To find this unacceptable?

[LeopardPrint12]

Went to pick up my neighbours daughter from nursery today. I noticed there was one staff member clutching her stomach and looking unwell. She was bank staff as have seen her before. I asked if she was OK and she said she had just vomited in the toilets but had been told she wasn't allowed to go home due to staffing levels and needing a level 3 worker in the room !
Aibu to say this is unacceptable?

Depends was she vomiting in a contagious way, or because she is pregnant?

Which is worse, an ill member of staff, or going below legal staffing ratios?

If she sent her home and it was below legal requirements how would you feel?

what was your solution if you’d been management?

i hat did you neighbour say when you told her?

I have worked in that industry and its not uncommon to have to push through when sick. Its bad management to not have back up but maybe other staff members hadn't shown off. Often the manager will step in to let staff go home

So you think it's acceptable that a member of staff is clearly sick and contagious (No, not pregnant) and has to stay in the room working until 6PM?
I called my neighbour and she is going to speak to management.

oh don’t be daft op

no none of us do

but we think safety trumps avoiding the risk of someone getting a bug

oh she told you that in order to appease you op

What is the option, call every parent and tell them they have to collect their children immediately with no exceptions?
With a staffing crisis in childcare, looks like they are trying to make the best of a bad job.

Of course it's unacceptable.

However parents aren't going to rush and collect their kids due to low staffing so the question is what is more unacceptable

So you think every parent should have been called from work to collect their child immediately so the woman could go home? Because that's the alternative if they've got no cover, they can't fall below the legal requirements.

Of course it's not ideal but it's just making the best of a bad situation.

Just because she's a woman and being sick then she must be pregnant?....right. OK.

I wouldn't want my kid in a room with a contagious worker. Sure they could have mixed rooms or called in for another bank worker. This woman looked good for nothing and will just be running out the room every few minutes to be sick.

Well of course it's unacceptable but I'm guessing they had no one to replace her with so 🤷

How do you know she was contagious?
I'm on Mounjaro and if I eat fatty/greasy food I will vomit. Not contagious though?

But what were they supposed to do? Even if they had immediately rung every parent to get them to collect their child she would still have been needed for ratio purposes.

They could have rung an agency but supply is hard enough to get as it is without trying after the day has started.

What is unacceptable is that funding for nurseries is so poor they can't afford to have staff over and above minimum ratios so there is no slack if someone gets ill.

Of course having an ill member if staff isn't great, but cover can't be produced in an instant either.

In settings, managers are not included in the overall ratios. Having been a manager, I would send the staff member home and step in.

It's worth remembering that bank staff are only paid the hours they work and you only have their version of events in this scenario. Did you confirm they had raised it with a manager?

has anyone, anyone , said this woman “must be pregnant”

your neighbour won’t call management. guaranteed.

You don’t have children op and presumably very very limited experience of nurseries

I wouldn't want my kid in a room with a contagious worker.

whereas the rest of us… would LOVE it!!

they would have had to close the entire nursery if they sent her home

she was bank, which meant they were short staffed anyway

You can't just 'mix rooms'. The ratios are based on age not what room they are in.

Nobody would want their child in a room with an unwell adult. You aren't unusual there.

I do supply. There is an absolutely enormous shortage.

If she had “just vomited” maybe she would’ve been allowed to go home once a few more children had been collected and they would be within the legal requirements.

I'd rather low staffing for an afternoon than a sickness bug

Personally, I would rather ratios were off for the afternoon than a sick person risked spreading it to a bunch of others. I would absolutely find a way to collect my child if asked under those circumstances.