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?

This is why I no longer work in a nursery. The complaints from some parents for what is just over a minimum wage job is fucking ridiculous.

It doesn’t look good on the nursery if they are drinking on lunch hour but you don’t know if they were returning to work or had even been at work. Have you ever had a glass of wine with a child present?

Yes, seriously

This isn’t the point. You can’t have nursery staff drinking alcohol whilst working with kids. Surely this is some sort of sackable or discriminatory offence? You pay for them to be safe within their care. A glass of wine most likely won’t affect their ability at all to look after a child but I know there’s no way my friends and family who work in nurseries can drink and then care for young kids in their care.

Imagine teachers going out for drinks at break then teaching a class. You cant be telling me you think it’s acceptable as well

Also even if they are off work most nursery management is shite. So they will get a lecture about not drinking close to work to avoid complaints from parents. This kind of stuff is why nurseries can not recruit enough staff.

Not even that, she saw two women who MAY have been drinking wine (or could have been drinking something else in a wine glass or non alcoholic wine) who may or may not have been working.

If the nursery has such severe staffing issues it seems unlikely that 2 members of staff were given a long enough lunch break, at the same time, to get to a restaurant, order, have a leisurely lunch together and two glasses of wine each and then get back to work!

I think it's much more likely they had a day or half day off

I don’t think that’s acceptable and you would be well within your rights to report them (presuming they were returning to work after and weren’t on a half day).

Whether the OP has a drink with her child around is totally different to if nursery staff should drink at lunch.

I would ask if they were working that afternoon and decide from there.

Yanbu.
my work had a no alcohol policy, and it is an instant dismissal if you drink on a day you work.
You can’t drink and look after other people’s kids. You save it until after work.

But the OP doesn’t even know if they were working and they weren’t in uniform? Calm down…

I'll have a glass of wine and look after my DC happily. I wouldn't have a glass of wine at work and go and teach because I wouldn't be at my best. Also, looking after my own DC is much less demanding than looking after a room of other people's DC.

You know that there's a difference, it's not a valid point.

Absolutely shouldn't be drinking! I'm shocked anyone would think this is acceptable. They are looking after children for goodness sake!

Honestly so many parents on this thread who would complain with zero evidence the staff were drinking alcohol when they were going back to work.
You all are why so many nurseries struggle to recruit staff. The pay is low and the satisfaction of working with the children are not worth the shite you get from some parents.

Quite. You have no idea whether they were even working, and now you're slagging them off online. I suppose they should be happy it's not on the community Facebook.

So what are you going to do? To be honest I'd immediately withdraw my children from their care.

Maybe there friends and it was an easy place for them to meet! Jess talk about jumping the gun there

I can’t for the life of me imagine that they were working that afternoon. Our nursery tends to have staff do 3 or 4 days a week (as it’s open for 11 hours a day, so that brings them up to FTE). I would imagine they had a day or half day off together and went to the pub? With schools now being into summer holidays there are fewer kids in nursery if parents are off for the summer holidays of older DC.

Did you all miss the fact they weren't in uniform, honestly don't you know how to read...

😂😂😂

Imagine teachers going out for drinks at break then teaching a class. You cant be telling me you think it’s acceptable as well
Friday lunchtime in the pub used to be a regular thing 30 odd years ago. I went but didn't drink alcohol although we used to have wine in mugs with Christmas dinner - I dont recall anyone actually being drunk.

Since that time the increased work load has meant teachers are lucky to get any lunch break at all.

And nurseries do not give long enough lunch breaks to even have a meal at a pub with a glass of wine.

No wonder people don't want to work in teaching or caring roles.

Imagine two teachers during the holidays going for a lunch and a glass of wine and getting slagged off all over mumsnet.

I have never worked in a nursery with an hour lunch break and even if it was an hour they still wouldn't have much time to order, eat and have 2 drinks.
I would suspect half day working. If they did go back to work you won't have to do anything. It will be obvious they've been in the pub and they will get disciplined quite possibly loosing their jobs.
Also it could have been non alcoholic wine.
Parents seem to think they own nursery staff lives.

30 minutes break?

Where are you working, I've never had less than an hour break if I'm working a full day, over my 3+ decades of working.