To swap office work for nursery work?

[Changingdirections]

Hated my job for a long time, opportunities have come up in my daughter's nursery, considering applying. Can anyone who works in a nursery tell me what it's really like? Wages/hours/maternity leave entitlement? It's a busy bees one so any info particularly for that company would be helpful. There is a post for 'relief' assistant - does that mean no set hours?

Honestly OP, working in a nursery is hard work. I did it for years- but I was qualified as a teacher so I had a much better deal than the nursery nurses. It’s badly paid and the hours are so long. Getting in at 7.45 am and finishing at 7 pm is common in the nurseries around here. Also, there is HUGE amounts of paperwork to do. Observations, Ofsted stuff, planning… it’s a lot and you don’t get the benefit of school holidays like you would in a school (unless you negotiate that, like I did!) Many people think working in a nursery is lovely because it’s just playing with kids all day- the reality is far removed from that. I love kids, but nursery work is really hard.

From what I hear, it's long hours, minimum wage, pita parents, crao management and utterly exhausting.

But maybe the people I know who do this either should be doing something else or work in bad nurseries.

I was a nursery nurse for a while (qualified primary teacher) and it was really hard work - minimum wage, 8-6 shifts with one 20 min lunch break, lots of planning etc to be done in my own time. Wasnt a fun 6 months thats for sure!

I have done both, the pay and conditions are a lot better in office work plus you can work from home some days.

In the nursery we'd often do 4× 10h shifts (plus an hour unpaid lunch break) so I'd leave home at 6.30 and get home at 6.30...horrible in winter!

And we werent paid when it was closed over Christmas either. Mine was a crap nursery with a very tight fisted owner though.

DD worked in a nursery for 18 months.

She was constantly ill, and would be stuck there way past her hours waiting for the same late parent time and time again.

It was thankless and joyless.

To put it in perspective my office job only pays £1 above minimum wage, with potential savings on childcare costs (apparently up to 80% off?) I could actually be better off. Long hours concerns me as I would want to remain part time, not sure if relief staff are different than full time in that respect?

I've done that before. Huge pay cut as I felt stressed with the office politics and huge caseloads.

I lasted 6 months in a nursery. And can say from experience, good nursery workers are not paid enough! It is manic. Stressful. Noisy. Don't get me wrong, it's lovely at times but just intense!

I’ve worked in nurseries and honestly, I wouldn’t go back. Overworked and underpaid. No breaks as we al knew that if we took our break, we would leave the others short staffed. (Long term that doesn’t work, as the owners then will never employ lunch cover -why would they when staff are doing it anyway).
It’s not valued by society and people think all you do is ‘play with children all day’. That’s really not what happens. There’s quite an element of crowd control for a start, Eg, ratio for 2 year olds is 1:4, if you have 8 two year olds in the room, with 2 staff and child needs a nappy changing, it becomes 1:7, it’s really difficult to ‘play’ when you are supervising that many 2 year olds, it’s hard work and stressful.
There are many parents who are difficult and despite knowing that their child is being cared for in a group, want the whole thing to revolve around their child and moaning about the smallest thing (Eg child’s coat got mud on). Many parents who think they are paying over the odds for childcare (without considering that a lot of nurseries are only just breaking even and the staff are on minimum wage).

it’s no wonder there is a massive recruitment crisis in early years. Every nursery in my medium size town is Repeatedly advertising for level 3 staff. I’m not sure if they are ever filling the roles or if those they are filling them with last a few weeks and then leave, but either way the sector is struggling massively.

I really appreciate all the replies and honesty. I just don't know what to do with my career but know I need something different. Back to the drawing board😩

I worked for Busy Bees many years ago they didn't pay me NMW and refused to even when I pointed it out to them about the shortfall in my wage.

They also made staff give up two weekends a year for training to allow for a 1 day holiday over Xmas. I was expected to cover at other Busy Bees sites so not always on the site I was employed at, if elsewhere was short within about 30-50 mile radius then you were expected to go. Yes you got petrol costs back but aside from that it was still expected regardless of it you have children or not. So you might not be on that site each day.

They also made staff be 'mystery shoppers' and go and test the nurseries elsewhere as an undercover parent to test a checklist of things as they didn't trust their staff to follow their checklist properly when welcoming new parents.

I work in a nursery. I’m part time though. I work in a nursery split into 4 rooms. In my room there are 5 staff working with 20 children. We are a good team. It would be difficult without that. I find it a rewarding job mostly and get on well with my colleagues. We get hour lunch breaks, £1 more than minimum wage and extra bonuses for employee of the month etc.
AMA.

I would never, ever work for a Busy Bees again (or send my child to one...). Absolutely soulless, the one I worked at was dreadful and I've never heard a single good word from other former staff. Independent nurseries or preschools are much better though.

Agree with all the posts above, and Busy Bees don't have the best reputation, even amongst other Nurseries.

I get their job vacancy adverts come into my Facebook Feed for some reason and you should read the comments underneath from staff and former staff !!!