Closing

For those child care workers to work at a licensed daycare facility how do you feel about closing. I hate it and I feel a lot of extra work gets put upon me that a lot of the other staff don't have to do. I'm in one big room with the children after I'm done cleaning and sometimes I have to stay late if a parent is late. Then I take the bus home in the dark and I have to take two buses.

I feel ya! I used to work the closing shift sometimes at a couple centres. You are right, the closing shift often gets stuck with more work....emptying garbages, wiping down toys, cleaning the washrooms, putting stray toys away, cleaning art area up, putting away last load of dishes, laundry, sweeping floors, dealing with late parents, etc etc etc. This wasn't always the case as some days the professional cleaner came in or you worked with a good coworker who helped tidy before he/she left but more often than not, the closer got stuck with a lot of crap!

At one centre, they scheduled the closer 15 mins past close time. This allowed time for late parents etc but if you were done early you could leave. The last place I worked at closed at 6 and scheduled staff to 6 only. They didn't pay OT either which I thought was unfair as we (there was 2 of us) were never out on time and neither one could leave before the other (safety issue I guess) That place had a lot of issues and I left after only 6 months!! It's still a mess from what I hear :(

yes, happy hugs I hear you as the last staff is stuck when a child is late and it happened a lot when there was a snow fall now going into the winter months there may be a lot more late pick-ups - does your daycare charge a fee for the late pick-up ? in our centre the late fee went to the last staff but even then some parents just kept on being late and it was hard - it was a great day when everyone was picked up early LOL
we changed shifts every 2 weeks so no one was struck with the closing and that helped to make it fair for the 4 staff so we all understood the bad parts of each of the 4 different shifts

We also alternated the late shift at the daycare I worked at. That way all staff shared the role and it wasn't one person with the worst shift all the time.

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Originally Posted by Van

yes, happy hugs I hear you as the last staff is stuck when a child is late and it happened a lot when there was a snow fall now going into the winter months there may be a lot more late pick-ups - does your daycare charge a fee for the late pick-up ? in our centre the late fee went to the last staff but even then some parents just kept on being late and it was hard - it was a great day when everyone was picked up early LOL
we changed shifts every 2 weeks so no one was struck with the closing and that helped to make it fair for the 4 staff so we all understood the bad parts of each of the 4 different shifts

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Yeah, our centre does charge a late fee but it's so tiring especially now that it's dark and you need to catch two buses. I get home late exhausted. Now that winter is coming along it'll be worse especially because I have to wait so long outside.

I do feel for you as it is hard to wait for 2 buses after working with kids - can you look up ads for daycare nearer to you and maybe even walking distance from home, just call them and see if they are looking for ECE staff, you may need to start out as a sub and then get a new job closer to home but it would be better than waiting for buses in the winter and more parents being late with the snowy days ahead

That is awesome that the late fee goes towards the worker!! Makes it a little more bearable haha

Yes 5 LM it did make it better LOL