ditto the trips to the office. Although I've mostly gotten that shit worked out, it's still time out of my day/life. And was never even brought up at the interview.
Talk about concealment of important facts... that would be right up there at the top.

I know I talked about Twitney or Whitney or whatever I called her... she 'watched' the kids while I was on my vacation. By sitting in the gym on a pile of mats and closing her eyes while they played. By allowing kids to leave the area unattended.

So tune in tomorrow. Mr. Crabbypants is going to bed and grousing because I'm not there, too.
Hmph.