I am so screwed (staffing)

[Zoe Girl]

Yup even my boss said so.

I am running a little short staffed but functional. I have been trying to hire and that is a royal f**ing pain. The system at best can get someone through it in 3 weeks it seems. I have one person who wants the morning shift and that is taking forever. That means a lot fewer days I am there at 6:15 am. I have seen candidates in our system (pooled positions for 40+ sites) and they are marked 'interview invited' but have sat there for 25 days. I finally just called one and she had never been contacted. Great, she backed out of the interview because she is pregnant and too close to her due date. I am now checking daily for new people, no luck yet.

Then my assistant put in her 2 weeks notice, already feeling stretched way too thin. Parents are complaining there are not enough programs and I just can't do much right now. I got creative with a colleague and I am taking her assistant who worked my summer camp 2 days a week. I have a para at the school who can sub and works for me a lot, so if she is ever sick there is no one. Still functioning.

Today my aide bombed. He is in his 40's, new to working with kids, and struggling. We have had staff meetings and today I again talked about not leaving the room without talking to your co-workers. This is serious in any job but when we are talking about kids it is really essential. He has been clocking out at night without telling his coworkers he is leaving, leaves the room without speaking, and when we have set-up time before kids he sits across the room. He also tells me he has never been so disrespected in his life as he is now with his coworkers. I just don't see it. I have worked with the other staff anyway, they invite him over, offer to help him with his projects, etc. Today he walked out of the gym and left his co-worker with a group of kids and didn't say anything. He apologized a little but then went back to feeling disrespected and angry. I think I am a person willing to listen to about anything, but this is BS. He then asked to leave early because he wasn't feeling well, said again that the other staff have been 'on him' since day one and made some noises about this job not working out. I am talking to him tomorrow, I was going to take time off but forget that. I called my boss to update her and say I am not sure if he is going to make it, her response was 'oh you are screwed'. Yup,

[Tammy]

Some people can't adjust to that sort of work. It sounds similar to what our behavioral health techs do in psychiatry. A unit of 24 adult patients and there's 2-4 techs. They can't leave the unit without informing their peers and they can't have more than one tech off the floor at a time. For 12 hour shifts. It feels like adult babysitting to somebody them when they're new. And it feels very controlling and restrictive. Lots of rules and very little freedom for the techs. For 12 hours. You have to tell your peers if you simply need to go to the bathroom.

Imagine an adult who has worked independently in an office setting or skhrthkmg similar, trying to adjust to this type of job.

It can feel very micromanaged and unfriendly. Many "rules" are written nowhere but are just part of the culture. And they are necessary for keeping the patients safe. But still.

I wonder if your employee just isn't a good fit for that job.

[razz]

It sounds as though he just doesn't have the maturity to understand the legality of being in attendance when dealing with children. It is not about him but the law requiring his compliance.

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you both, yeah the maturity thing is big. I am treating him more like a new 20 yo staff in many ways. He has not returned his sheet for working the camps that fall on the breaks, he does not seem to remember all the meetings we do, one he was 45 minutes late to and we were starting to deal with some of the issues so that didn't get worked on.

Tammy I hadn't thought about how our work environment feels coming from somewhere else. However our shifts are 3 hours on regular days, longer when we have camps. 12 hours is a long time. But no matter how long if you are used to just going to the bathroom or taking a call whenever it will feel bad to have to check with your coworkers for everything (especially younger women, I think that is a factor). One thing that is happening is that he has body language and other indicators that come up when my most experienced staff asks him to do things, so she was honest that she is not going to ask so much because then it creates negativity, however then she is doing too much of the work. If he wants to keep trying this then I am going to have to work with him directly a lot, I just went into our storage room and it is a wreck. After projects he puts things in there but it is almost like he is waiting for his mother to come clean up after him. I found stuff just dumped, not at all like how my experienced person and I have kept it for 4 years.

[iris lilies]

It sounds as though he just doesn't have the maturity to understand the legality of being in attendance when dealing with children. It is not about him but the law requiring his compliance.

This, exactly. Sure it may "feel " micromanaged and controlling, but a mature person understands the requirements of the job. He wont last, he is on his way out.

[Zoe Girl]

This, exactly. Sure it may "feel " micromanaged and controlling, but a mature person understands the requirements of the job. He wont last, he is on his way out.

Agreed, he does not have the patience for the kids or maturity. I was thinking a huge sign of this is the he is hyper sensitive to how he is being treated but I have had to work with him because he is not aware of how he is coming across to the kids, not sensitive to them at all. So sometimes it is better to pull off the bandaid, and right now I would be so far out of ratio to have him leave that I am not sure how to manage this.

For my club programs, different ones on different days that run 6 weeks at a time, the parents are going to have a fit because I am pulling back on those to have bare bones staffing for our primary childcare program. I feel bad for the families where one kid is in Choir for the school year but I don't have a club for a younger sibling all the time, first year I haven't been able to make sure that my schedule supports families with multiple kids. No parent really wants to hear a lame 'we are short staffed' excuse.

[Float On]

Its such a high turn-over rate in that field and I can't imagine it pays that well for what it asks of the employees.

[Zoe Girl]

So I am kinda humbled. I talked to him today and he does have some good examples of disrespect, however he was talking about a different co-worker! So I was watching interactions with one staff and he really has an issue with another person. This is the staff who only has 4 more days with us so we can probably work on this. He is highly sensitive and a bit reactionary. He said the person kept screaming at him which is not what was observed, he also admitted to having a panic attack basically when he couldn't manage the kids. I told him that his co-worker was also probably panicking because he walked out on her. So we are at least changing things so he really is just assisting, not leading. I thought it would help him enjoy the job to plan activities but it is way beyond what he can do right now. I also am looking for more training support, we have training on the schedule already but I may need to do more.

In the end I think he would be a better fit for a looser program, not one as structured and goal oriented as mine. One of the 'rich' schools that lets kids just play more (you don't get grants to just let kids play). I realize I have a strong bias against those programs, not that they are bad but I really don't want to run a program like that. He also really needs to focus more on learning, not trying to just figure it out on his own.

Float On, we changed our minimum wage in our district to $12 an hour, so I feel much better about what we pay. That is the basic for a person with almost no experience. So we are improving in the pay department, but it is a really challenging job. One thing that happens is people just really like kids so they try this work and realize it is much harder than expected, or are surprised that you need to develop skills.

[lhamo]

ZG -- I think you still have my email address. Could you send me the links to your job postings? I have a friend on another forum who is newly divorced and looking for extra work while waiting to get a FT position (she's a librarian, but currently only has a PT position in that field). She's also subbing, but might be interested in another PT gig or occasional fill in work. I have also alerted you to this thread, so she may contact you herself. But I'd like to be able to send her the links if possible - she's juggling a lot at the moment.

Wish I could lend you a hand while you get staffed up.

[Zoe Girl]

Lhamo, you are totally the most supportive long distance friend I have ever had!

So I know I still have your email, what your friend needs to do right away is collect documentation for her hours worked with kids. This is one of those stumbling blocks with our licensing agency. I need to hire a program leader, which means at least 455 documented hours supervising children. Most of my documentation came from subbing, it was pretty easy to get a letter from the district. If she was a school librarian or one in a stand alone library that did children's programs that also is a place to get hours documented. The one morning staff I have in the hiring process, just needs to submit paperwork with our HR person, is classified as an aide right not so that means she cannot be left alone with children. Makes a program difficult so I have to be careful to not hire too many aides. This young lady is a Literacy Fellow so she is accruing hours every day and I know it won't be long before she will be a program leader. Part of the issue with my one staff is that he is an aide, and not because he can't find documentation. He really hasn't worked with kids before.

So the reason to collect this documentation even if she does not work for us is that it opens her up to all licensed program work, that includes supervisor positions like mine, a lot of summer camps, work with specialized after school providers like Science Matters or Sticky Fingers cooking. It will determine how much she can do and how much she is paid. One of my assistant candidates last year had to be declined because she had done a supervisor role like mine but did not have the minimum number of direct supervision hours (we have generally 5,000 hours in my position, about 5 years for part-time programming)

Good news is that I think that I have good history in being a good boss, I had a former staff hear about our situation who is also returning to work and looking for something in her primary field but is filling out an application. We have a deal that if I get a more permanent staff I will go with it and if she gets something in her field she will go with it, but she was a one-on-one for one of my fave special needs kids so she has super patience.