Nursery workers drinking at lunchtime.

[Brendathedoll]

Had a rare day off yesterday so went for a pub lunch with my sister. In there I saw 2 nursery nurses from my child’s daycare having lunch and they each had a glass of wine. There were also 2 empty glasses in the table but possibly from previous customers. I wasn’t happy but my sister says it’s there lunchtime they don’t get paid for and 2 glasses won’t make any difference. They saw me and looked a bit sheepish but it means I can’t report them anon now. I’m scared if I say something they would treat my child differently. Am I being ott thinkinb they shouldn’t drink while caring for kids?

Yeah it's crazy. 11 pages of people saying they should be reported and what evil people they are and people don't even know if they were working.

People love a drama on here.

Absolutely this!!

I'd be looking for another nursery pronto!

As a PP said if they have no problems drinking in public at lunchtime then god knows what happens behind closed doors.

And of course they were working why do the mumnset "kind" people always put up with shit and think up ridiculous reasons?

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

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!

Very scary that some posters think it's ok to drink at lunchtime when being paid to look after kids!

And of course they were working why do the mumnset "kind" people always put up with shit and think up ridiculous reasons?

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

Why would they need to go and explain to nosy parents that they weren't working? They were quite evidently not working it's not posters thinking up ridiculous reasons it's posters engaging their brains. The OP herself admitted she had essentially made up the whole thing based on no actual evidence.

Do you honestly think one member of staff would go and drink during their lunch break in the pub next to the nursery they work at let alone two.

I can't remember ever seeing it on offer - and I barely drink alcohol, so I read the AF lists in pubs a lot. Wetherspoons are the largest chain in the UK and don't.

It's not completely impossible that the pub was one of the ones which does stock AF wine and two minimum wage workers both happen to be in the small minority of people who like it and shelled out for it, but that's really not the way to bet.

The most likely option (by some way IMO) is that they were going off shift.
Second most likely was that they'd decided to say fuck it for some reason and sprint to the pub for a sandwich and a glass of wine in their lunch hour. Seems unlikely that you'd get away without being busted.
AF wine or a flat apple juice which happens to be exactly the same colour as wine a poor third most likely.
The OP not looking hard enough to distinguish lemon squash/lemonade from wine is another possibility - you would never do that if looking properly but for all we know she could have had sunglasses on or been pissed herself.

And of course they were working why do the mumnset "kind" people always put up with shit and think up ridiculous reasons?

What a stupid thing to say

Mind your own business !!!

I wouldn't laugh and tell a parent it was my day off. They don't own what I do in my spare time and it's none of their business.
Then again I wouldn't have time to go the pub at lunch time anyway

@Kai125 even more scary are dimwitted posters who rush to conclusions based on little or no evidence.

You really should speak to the nursery manager about this. It is a safety issue.

It is not jumping to conclusions to seek further information. It’s the only responsible thing to do. Maybe it’s nothing, but really quite likely it is something to be concerned about.

Yes, maybe it was non alcoholic, although who drinks non alcoholic wine in a pub at lunchtime? But maybe it was, or maybe the glasses belonged to someone else, maybe they weren’t going back to work. All that is possible though to me not that likely.

You need to actually check and confirm this. No one ever knows how they will respond to alcohol on any given day, and slowed reaction times, misjudgments or distance, lowered inhibitions eg re safety….in their role these are highly dangerous to vulnerable children.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

"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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

“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!!

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

Which could so easily be vodka and coke!!

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.