To tell them to F*** off and quit before the Christmas break?

[icyblast]

I’ve been working full time at a nursery for 3 years now, and honestly, it’s been terrible. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to stick around this long. I think I just got too comfortable. The kids are lovely, and I genuinely enjoy that part of my job. But the management / owners? That’s a different story. It’s a chain of nurseries, and all they care about is profit. The staff are treated like shit, paid peanuts, and they act like they’re untouchable / above employment law. I could share so many stories, but I won’t bother. However, this latest incident has pushed me and a few others over the edge.

To keep it short, the owners like to donate to charity (which isn’t a bad thing), but they’re not good people, and no one sees what happens behind the scenes. They’ve organised a charity event for tomorrow that lasts 3 hours and threatened us with disciplinary action if we don’t show up. We all work Monday to Friday (that’s what our contracts say) and won’t be paid for our time tomorrow. Plus, it’s the last weekend before Christmas, so naturally, most of us have plans or are going away. They only told us on Tuesday that we were expected to attend. One of my colleagues only started 2 weeks ago (already had plans for the weekend), and while our manager let her off, she basically got a warning and was told not to let it happen again. Seriously? It’s her day off! Why shouldn’t she be able to make plans?

The thing is, if they had just asked us nicely to help out, most of us would have agreed. But they’ve given us no choice and threatened to sack us if we don’t go! Then we have to act like it’s a wonderful company and put on smiles and act happy for the parents and kids. We’re going just to avoid the hassle, but most of us are now looking for new jobs.

I talked to my partner about this, and he told me to just leave. I don’t have another job lined up yet, but I’m fully qualified and have over 10 years of experience in child care. I’m not trying to be cocky, but there are so many care jobs available right now that I doubt I’d have a hard time finding something better. AIBU to hand my notice in on Christmas Eve and enjoy my time off?

Just go home when you're scheduled to home. If they say anything, tell them you're contacting ACAS and keep walking.

My guess is that if you rang any childcare or care agency, they will be able to offer you work almost straight away. I’m going against most people here, but leaving the job (due to ‘wanting a better opportunity’ rather than ‘crappy working conditions’) looks better than getting sacked for any future employers. I found this out the hard way!

Report to ACAS.

Oooh, this reminds me of the year we booked xmas dinner on xmas day at a local pub. When we arrived it was absolute chaos. Table wasn't free for us yet, other fed up families stood around with no tables available, angry customers still waiting to be served, angry customers who had finally been served after a ridiculously long wait but the food was cold/burnt/under-done/things missing etc. A couple of stressed and hassled waitresses running around like headless chickens.

It was the worst xmas dinner.

Turned out that the pub had just been bought by a chain and had told loads of the waiting staff that they HAD to work xmas day regardless of whether they'd booked it off or not, and for their normal NMW rate. If they didn't they'd be up for disciplinary action.

They all made a pact to just not turn up for work that day. Or ever again. Left them right in the shit. Hundreds of bad reviews were left by customers on TripAdvisor, and word of mouth round the village etc.

We had a terrible xmas day, but absolutely could not blame the staff for doing what they did. WTF thinks its ok to treat hard working individuals so disgustingly?!

You could try "quiet quitting" (including not going in tomorrow) until you've found a new job. If it were me I might make the odd comment to parents as well so word gets around, but I quite like shit-stirring when I've been mistreated.

Wow! making you work on a Saturday when it's your day off and threatening you with the sack if you don't is completely unacceptable. I would go with what your DH says - don't turn up and if they fire you so be it. Get another job in the new year whatever happens.

I would say you have commitments tomorrow and you cannot do it. I would urge your colleagues not to go either. They can hardly sack you all.

I didnt call him a boyfriend to be passive aggressive. Partner/boyfriend/husband is irrelevant. Its just that leaving without a job to go to might cause financial difficulty.

If she is on a low wage, then being without work for a few months might cause severe financial hardship.

Benefits are not an option if you've given up a job. I would also worry that the sort of employer who treats staff like this might cause a problem when it comes to references. Slow to provide them, holding up a new job.

Not everyone is in position to be without a wage for a few months, I know im not. And over the bank holidays, DBS checks might be slow to come back etc.

Because it's a buyer's market. Just a few years ago it was companies struggling to find people (seller's market). Now it's people struggling to find work (buyer's market). This means companies can treat people like crap because for every person who walks away, another person desperately seeking work will be taken on straight away.

Buying labour and selling labour. Labour is in plentiful supply right now, so no problem with replacing workers.

Don’t apologise!

Explain you already have plans. If they threaten you with disciplinary, explain you are able to save them the bother, as you resign. Call their bluff and then New Year, New Job. Good luck OP.

Oh, and if you all follow the same line, what can they do about it?

Email them and say you can’t go because of prior commitments and if they fire you then take them to the cleaners

100pc this. Your contract does not cover attendance at put of hours charity events and I am sure the charity would be appalled too to hear this.
I'd definitely just write back and say "thank you for notifying us of an out of hours charity event that we can attend. As I am sure you are aware, attendance at charity event is not part of my contractual duties and therefore I cannot be subject to a disciplinary procedure for non attendance. I wish you the best for the event but I will not be attending."

If they write back and say you must attend then you write back and say "I'd be grateful if you could outline precisely where in the contract of employment it says I must attend out of hours charity events. I am sure the charity themselves would only want voluntary attendance at such an event rather than people subject to threats of disciplinary procedures. If you proceed with a disciplinary then I will be taking this further via ACAS" or something to this effect.

I'd also let your colleagues know too.

I just would not have it ifake.life as difficult as possible tell them you will seek legal advice from the appropriate employment law solicitors.
No one is above the law,some employers just try it on cos often the threat is enough to scare ppl into doing things they can't actually get away with . Stand your ground and rock the boat and leave a paper trail,,question everything in writing .
Employees have lots of rights they often just don't enforce the it are fully aware of them .

No, I wouldn't. As pp said, I'd refuse, let them sack me and take them to tribunal for unfair dismissal. It costs you nothing, often companies settle because its cheaper than fighting the case, so you could get a pay out. More importantly though its a wake up call that they can't treat people like that and go unchallenged.

If you leave without another job you will be down a salary.

Why should they get out of paying you and make your life more difficult, when they’ve already made it difficult enough.

Apply for other jobs and leave asap but I wouldn’t just quit.
If you’ve lasted this long, then you can last a few more weeks.

Once you have a new job you can always steal some of the other staff by recommending them to your new employers if vacancies come up.

What ever you do make sure it’s your last year working for them .

Agree with this. All the staff should refuse to attend. They cant run a business without staff.
I wiuld be reporting them to the relevant authority as well

OP The charity stuff is a tax right off, don't even give them credit it for that. Do not volunteer your time and quit when you can. If they fire you for not volunteering surely you can take them to court for unfair dismissal?

@icyblast I've voted YABU OP simply because you shouldn't resign. Call their bluff. Inform them you will not be attending the charity event tomorrow because (a) you are not contractually obliged to do so, and (b) you have other plans. Then wait for them to dismiss you (their grounds for doing so would be interesting!). Then submit an ET1 for Unfair Dismissal - the chances are they would pay you compensation to get you to go quietly and to avoid the tribunal.
Seriously OP, if you're so P'O'd you want to leave anyway, at least engineer it so you get a chunk of money for their blatant disregard for employment law. 😉

Try and fight them but, if you don’t have the energy, please email your concerns and any proof to whoever will listen because if they don’t care about staff and employment law then they won’t care about safeguarding either. I’m not a fan of ‘for profit’ nurseries as the age of children they cater for can’t really speak up for themselves and it just seems like a huge risk.

Don’t quit. You’ll win a tribunal and get a wee bit of money here.

Don’t go to the event, let it all run its course and let them fire you, which is unfair dismissal. Or let them create a hostile working environment, and document it in lots of email, then quit and it’s constructive dismissal. Then tribunal for you look for another role and enjoy the payout.

Yep. This.

Exactly this!

If you get paid holiday I wouldnt go yet. I get the benefit of the Christmas break. Call in sick tomorrow. Get the paid time off and then quit.