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?

I don't think it applies to a little tikes car?

@DoormatBob 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I might check if the pub sells non alcoholic wine. If they do, maybe give the benefit of the doubt.

I get you can't be certain they were working the afternoon, or it could have been schloer but perhaps you could speak to the manager but make a point of not naming names or accusing anyone of definitely drinking alcohol.

Instead, you could ask to see the alcohol policy and ask that all staff are sent a reminder without any fingers being pointed on this occasion as you have no proof

It was probably a rare treat. If they were there every lunchtime then that would cause me concern but I could not get worked up about this.
It really does not appear to me that any children are at risk, based on this.

Do you apply that rule to parents too? They are not allowed a drink while they're 'on duty' looking after their children at home? I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of children will have seen their parents enjoying a drink at home. It's amazing that parents are always willing to apply far stricter rules to those who are looking after their children than they apply to themselves.

If they were working it wasn’t acceptable but if they had a day off then completely fine and non of your business. As you don’t know that they were working don’t say anything.

I voted YABU because you don't know what they were drinking or whether they had the afternoon off. I'd mention it light-heartedly to the Management at the nursery.

Perhaps it was this person's birthday ?

Perhaps they were drinking something non alcoholic ?

Perhaps they had some bad news ?

Perhaps they have a new job & are leaving ?

They were not at work !

Yes I would of course report them

Report them at once.

I want to know how people feel about the following professions drinking at lunch

surgeon
pilot
firefighters
police

??? these are all safety critical jobs where people’s lives are depending on them
Nursery workers are responsible for the precious lives of children!

Report it.
Imagine if they returned from their boozy lunch break and one of the children had a medical emergency. How would they cope if a child started choking or had a seizure. Imagine if a child died and there’s an investigation. I’m not being dramatic. Things like this happen.

There’s a time and a place to enjoy a drink and it shouldn’t be in your lunch hour especially when looking after others.

You are being totally dramatic, OP doesn't even know if they were working after their lunch.

Plus a glass of wine would not make them incapable of dealing with situations.

Exactly. A child in my friend's nursery died from choking last year. Imagine if it turned out the staff had had wine with lunch.

All I can say is after reading this thread I hope a large proportion of you never serve on a jury. You've just assumed guilt with zero facts...

This. One glass of wine with a meal is not a problem.

Most of the posts with the assumptions are the ones assuming they weren't working that afternoon.

@CelesteCunningham the initial post is an assumption.....

Exactly the whole thread is based on nothing more that two people who work at a nursery being in a pub together during the week. That's it that's the whole story and yet the amount of assumptions the OP and subsequent posters have made about the situation is just insane.

No but the hypothetical point stands. If a mistake was made by a staff member managing the emergency, even if it could have happened anyway, and an investigation found the staff had drunk alcohol then I would imagine that may leave the nursery in a very different position legally, reputationally, than if they'd had no alcohol at all.

If OP had been to collect DC form nursery and had been greeted by these 2 members of staff - there's more of a case, though it could have been alcohol free.

A "sheepish expression" is conjecture. Especially as OP had already assumed the worst, she would see them looking guilty as she has decided they are when it might have been "Oh no there's Jemima's mother. She had paint on her yesterday what if she wants to complain?" Or sheepish because "Oh no Jemima's mother has seen us out drinking on our day off and is going to assume the worst!"

There are teachers and youth workers who have been complained about because a parent saw them with alcohol in their SHOPPING before now. So they may well have worried OP would react... well exactly as she has done even though they did nothing wrong

@Catandsquirrel .... IF!

I'm sure the nursery have some form of drug and alcohol policy! We certainly do at work and we sit in an office behind closed doors (we write reports). I would assume if they were at work, it is unacceptable.

No I wouldn’t have a problem with this and wouldn’t report them. A glass of wine with lunch is perfectly normal in many countries, no matter what your job is. It’s not going to make them feel drunk at all, unless they drink very infrequently, which I would assume they don’t, as people who drink infrequently don’t tend to have a glass of wine at lunchtime.

I'm a nursery manager.

Last year a staff member was working a split shift so she left to get children from school, then took them to her friends who was babysitting and came back at 5 to lock up. She let slip that she'd had a glass of wine at 4:30 when she arrived at her friends house as it was Friday and there were a few school mums doing it.

I had to follow our policy and she was dismissed due to gross misconduct. It is completely unacceptable to drink on your break or before coming in to work.

I really hope that they had an afternoon off and were enjoying a well earned wine.