Nursery workers drinking at lunchtime.

Why would anyone in a caring profession choose to have lunch in a public house?

Because it's a perfectly normal thing for anybody to do. Have you actually been in a pub since the heyday of the Kray brothers? Or have you maybe got "public" mixed up with "bawdy" or "crack"?

@llizzie why?

The public house (aka pub and are you the person who uses the term brassier abd not bra?), could be used, because

1. Its convenient
2. Its with in price range
3. They like the menu
4. One of them wants to shag the bar man and knew he was on duty, so was hoping to arrange a convenient time.
5. It's no one's fucking business where they drink and eat in which "public house" and their employer or nursery users do not own them.

HTH

Why would anyone in a caring profession choose to have lunch in a public house? That leaves them open to suspicion and it is so unnecessary. If they want a pub meal, there are plenty of pubs where they will not be recognised.

You're either deliberately trying to get a rise out of people or you're genuinely radge.

'Daft enough' to go to a local pub after work?

Why, butwhataboutthebees do you think that 'all manner of nursery workers could now be in hot water' if you don't think there is anything wrong in staff drinking in a pub at lunch/after work?

I would like some of you who do not agree with me what they consider to be OK as far as working with babies, children, and vulnerable adults goes?

I am not suggesting that the burden of proof be removed, and that they should not be given the opportunity to explain what they were drinking, just that it would be better if the workers were not seen near the nursery, they would not be criticised. If they were not drinking alcohol, they have not acted unprofessionally.

What worries me is that there is an attitude of mothers which takes the side of those in charge of babies and children rather than the babies and children. If staff are daft enough to go into a nearby pub are they suitable for looking after children?

Fuck me.

Nursery workers shouldn't drink if they are working or on their lunch break. Obviously.

However, on the basis of what OP has said, in which she has absolutely 0 evidence that the nursery workers were drinking on their lunch break (the two could have been on a half day, a day they don't work or an annual leave day, or a mixture of any of these), it is now being suggested those who work in Nurseries shouldn't be allowed to drink after their work has ended or at any point in their free time?

I'm actually surprised that poster hasn't suggested some sort of dormitory system in which nursery workers are brought in for their shifts and returned at the end. Perhaps they could wear caps and aprons and tug on their forelocks as their social betters drop off their children. With a half day off once a month on a Sunday.

Oh, we haven't returned to the days of being in service?

Exactly. What a breathtaking post. Imagine demanding this of a sector as hard working and badly paid as childcare.

regardless of whether they were on or off duty, or if the day had finished, they are advertising the fact that they are willing to risk the lives of babies by drinking alcohol.

How does a nursery worker enjoying a glass of wine at 1pm, at the end of their working day and with 19 hours to go until their next shift, risk the lives of babies? Please show your working. Is it your position that anyone who works with children, even perhaps 2 half-days per week, should renounce alcohol 365 days per year as long as that employment continues?

I commented on the original post. That is what we are all here to do: voice our opinions.

You may not agree with me; you may think that I am against anyone drinking at lunch time. I am not, per se, but I do think that regardless of how much they are paid, people who work with vulnerable children and adults have to be trusted. If they are not willing to make sacrifices, they should choose work where they can drink at lunch time, and home time, before work, any time, so long as they are not going to get into a car at the end of the day and risk killing someone.

No one's life has to be broken. We have a site for mothers to express opinions. What is the point of the discussion or debate if someone has standards higher than yours and you dismiss them? Whose side are you on, the babies or the staff? If the staff, then why? Why are you so willing to excuse the staff?

It beggars belief that you should be so insulting to me, when I am on the side of the babies and other vulnerable people. There are rules. I like to be on the side of the rules. You can call me what you like, what matters is the babies and other vulnerable people. Nursery workers are in a position to recognise early development problems in babies and children. What if they come back from their lunch and cannot do that, because they have washed their meal down with alcohol?

Are you saying that the profession is so short of workers that you would cast a blind eye on something like this? If they are truly at the end of the day, why not wait until they are also out of the area?

If a member of the nursery staff saw a parent in the same situation, what should they do?

Suppose it was the other end of the scale, that domiciliary care workers were stopping off to meet for a drink or two between caring for the elderly and disabled? They are as vulnerable as babies. Is it right that they should be put at risk, because anyone who is given charge of vulnerable people have a duty of care. There is a Duty of Care Act in Britain.

If they return to work tired, what could happen in the rest of the day?

Alcohol affects people in different ways. ''I only had one drink, officer'' is no excuse when an RTA wipes out a family. Only last month, a drunk driver killed a family. He drank too much alcohol: how much alcohol is safe?

If the OP saw two nursery workers, or friends of nursery workers, drinking in a public house, regardless of whether they were on or off duty, or if the day had finished, they are advertising the fact that they are willing to risk the lives of babies by drinking alcohol. If they were not drinking alcohol, then they could do that somewhere else.

Some people seem ignorant of the way witch hunts can happen from online comments

How people can post ill informed, or totally incorrect assumptions and they can either get attached to the wrong person or its false but names a person. The incorrect story can continue to perpetuate and the correct story, where they are innocent, is lost. People have had their lives ruined because a lie or false assumption has stuck to them.

Place can fire people, using a different reason if needed, if a false story about them gains too much motion and cause the company trouble.

Which is what the issue is here. OP has no idea if these two members of staff were returning to work or not. They might well have finished, as two other PP have said they knew people to have done yesterday, but OP starts stirring the pot and rumours start and these poor women's lives are ruined because the baying mob think they would be hugely irresponsible.

OP would be getting mostly different replies if she had seen the staff probably drinking (there is still the alcohol free potential) and then seen them at nursery on pick up

Correct!

We will pay you minimum or very low wage and then think we own you.

Outrageous!

But it's ok for the bigwigs to drink where they like?

If you want to eat and drink in a public house, you must do it far away from your place of employment.

Ridiculous. Attitudes like this is why people stay away from caring jobs. Get over yourself.

@llizzie are you actually serious about they have to be far away to have a drink or lunch?

I mean really totally serious?

Because if you are, it's one of the most hilarious comments ever on .MN!

Just mad.

Why are people getting so concerned that someone will be unfairly sacked for drinking when they had finished for the day? If they had finished then there is no problem.

It’s depressing that so many people here are willing to ignore any potential threat to children’s safety because they are so much more concerned about people having a drink at lunch and that never being questioned.

If you want to eat and drink in a public house, you must do it far away from your place of employment. Bankers and business house employees do that. Professional carers do not.

Oh ffs, this is ridiculous

If you want to eat and drink in a public house, you must do it far away from your place of employment.

You are Jacob Rees-Mogg and I claim my five pounds.

As I said previously Dd had just finished work and colleague lives local so makes perfect sense to meet in that pub. The pub is her colleagues local. Is she not allowed to go there at all?

You said children were unsafe as they were next door. How far do you want Dd and colleagues to travel before you deem the children safe ... 5 miles 10 miles?

They were off duty. Absolutely nothing to bring Nursery into disrepute. If OP had contacted nursery to confirm they were off then absolutely nothing wrong with that but FFS parents cannot dictate where my Dd eats her lunch

No. No they do NOT

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with off duty staff having a drink and a meal in a pub near their place of work.

People like you, with these ideas that teachers etc must somehow be "above" normal people are just one of the reasons teachers etc are leaving the profession. Because insane parents judge them for having a drink off duty!

It doesn't matter what the circumstances are. They were in a public house next to the nursery and whether they were drinking alcohol or not, they are not giving the nursery where they work a good reputation.

Have the places of employment lost all loyalty of their staff? Once you take on the profession of nursery nurses/teachers, or any other profession where you are looking after other people's children, when you are not on duty you take yourself far away from the place of employment. If employees have lost the spirit of loyalty towards their place of employment to the extent that they can openly sit in a bar whether before, during or after work, they are indicating that their employer thinks it is OK, and that is wrong.

If you want to eat and drink in a public house, you must do it far away from your place of employment. Bankers and business house employees do that. Professional carers do not.

"Whether in their lunch hour or after work"?

The vast majority of PP have said it's totally unacceptable if they were going back to work but how is a child unsafe if they finished for the summer?

Do they really think their little ones are safe in the hands of workers who think nothing of having a pub lunch, whether in their lunch hour or after work?

OMG seriously? The children aren't safe because the workers had a pub lunch AFTER work?

Fucking ridiculous

I bet you also think they aren't fit to be around children because they might drink AT HOME too!

Not excusing them

Just saying if least 2 posters
Including me said it could be innocent as finished work for the term so went for a meal /drink SO NOT GOING BACK TO WORK

that they haven't done anything wrong

I honestly can't believe that anyone would go to a pub next door to their work and and have a drink then go back to looking after lids