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This summer we will be losing 2 kids going off to school, 1 child moving, and 2 staying home for the summer (DCM are teachers) and are choosing to not hold their spots. We have an assistant, who is not necessary staff, but allows either one of us to have some time off to leave or run errands.
As you can assume, we will be losing a significant amount of income. I have attempted advertising and have spoken with at minimum 7 families in the past two weeks and either they are needing care in the future, or our rates are too high, etc. So we have no new children starting when all the others leave. I feel like my head is spinning from doing so much talking about spots and advertising and speaking with parents. We have 6 families waiting to start in August, but now.... it sounds like crickets.
Our assistant has been aware that we are losing so many kids, and I have been trying to let her know how hard I am working at getting new clients. Today we let her know that we would have to lay her off for the summer, because we are losing so much income that we just can't manage to keep someone who isn't essential to our ratios.
Yesterday I spoke with a friend who is looking to hire a summer nanny, so I thought our assistant would be perfect to recommend for the position. And that way she could come back in Aug/Sept.
Today we told her we would have to lay her off, and told her about the nanny job. She seemed very understanding and interested in the nannying job.
She left for the day, and then the texts started To sum it up she said:
She was upset that we would fire her with no notice, because we knew in advance that we would be losing these kids and should have given her some notice. That she has bills to pay, and it was so unfair of us to fire her with no notice and leave her in a bind. And how she won't be interested in returning in to our daycare in the fall, since we are so inconsistent, and she is not okay with having problems that affect her being able to pay rent.
She was absolutely not fired, without notice. She was given a two week notice, as per our policies. Her schedule has only changed once in 4 months, and she was given the exact same number of hours - just the times were adjusted a little. I sent her a text correcting her, that you ladies would be very proud of - professional/kept my calm/but was assertive and told her that was not the situation at all. However, it did end with "From the tone of your text I will assume that you are not returning to finish your two weeks".
She changed her tone a little, when I think she realized that she understood the notice completely wrong. She then thanked us for the nanny referral - and said she is meeting with her on Sunday and might need to start on Monday. We left it at that.
It was just so emotional, dramatic, upsetting - and unexpected.
As you can assume, we will be losing a significant amount of income. I have attempted advertising and have spoken with at minimum 7 families in the past two weeks and either they are needing care in the future, or our rates are too high, etc. So we have no new children starting when all the others leave. I feel like my head is spinning from doing so much talking about spots and advertising and speaking with parents. We have 6 families waiting to start in August, but now.... it sounds like crickets.
Our assistant has been aware that we are losing so many kids, and I have been trying to let her know how hard I am working at getting new clients. Today we let her know that we would have to lay her off for the summer, because we are losing so much income that we just can't manage to keep someone who isn't essential to our ratios.
Yesterday I spoke with a friend who is looking to hire a summer nanny, so I thought our assistant would be perfect to recommend for the position. And that way she could come back in Aug/Sept.
Today we told her we would have to lay her off, and told her about the nanny job. She seemed very understanding and interested in the nannying job.
She left for the day, and then the texts started To sum it up she said:
She was upset that we would fire her with no notice, because we knew in advance that we would be losing these kids and should have given her some notice. That she has bills to pay, and it was so unfair of us to fire her with no notice and leave her in a bind. And how she won't be interested in returning in to our daycare in the fall, since we are so inconsistent, and she is not okay with having problems that affect her being able to pay rent.
She was absolutely not fired, without notice. She was given a two week notice, as per our policies. Her schedule has only changed once in 4 months, and she was given the exact same number of hours - just the times were adjusted a little. I sent her a text correcting her, that you ladies would be very proud of - professional/kept my calm/but was assertive and told her that was not the situation at all. However, it did end with "From the tone of your text I will assume that you are not returning to finish your two weeks".
She changed her tone a little, when I think she realized that she understood the notice completely wrong. She then thanked us for the nanny referral - and said she is meeting with her on Sunday and might need to start on Monday. We left it at that.
It was just so emotional, dramatic, upsetting - and unexpected.
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