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This is just an "out of curiosity" question...how often do you take personal days? I have in my contract that I take personal days "as needed", but I try to take them as infrequently as possible as I know how much people are depending on me. I have taken 1 in the last 6 months (needed to renew my driver's license and health card during business hours before my Birthday). Just curious how often other people take peronal days?
Thanks!
I have only ever taken 1 it was last dec.
Hi Lisa, to be honest with you I dont know if I could take a day off because like you said parents depend on us and it feels wrong unless you have something that requiry your immediate attention or an emergency. I started Child Care last July and never taken a day off for personal reasons.
I guess it all depends on your life schedule and how you want to handle your daycare bussiness.
I know many of us mentioned it on their contract because we should be entitled for days off but this is my personal view.
I have only taken one off to take my daughter to a sick kids appt...but...my husband was off that day and the parents who felt comfortable left their children here with him...boy was he overwhelmed but did a great job!
I have 10 vacation days in my contract and 10 personal/family emergency days as well per calendar year ... I provide 60 days notice for vacation closures and 'as much notice as possible' for personal/emergency day closures!
IMO this is the reality of choosing HOME CARE clients need to have BACK UP care to closures .... either having ample vacation and personal/emergency days that EXCEED what we would take so that they have some for their own use AND for ours OR they need to have extended family who can help out if we are closed. If they do not have this as an option than IMO they need to consider CENTRE care as their childcare option because centres are open regardless!
I use my personal / family days to book any specialist appointments I cannot book 'after daycare hours' because you get what you get in those circumstances - so annual physical and my annual follow up for my Celiac take up at least 2 days. I also use 2-3 personal days each spring attend my professional associations provincial conference which falls on a Thursday / Friday / Saturday each June because I do not want to take 'unpaid' days to attend professional development as ultimately it benefits THEM as well having a passionate provider up to date in best practice! The remaining I use for when I am too sick to provide safe supervision to the children ...cause you know there is going to be at least one a year that 'something' runs through your program that knocks you off your feet for 1-2 days .... than if December arrives and I have not used up my personal days - I apply them to my Xmas closure because I am closed Dec 24 - Jan 1 and sometimes if the 1st is a Friday I may want to 'add' a day to that to finish off the week and while parents pay for the 3 'stats' that fall during that time frame there are often 2 or so days that are not 'covered' so are unpaid - if I have left over days I add them to that so I can have the week paid.... my parents on my plan B payment basically accept that they are paying the SAME fee 52 weeks a year regardless of if I am open or not unless I EXCEED the 10 days of vacation and 10 personal days in which case than they would get a 'lower fee' for closed days!
I think one of the things we need to remember is that the Employment Standards set out in most problems are set out for a REASON ... we should not feel GUILTY for wanting to include these same rights and standards in our contracts - just because we are self employed does not mean we should be risking our health and mental well being for clients!
Not sure about other provinces - but in Ontario the law states that employees need to have a minimum of 10 days of vacation per year and that at least 5 of those days much be consecutive days off because research shows this is BEST for the health and mental well being of employees!
In addition employees are to receive 4% vacation pay to be paid out either on each pay cheque or annually in a lump sum which can either be on a certain date for ALL employees or at the time of vacation as long as it is clear in the employee contract which manner this will be.
I do not know about other provinces but in Ontario they recently added 10 EMERGENCY/FAMILY days to the rights of employees where employees can take off sick or due to family being sick without 'reprimand' because many companies did not offer any 'sick days or family leave' and employees with young children or employees with aged parents who needed assistance were getting FIRED for taking time off to take care of family - this adds to the mental and emotional stress on families trying to balance work and personal life and leads to more illness and time off work and financial crisis and well as a society we need to SUPPORT each other in times of illness and crisis not force them to choose between work and family or keeping their job ... and it is SAD that the government had to regulate common sense into businesses but such is the way of corporate greed over supporting workers!
My point being that IME providers who NEVER take time off work to recharge their batteries specially when sick, who do not take time off to take care of themselves or their children and put the needs of CLIENTS above the needs of their family either end up VERY SICK themselves from the physical burn out it causes or they just plain burn out due to resentment at being overworked and undervalued as they watch CLIENTS taking ME days to go shopping or clean their house and so forth but complaining about how inconvenient it is if the provider ever has to take time off!
I get the guilt - I really do ... it is inherent in what we do - we take care of the needs of others often at the expense of our own ... I am not immune even with personal days worked into my contract - I suck at taking SICK days ... in March I worked for weeks with a nasty cough that kept me up all night long coughing and aching all over from said coughing because I did not want to take time off to 'rest' because there is so many months left before December and what is something 'worse' comes along like a stomach flu where I REALLY could not work and so forth so I pushed through .... and I paid the price - pneumonia in both lungs and it moved into my kidneys too boot and I ended up in emergency room on the Friday night - almost hospitalized cause my oxygen levels were so low but stayed sick in bed all weekend and even then ended up taking two more days off to boot - cause I either had a reaction to the antibiotics or with my immunity so low I caught a stomach bug while in the emergency room waiting on Xrays and on top of the pneumonia was vomiting and had diarrhea .... in reality I likely would have avoided that if like my spouse I just took a day off and slept when I felt the cold coming 'on' so that my body could use its resources to fight the infection instead of pushing myself so hard!
Ultimately if we do not take care of OURSELVES we are useless to take care of anyone else!
I added 3 PAID personal days into my contract a few years back to use as sick days. But I've only ever used one of those days. I also added Easter Monday as a paid day off because it isn't a stat for everybody. But it's a great day to make a doctor's appointment because most of them are open. Since I take 3 weeks off unpaid for vacation every year I make sure I'm available for the parents all the rest of the year and want to have a reputation as a very reliable caregiver.
I just added 5 paid personal days to my contract this year. It was a good thing I did cause a nasty tummy bug went though during the first week in Jan and I had to close for two days. I also started taking Easter Monday and Christmas Eve off paid this year and no one questioned it.
Exact same as aboveQuote:
Originally Posted by michellesmunchkins
I have been open since August and will take my first one in June. I will sometimes open late or close slightly early, but I always question my clients first so it works for as many people as possible. I have 5 personal/emergency days written into my contract as well.
I feel like taking one every 4 weeks lately. LOL
In addition to 10 paid vacation days, I also give myself up to 4 paid "personal" days. Having said that; I have never used up all my allotted time off.
I have to agree with Reggio here. I actually don't feel all that guilty when I take a day off. Can you tell me that the parents we deal with NEVER take a day off from work?? Even when their job is "dependant" on them?
I am completely upfront with families that they MUST have a back up in terms of care. The reality is; I will need time off, be it scheduled or emergency. If they need a care situation that will be available for them with no exceptions, then home-based care is not for them. It is COMPLETELY unreasonable for a parent to expect that a provider will be open all the time.
Does anyone know what a wee watch home daycare does if they need a day off? I have a lot of wee watchs in the area, and it just occured to me, I'm not sure what they take or if they offer backup when the provider is ill?
I've taken a couple of days in the past few years but only for emergency situations for our own kids that needed to go to Dr and or emergency. I don't have anything in my contract ~ never thought to add any
I don't know about Wee Watch, but I used to have my son in a Global home daycare and with them, it depends on the caregiver. Some have back-up caregivers (sometimes a family member) and some do not. So, they are much the same as us in that if they are sick or have an appointment, they may need to close sometimes (but they don't get paid for that or their own vacations). I am with Reggio...I take 10 paid vacation days, Stats paid and 5 paid personal days (but I only use those if I have to). I do still feel bad if I have to close due to illness etc, but I am human!
I know when I was with the agency in my area (not wee watch but they tend to all be similar) if I needed to close the agency would offer a list of 'back up options' for clients if they desired and they would have to contact someone and book a spot through them .... most just took that day off themselves rather than sending their kid to 'stranger' for the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by apples and bananas
I interviewed wee watch when I was looking for daycare and I believe they said they provide back up. I didn't like that option because if my provider was to be absent I didn't want to entrust my child with someone I hadn't had time to interview and screen etc.
So...personal days...is that like wanting a day off? Or sick/emergency days. In my min they are different things.
I take personal days every few months. I might just want a long weekend or be going away or want to spend my kids' birthday with them or want a ME day. Personal days for me are unpaid and I tell parents that I will take up to three weeks off per year for vacay and some of those are just 1 day etc. rather than a whole long stretch. Sometimes having one day off to do stuff and just slow down is amazing and one of the few times I feel like I get to rest. Last year I was taking one every month where there wasn't a long weekend. This year I have scaled back a bit because they are unpaid and I am going to be broke. lol
:laugh::laugh::laugh :
as for sick/emergency days....I have had it happen twice where I had to say unexpectedly that I couldn't do daycare. Once my mom was admitted to the hospital and I had to go see her (she lives quite far away) and another I suddenly felt extremely dizzy and full of perspiration in the morning while having breakfast and didn't think it was safe that I do daycare and carry young kids in case I pass out.
I think it is great if every provider books a day off now and then for their own reasons. Sometimes you need to do doctor appts or give yourself a long weekend.
I give my parents 4 weeks notice of any planned closed day and they have never complained:)
Ya -good point .... when I worked in HR in an employment contract the term 'family/emergency day' is a day that can either be booked in advance for appointments for family members or last minute in an emergency unplanned illness - and an employer has the right to ask for 'proof' of illness when calling in sick 'last minute'. Where as a 'personal day' usually means 'the reason is none of the employers business' and they can only be booked 'X days in advance and upon approval based on availability of staffing' .... so for example if you have 10 sick days and 5 personal days - as long as you booked it in 'advance' your boss has no need to know WHY you are wanting it and can 'deny' a day if there are already too many staff booked off that day however if you have used up all your sick days and are trying to use a personal day last minute cause you are claiming to be 'sick' they can require a NOTE or refuse to allow you to use it as a paid personal day and force you to take it 'unpaid leave'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spixie33
In your own personal contracts with clients YOU get to define them ... for me my 10 personal/emergency days are combined definition .... if I am sick or just needing a pre-booked day off up to 10 per year are paid .... any more than that are unpaid ... I have never used more than the 20 days off in the course of a year between vacation, illness and appointments or professional development days.
I used to never take any and had a huge guilt problems if I was sick, but now I have an occassional replacement. She has all her papers and when I need a day off (usually I so half days only) she's here and it's SUCH A HUGE WEIGHT OFF MY SHOULDERS! I can actually go to special school events with my kids without screwing up the daycare families...