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I am so fed up. I put in so many hours, and she makes just about as much as I do. I work 12 to 14 hours a day, and even some on the weekends, and she barely works 35 hours a week total, yet is scheduled for 50. I keep 60% of the weekly spot fees and she gets 40%. She is always either sick, car trouble, back hurting, too depressed because her ex is a jerk or her current man is being a jerk, or blah blah blah. She is such a drama queen, and is ALWAYS complaining about something. I AM FED UP! She didn't come in today, and looks like she will, at the very least, be late tomorrow. DO NOT HIRE YOUR FRIENDS!!!! It is a complete nightmare!!! UGH. Thanks for listening!
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I'm sorry you had to learn the hard way but yes I agree, do not hire friends or family. Good luck with the firing but be prepared to lose the friendship. Working with assistants is hard. I'd rather go down on the number of kids and fire her. In fact, I did that once.Comment
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sammmm?
I feel like I know you, so I can call you that...
Didn't we tell you weeks ago to dump your assistant and downsize? Now you need another reason?::::::
Oh, and that was BEFORE you mentioned that she's unreliable and dramatic!Comment
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It does seem like you have been posting a lot of issues OP. Maybe you should just downsize majorly and let the assistant go.Comment
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wow....I didn't mean to offend you at all. I just noticed your posts lately and I know it is hard to have things come up with daycare issues. I had the exact same assistant issue and I truly sympathize. I did not mean to imply that you shouldn't post. We all need support and we are here for you. All I meant was that maybe this is the final straw that you should make some permanent changes. Sounds like the assistant has worn out her welcome.Comment
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I hired family as my assistant and it was the biggest mistake I have every made
I do EVERYTHING and she basically changes diapers and complains she doesn't make enough money
(if she would do more I would pay more)
She is always complaining about her personal life, car, depression, the guy walking down the street, someone who breathed wrong blah blah blah
and it rubs off on you. Her bad mood without a doubt puts me in a bad mood.
I can totally sympathize (sp?) with you and all you go thru with her. I know the easy answer would be to down size and let her go. But when its "personal" its not that easy. I can honestly say I have thought about moving so she wouldn't wanna commute :::: Sad? Yes. I know its my business and I need to take charge but its hard. You live and learn
I really hope that you find the strength to do whats best for you and your business.
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I worked with my best friend last year, and it was the BEST year I have ever had!Comment
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I'd say if you can't fire her (due to the friendship thing), maybe you could change your arrangement with her to something that's more hourly in nature. That would at least give her some incentive to show up. It won't fix the drama at all, but at least she'd be there.Comment
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How do you stay in compliance in numbers when she is not there?
You have a terrible financial arrangement. I would NEVER give a staff assistant forty percent of tuition off the top. There's no way to make money.
The twenty percent you leave yourself can't possibly cover hard costs much less the extra hours you work while the business is open.
You need to put her on salary with minimum number of hours per week. Tell her you will do 35 hours a week for X dollars an hour. If she wants more hours she can earn them if you need her.
If you are paying her a flat salary based on tuition and she gets that whether she actually works or not... you are begging her to call off and try to get the hours as small as you will allow without firing her. If that is the case she has a rockin deal and she's going to be livid when you say no more. Be prepared for some serious drama, a visit from the state, and some internet bashing. If you are out of compliance numbers wise if she doesn't show she will be able to get you inspected over capacity if she turns you in right away. Get a PLAN for an approved assistant BEFORE you let her go and get your house in order.
How did you come up with a 60/40 split?
I had a friend who did a similiar split with a co-provider (but not as bad for her money wise as your deal) and she had a TON of problems. It ended really badly. https://www.daycare.com/nannyde/the-...ant-part-4.htmComment
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i'm not sure why you went off on cheerfuldom. she was just trying to help. I'm not sure what other issues you are going through, but we are all on the forum as a support group.
as for the 60/40 split, how is that contracted? is it on paper? it really doesn't seem fair on your end. you have cost of building (ur home) to consider. Also the extra hours u put in, the numbers don't look right to me.Comment
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my back up lady has an assistant, she pays her 20 dollars for up to 4 hours or 30 dollars for a full day, depends on the day. I know she is there 3 days a week. But she has been thru alot of assistants too. One day I show up at her house and her helper was outside smoking, which is a big no-no, but she was constantly going outside. She never told C that she was a smoker, but the best part was, she had a set of huge boobies, she would wear a tank top with no bra, and a hoodie that was half zipped, omg, the dads that would come and pick their kids up couldn't stop starring at her. And she wasn't very good with the children. She lasted 2 weeks.Comment
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I'm sorry if you have felt somewhat attacked lately. I have been noticing too that every time you post a new thread someone says something to the matter of "you complain too much." I, however, do not think that's the case. I am going to assume since you are running your daycare with an assistant then you are running with a higher number of children. A higher number of children means for a higher number of parent's. A higher number of parent's means for more issues and much more enforcing your policies. Also if you are running with a higher number of children it is so much more important to keep your daycare extremely organized which could also mean that you have more rules then other daycares do and your not so lenient. If I'm out to lunch, please let me know.
The above issue is something that I went through when I hired on my EX best friend (note the word EX). It was about March last year when I decided to do an "expansion" on the daycare. Pretty much I doubled my number of dck's so that I could hire on my EX best friend on a full time basis. I also offered to pay my friend approximately the 40/60 ratio that you are doing now because I felt like an a** when I knew she knew what I made. I am a very organized person and I had all of my drop off times written down, all of my pick up times written down, rotated centre based free play projects with the kids so they weren't all huddled in one room beside each other all day, planned my menu...etc.
In May of 2011 (only two months after the initial expansion) my EX best friends husband showed up at my house to inform me that my EX best friend was quitting. His reason for her quitting was because I put too much responsibility on her shoulders. I expected her to do everything that I did. I expected her to change diapers, feed children, play with the children, be a part of the interviewing process (when needed), clean up after the children, etc.. and I expecting this as I was paying her 40% of what the daycare brought in each much. Apparently she didn't think she should have to do any such cleaning in my home as it was my home and not hers and had her nose out of joint because she didn't get to do any of her cleaning until she got home after work. She was upset that I would start supper for my family 15-30 minutes before I closed, was upset that supper clean up was the only cleaning I would have left for the night when she had to go home at 5:15pm (our closing time) still make supper and still clean up her whole house. What cleaning she had to do when she was gone all day I do not know??:confused:
I also had issues with her calling in sick on a regular basis. She had a 4 year old boy and a 5 month old girl and whenever one of her children got sick she would stay home. This put me in a very difficult situation because this meant I either had to call in sick for half of the kids I was expecting that day or recruit one of my family members to come in and cover for her.
When she quit she lost it on me saying that it wasn't right that I got upset when she had to call in sick. Honestly, 6 sick days in a month??:confused: Any other job and she likely would have been fired! I ended up out an assistant on the spot and had to hire on family members until I was able to downscale the daycare again. I will NEVER, EVER hire a friend to work with me again! Needless to say, we have not spoken since.
My advice to you would be to put your friend straight right now. Let her know that you have been doing a lot of thinking lately and you've noticed that she is only putting in about 35 hours a week. Tell her that after x months of paying the headway expenses for the daycare that you have realized that giving her a 40% split is not an option and you will have to downscale her pay if she was to stay on with you. Then do what Nan suggested and offer her a flat salary for a minimum of 35 hours a week. Also let her know that you will have to deduct x amount for each hour she misses under 35 hours a week and that if she wants more hours and you can offer her more hours you will pay her x amount for each additional hour.
I hope that I have been a little bit of help. If you ever want to chat you are welcome to private message me.
Take care.Comment
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If I have learned one thing in life it is NEVER go into business, loan money or have a contract with friends and/or family!!! It's very rarely a good thing!! I was in business (owned a floral shop) for 4yrs with my mom and sister and that was wonderful but a very rare occasion... BUT we did have out bad days/weeks/months!! ::
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