Nursery workers drinking at lunchtime.

We can’t drink in our lunch hour, paid or unpaid, if looking after children. Hopefully it was a one off.

I’d first check on the rota to see if they were working or not - if not I’d inform parent but thank them for concern. If they were working I would investigate - you can’t have practitioners drinking whilst on duty any amount of alcohol - it’s bonkers!!

as an aside, most nursery workers only get 30-45 mins lunch break and are often paid to remain in the building to maintain ratios, they’d be hard pushed to get to the pub, down 2 glasses of wine and get back, and sign in again smelling of alcohol !

I don't drink so can honestly say I don't parent while drinking alcohol. However I'm not sure that's actually relevant. Comparing childcare professionals drinking and parents drinking is a non sequitur because we are literally talking about people who are paid, not just to keep your child alive and safe, but to deliver an early years curriculum.
The only relevant point is nursery workers should not be under the influence of alcohol at work. Not a single drink. Not still drunk from the night before. They sometimes have 8 children per worker (for children 3 and over) and honestly, while the thought of that might drive me to drink, that's why don't chose to work with small children!

Surely most workplaces have a no alcohol policy nowadays apart from those involving the entertainment of clients, the latter being a small minority. Any amount of alcohol impairs efficiency and constitutes a health and safety risk in a job, driving or not. The issue is not the inappropriateness of alcohol at lunchtime, but the fact that one cannot know what was in the glasses without having tasted or sniffed them. And that would surely be out of order. I would forget about the incident but begin looking for another crèche if you are not comfortable with the present one.

This happened to a friend of mine who saw a childminder she regularly saw at the playground. She didn't even know her but the childminder came over to say not to worry it was her birthday and she was off that day!

Absolutely rubbish. I've been a childminder for over 20yrs and know plenty more. I've never once felt the need to explain my actions to a parent in any scenario.

Most child areas are more likely to go places where they won't bump into customer/clients.

As a nursery owner, what's your take on how a manager would react if a client rang up and said
"Look, I feel a bit funny even having this conversation, but it has been bothering me. I saw two staff members in the local pub yesterday at lunchtime and they appeared to be having what looked like a glass of wine. Now, it's of course probable that they were off shift or on a half day, but given the proximity of the pub to the nursery it made me concerned that it might have been their lunch hour. I'm perhaps overthinking, but I thought I would make you aware and, if as I'm sure will the case, if I am worrying about nothing, then no harm done and we can forget this conversation."

Would you rather a parent came to you like this?
Or would the manager/ owner rather the concerned parent assumed it was a glass of non alcoholic wine consumed by staff who were on holiday and said nothing?

Agreed.

If the workers are dealing with parents half as mental as on here, im surprised it was only two glasses (potentially, of wine, or not because actually no bugger knows!)

I hope all those outraged have NEVER had a sip of alcohol while parenting since its so abhorrent 🙄😂

We bumped into our daughters nursary key worker enjoying a few drinks with friends down the pub. It was 9:30pm on a Saturday. She still jumped out of her skin when she saw us! We all had a laugh about it. I recon the sheepish look is just the same feeling you get when you run into an old teacher and forget for a split second you are an adult and don't have homework to pretend you lost!

Are you certain they hadn't just finished a shift? If not, then they are breaking their nursery policy at the very least.

Nursery owner - completely unacceptable, it’s in our employment policies no alcohol or drugs during working hours or close enough to working hours to be noticeable, in the judgement of manager - It’s gross misconduct here - you must report it. Their judgement would be affected after even a small amount of alcohol which puts the children at risk. I’m shocked tbh! Beyond unprofessional.

Which could so easily be vodka and coke!!

You have made massive assumption that they were drinking alcohol - and are thinking of reporting them for what?

“If they were NOT working chances are they'd have wandered over to laugh and say that they weren't working today!!”

WTF? Just because one childminder did this (which personally I think is more than a little odd) why on earth have you extrapolated that so that’s now normal behaviour (which it isn’t). If I had a day off as a poorly paid nursery worker, I wouldn’t want to talk to parents at all, especially not to justify my choice of activities on my day off!!

Oh that's a good point. Maybe that's why I'm very much coming down on the side of it being worth having an informal chat with the manager just in case.

I think we're seeing the divide on this thread between people who do regular whistle blowing/ money laundering/ safeguarding courses and people who don't.

I'm agnostic on whether this particular situation would be worth reporting or not, but the argument:
"there might be a perfectly innocent explanation and you'd feel silly if you reported it and there was actually nothing wrong"
brings me out in hives. It's a Pavlovian response from a hundred end-of-training tests where it's the response which will get you the big Red Cross of Doom and an instruction to go back and sit through the course again.

Exactly this my friend is a nursery worker and a parent, so does she know because she's a parent and nursery workers without children don't know?

This.

You don't even know if they did or didn't have a half day and are thinking of reporting them without having all the facts.

They could have had a half day and decided to go for a spot of lunch when they finished together to blow off a bit of steam.

Imagine how stupid you'd look reporting them only to find out that they'd been on their time off and what they were doing was nothing to do with you.

I just think you don't have enough information to make a report.

"As a parent , you usually know if you are and that’s your choice to do that ( not to be drunk that’s not what I mean ) but if you are being paid to look after someone else’s child then it’s not ok ."

But, why? If your argument is a safety one, why is it safe with your own children, but not somebody else's? Would it be safe with somebody else's child if you were not being paid?

I wouldn't care if a teacher had one drink at lunchtime so I don't get it I suppose.

"parents can drink and still look after their children."

If your argument is that it's unsafe to drink any amount of alcohol around children, then why would it be the different if someone is not being paid?

It obviously is the implication of what you're saying as the OP has no evidence at all that these two staff were on duty.

Rota issues are neither here nor there as the OP has no real insight into this either. Staff can only legally work so many hours/shifts and occasionally people will have time off together.

So either we create a situation where low paid nursery workers are fair game for reporting all of the time they might want to have a drink off duty. Or we trust the nursery to implement their own alcohol policies. As I cannot imagine two nursery workers even having the opportunity to have a lunch hour off site like this, I imagine drinking at lunchtime is not difficult to police.

Rubbish.

I work in a nursery, you couldn’t pay me to talk to parents outside of my working hours. I actively avoid them if I see them in public, I barely get free time as it is.

I certainly wouldn’t justify what I was doing in my free time.

She doesn’t know that they were working. She doesn’t know that they weren’t, and has mentioned they have staffing issues meaning that two regular staff having the same day is perhaps less likely though still possible. I don’t think that nursery workers should be reported any time they have a drink in the daytime, no, and I don’t think that is the implication of my comment because it’s about context. If OP were to say the pub is a long way from the nursery that changes things for example, or if they were at home on their day off! But if something about a particular context raised concerns then I think it can be questioned, it can be done nicely! I think when you work with young children you understand parents worry and need reassurance, that they aren’t being rude by checking.

I mean, OP could very easily ring the nursery and ask if the staff members were working a full day that day before she jumps to withdrawing her child from the nursery.
They may or may not tell her but then a very quick chat with the nursery manager would surely either confirm what she thinks she saw or puts her mind at ease.

I would much rather speak to the manager than have a child injured, lost or killed because I didn’t want to look like I was jumping to conclusions. Please please speak to them OP.

She doesn't know that they were working.

What's the implications of your comment - nursery workers are fair game for being reported anytime they have a drink during the daytime - regardless of whether they're on duty?

It’s not rushing to conclusions to find out more is it?
Even it was (it isn’t) how twisted do you have to be to put worries about jumping to conclusions or doubting some staff members above the actual safety of children? It’s a complete no brainer.