to think this is the height of unprofessionalism?

[ScrawlyEmbroidery]

I've opened a brand new Nursery school - it's in a beachy, tourist destination and when I first advertised the role we had lots of amazing candidates as we were providing accommodation, great salary etc etc in a very unusual and attractive area.

I had a lady apply who was just amazing - extremely professional, very qualified, was going to relocate with her two children and was very enthusiastic about the role. Her interview went brilliantly, she passed all the checks and accepted the position. So I ended the job advert, and put some temps in place to cover her slightly longer than average notice period - expensive and time consuming (on our very limited budget) but worth it for someone so awesome.

We kept in regular contact - I went above and beyond with getting her accommodation set up perfectly, arranging pen pals in our area for her kids (it's a remote area), setting up subscriptions for her, arranging a specialist visa, getting activities that I knew her and her kids would like arranged in the area and making hampers for their arrival. Answered all her questions, helped her with all the travel and just tried to be as supportive as possible.

Day for her arrival comes..... and she doesn't show up.
I call and message, very worried (she's coming from overseas) and she tells me , in a super casual tone - oh, sorry. There was a problem with the plane. I'm going to try again tomorrow
Ok... she'd been very professional and cooperative till now so I put it down to stress travelling with two kids etc.
Next day - I had to chase her for info whilst scrabbling around to find cover as she was meant to have started. She eventually messages back with "XYZ.... will be travelling tomorrow"
Fine, okay. I kept my frustration to myself and didn't ask too many questions.
The next day again - no info and I have to gently chase her - oh, she's going to fly half way but the kids will have to take another flight (???) so probably won't be until the weekend.
Right, okay. I didn't want to make waves, so I said "okay, keep me updated" and manically tried to find cover for the absence, paying way over the odds to fly an ex employee in to cover us for the week so we had enough staff.

Weekend comes and goes, she is giving me no updates at all. I eventually message her out of desperation (I was trying not to harass her and scare her away) and she says she's booked on tomorrow's plane.
You guessed it - no show.
I message saying I'm sorry it's been so difficult, but I'm now having major staffing issues so please can she please give me an update - silence.

This was 2 weeks ago and I've not heard a thing from her, despite me politely chasing. In short - I think she's found another job and was stringing me along until it was finalised. She had every opportunity to at least tell me, and chose to string me along knowing I was having staffing issues.

But it's absolutely left me up shit creek - I now have no Nursery Manager, and I waited over 8 weeks for her - bodging together cover.
I've readvertised but the moment has been and gone, and I'm struggling for applicants (I do have a couple that I'm processing) where before I had loads.

She's reading messages but no responding - I background checked her, reference checked. I have all her documents, I paid for a visa, accommodation etc etc and she's just disappeared.

AIBU to think this is the shittiest shittiest thing to do to a tiny, new Nursery that you know has bent over backwards for you?

Write her off and move on.

Do you still own your recruitment company?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4643573-rejecting-an-applicant-for-8-year-gap-in-cv

Can you get a replacement candidate that way?

I’m actually surprised someone who owns a recruitment company fell for the oldest trick in the book with the “problem with the flights” story.

Are any of the temps good enough to take the role permanently?

You're going to wear yourself out, you have taken on more shifts to prop the nursery up and you run a recruitment company !

A real pain but as others have said not the person you want to be relying in on future so better off in the long run.

Good point!!

Sounds like a lovely job

Sorry if I missed this but did you interview her in person? It sounds sort of dodgy. Also it came to my mind that she sounded too good to be true . As they say she (he?) was. I’m afraid I think you’ve fallen for something. Hope you can sort someone else. Can you not go back to those original applicants given so many? Next time be a bit less helpful ….sounded a little OTT sorry

Absolutely this. Although lovely your efforts not exactly professional. Tbh if I was future employee I might be a bit put off by such over reaching looking after.

Interesting….

As a retired nursery manager I had lots of sympathy when I started reading your post then I realised you were employing her as a manager. So are you not qualified to run it yourself?

This confused me-I know a few people that have opened nurseries as a business but they working hours there themselves to keep it going. If it’s a small nursery-won’t you struggle to stay afloat? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to get the level 3 qualification yourself??

Sounds to me like it would be cheaper and more succesful to pay to educate a local person than go to all that bother and get someone in who is very unlikely to make it a permanent arrangement.

What's the other job you have where you've taken on more shifts?

I'm playing catch up, but just to reiterate - she did not run away with a visa luckily.
Where we are requires something slightly different to mainland UK - and she has to personally get it (with me) from our local office, and she was entering on a a 6 month allowance via her passport (EU).

I know - and the thought has occurred to me but the location is so specific, that if I typed the name, it would almost certainly come up in a Google search with the just the name of the place. Or possibly a Google of "LOCATION NAME" and "NURSERY"

Anyone is welcome to PM me if they'd like more details, and I can send them to a link with the job description.

The location is a remote, tourist destination that is slightly south of the UK and similar to the Sicily Islands.
I'd be grateful if people don't try and guess the name, for the aforementioned link reasons on Google Searches

Thank you, this is helpful.
Unfortunately, in this case I'm not sure what else could have been done.
I reference checked her, police checked her, did a full internet background search plus got copies of her passport, driving license, qualifications and certificates - and cross referenced them on various things.
If it was a scam - it was a damn weird one, because she didn't benefit directly - none of the stuff I paid for was used.

I don't know the statistics, but I imagine most new Nurseries don't run a profit in their first year. I think the average is 3 years for most businesses?
I can't work in there anyway (not as qualified specifically) so kept my job on to fund it until it starts paying itself.

The community was desperate for a Nursery (it's the only one available to locals) - and there wasn't time to wait to build up 1-2 years of back up costs.

Yabu for opening a business BEFORE having a nursery manager in place.

Oh let me open a restaurant with no chefs or wait staff and hire as I go. Said no one ever.

One of her children was going to be attending the Nursery, the other was much older and registered at an online school.
She was due to start a half shift (3 hours), 2 days after she landed.

Not to go into too much detail, but 4 days before all this the deputy manager cheated on her long distance boyfriend with a local lad (also in a relationship) and ran away with no notice, so we were already short staffed. But that's a whole other drama.

We opened with a Manager - she had to leave because her father became terminally ill.
The Nursery has been open for about 9 months, we're not that new.

Yes it is, and I did that but her notice period was 8 weeks, and we added a week or so on with her messing me around - so all the people I went back to had found alternative work.

Mumsnet procedure is to report threads you believe are made up - I've been here years and have no form for bollocks, so I imagine the admins will confirm.

We didn't require a skilled worker visa because of our location, but if we did - we'd have likely got it as "Nursery Teacher" is on the list:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-eligible-healthcare-and-education-jobs/skilled-worker-visa-eligible-healthcare-and-education-jobs - Occupation Code 2315

Yes, I do.
Though it specialises more in Nannies and Housekeepers than Nursery Workers. I've placed Practitioners in International Schools before (Dubai, Kuwait etc) but never within Europe, and certainly not for something as niche as our Nursery.

For those of you thinking this is proof that I'm making it up - the Nursery school is owned by the recruitment agency and the funds to start it predominantly came from that original business venture, it's all one business.

And, for the extra nosey, the job I'm referring to that keeps the Nursery afloat is my rota job as a private Nanny. Since Covid, the agency (which places almost solely overseas) has been very quiet.

Again, happy to PM the job advertisement to anyone who's curious.