Taking advantage of me?

[Inspired by Reggio]

Well said Judy ~ I personally would never have signed a contract that was so ambiguous around holidays!

HOWEVER just wanted to add that the poorly worded contract aside and strictly discussing the amount of time taken off .... the original poster COULD be talking about me .... my Option B contracts include 'paid vacation and sick days' but it is not unlimited it is clearly defined as 10 days per calendar year of vacation with 60 days written notice and 10 days a calendar year of personal/emergency/sick days with as much not as possible .... so in reality that is FOUR WEEKS of time right there and in addition I also get 10 stat holiday closures paid ~ so that is another TWO WEEKS .... so I get a total of SIX WEEKS a year in paid time off that I can and DO take and depending when you start that could have all almost ALL been taken in an 8 month time frame!

So yes it sounds excessive when you put it in writing like that but it sure does not FEEL excessive to me and in reality MOST employees get two weeks vacation, 10 sick days and all stats off ~ if clients are not comfortable with that than they can opt for a Option A contract and pay the HIGHER fee payment each week and I will put the money aside myself for my closures ... but either way I get paid the same and THAT is what we do not know here is what fees were being charged here in comparison to the norm in the community ~ maybe she charges 'less' each week in exchange for having 'paid' time off

Perhaps this provider has been in the field for 10, 15 or 20 years and rather than 'raising her direct fees' so that she is not higher than the 'average' in her community instead to get recognition for her years of experience and track record she has been adding in additional 'paid time off' as her financial perk for the skills and experience she brings to the table to her clients .... which I can appreciate having been in the field for 25 years not just in home childcare but in the entire industry ~ it can get frustrating that you can never seem to 'get ahead' of the newbie around the corner who opens up or the new ECE graduate out of school who gets paid exactly the same as you do because well our field, unlike others, society does not seem to recognize performance or experience as a value they are willing to PAY extra for .... at least not 'directly' so for those of us who are 'seasoned' we try to add it in 'indirectly' through additional time off or other perks ... I have peers who get paid days off like their own birthday or their children's birthday or they take their Anniversary off or Christmas Eve and so forth .... like Mother's Day these are not 'Canadian Stats' but it is at least CLEARLY LISTED in the contract so that clients signing on know what they are agreeing to

Bottom line is new or a experiences ~ a provider is entitled to negotiate whatever she wants into her contract and it is up to the client to agree to that or not ~ however if one does not have a CLEAR contract than one is going to run into issues like this where it is up for interpretation and therefore anger and frustration on the clients part leading to high turn over