Well that worked out

[Zoe Girl]

My staff that is, I am rather amazed because I have been really stuck in an issue.

She has been working super hard and shown real progress the last month on the key issues. Several times she has caught herself in a negative tone with me or others and stopped, said something about it and then restarted the conversation. Like wow! She even responded super well to a parent who was mad at her. Her last lesson plan was on the phases of the moon and so good. Based on all that I am ready to move her to a Program Leader, she earned enough hours in December but I needed to see other things improve and they have.

Meanwhile the absences are not getting better, between all of her legal and physical issues it is a problem. So the dilemna has been to promote or not, I was ready to separate the 2 things, performance and attendance. Then she came to me yesterday and said she needs to put in her 2 weeks notice because she misses too much and she sees the impact on the team and the kids. I had to agree, and throughout the afternoon however we talked about her doing 3 morning shifts instead of afternoon to see if that reduced her stress enough to manage. We will try that and if she still needs to put in notice that is fine. She will do 2 weeks of afternoons so I can hire. Honestly as much as I train her and she has addressed things she still needs a lot of training and support on anything she does so I am okay with this.

I talked this through with my supervisor, I wanted his opinion and support. Part of what he said stuck with me, he said that he understood I personally liked her and yet I needed to understand that people don't change. I am not too full of myself but I think that putting serious effort into her training this last month did pay off. Meanwhile the entire education system is based on the idea we can teach things, growth mindset, yet we say that adults are not able to change or learn. I admit that adults have to buy in more than kids, but it is possible. In the case of my staff she has also been doing a lot of therapy so I am not a miracle worker, yet I do want some credit I think.

[iris lilies]

It is indeed an accomplishment when an employee makes the conscious effort to improve in client relations as you describe.

The basic building block of work performance is attendance— that comes first. If the employee is not reliably at work, all of her i provement matters not one whit.

This is a marginal employee.

[Zoe Girl]

I agree, the attendance will stall or set back our progress. So she can try the mornings, no lesson planning or serious behaviors in the morning program. I will have my first wee without morning program in more than a year if this works out. I mostly expect her health won't allow much but i will take what i can get.

Meanwhile my sup said he didn't expect me to do what i did, he expected that i would just cut her loose. That was possible but i chose what i wanted since he did not tell me what he wanted me to do. I did take his advice and didnt make her a floater. It is back to passive speech compared to direct speech. He did admit it would have worked better to just tell me that he wanted me to cut her loose so at least i am not in trouble for this.

[dado potato]

Your first week without morning program?

[Zoe Girl]

Dado i have gone in for the 6:15 to 8:15 shift at least once a week this year, i think last year too. My afternoon program runs about 3-6 and most of the time i dont go home in the middle of the day.