To ask how you have kept going in a job you hate?

[Pekoe78]

I have taken on a second job in a nursery two days a week and I hate it. I dread going back in all weekend and can’t focus properly on anything. It’s just very corporate, so many rules and procedures, everyone is so intense and serious about everything and I feel constantly on edge and flustered, afraid of putting a foot wrong and like I can’t be myself. I’m permanently in ‘fawn’ mode while I’m there, desperately trying to people please like it’s my only survival skill. They expect me to know and remember a lot despite still being quite new and only in the place a couple of days a week and as someone who takes time to pick things up and who forgets things, I find this hard. I am finding my confidence is disappearing and I’m not a confident person to begin with.

They don’t have enough staff either and I feel like I’m being asked to be hyper vigilant in a place where it’s impossible to be. I go home worrying about everything that’s happened that day, what I got wrong. Any activity suggestions I make are rebuffed and I’m just lectured on how they do things.

I have a lot of family stresses and could have done without having to take on another job but we are in a lot of debt so this is my only option right now.

I’m just asking for advice really, how do I adapt to my situation and stop feeling like this? I need to find a way of either learning to like it or switching off enough not to care what anybody thinks so your experiences of similar situations would really help.

Thank you.

I needed the money - end of.
I've had lots of vile jobs and also good ones. start looking for something else and when you get something....leave.

Oh god I've worked in a nursery like this. Utterly draining. Some nurseries are so strict I always feel sorry for the children being at the nursery like it's from the 1940's.
Nursery is supposed to be like a second home environment for those children that are there full time, with fun age related activities planned whilst adhering to the EYFS.
Sometimes the simplest activities are the best.
I find room leaders/supervisors sometimes act like they are the manager of the whole nursery and it just makes everyone sour faced and miserable.

Haha no, he wanted me to go through my own emails from the last two years (I’d get anywhere from 20-30 emails a day) and create a folder to include any deemed relevant. Because he was too lazy to ask IT to give him permission to access my inbox.

I just smiled, said “sure” and did nothing of the sort.

This was the same man who put me on a performance plan with no quantifiable measurements.

Thanks all I’ve decided to hand in my notice. We had a child in my room with complex medical conditions but I was given no training on how to look after him. Our room leader who has had training was off and it was just me and another lady (also untrained) left to look after a room of 18 kids. Despite having lots of demanding little children to look after we monitored the child regularly but he had a bad episode, he’s ok but we got disciplined for it and told to write about how we could improve our practice to ensure it doesn’t happen again! We had done all we could, we should never have been in that position in the first place.

Very sensible. I think that probably merits reporting too.

Yes I agree to report it. But who to? Ofsted? Someone higher up than the nursery itself definitely. The Council?

I had a job working abroad once at a kids holiday club.

I had no early years childcare experience whatsoever. Who did they put me in with? The under 5's.

Begs belief

I left after 2 weeks.

I think probably the council but I don't know for sure, hopefully someone will!

@Pekoe78 the best option under those circumstances. I would report to ofsted. Hope you find something so much better quickly.