writing up sensitive staff

[Zoe Girl]

I have my newest and least experienced staff. She is coming to this work from other careers so she is learning a lot. She is also very unsure of herself and needy in an emotional way. On Thursday we had a camp day and she asked if I was mad at her due to my face or demeanor. My other staff says she asks them daily if they are mad at her. We keep on telling her that she would know, we practice direct communication at our site.

So now she needs to be given a written warning. It is because she said 'smarta**' at the snack table, even though no kids heard her. This has been an issue with language and we have talked 2 other times. I also need to tell her to stop calling me at home, she does not have my personal number in fact, just the work cell. I have answered in case she was sick and I needed to cover her shift. She called me at home this week to complain about camp. My long time staff have tried to support me when she shares she called me in off hours by asking what emergency she had. I need to be careful how I say it, I do like her and she is learning a lot but I don't do a lot of hand holding. And honestly I can't have her quit at this point without being critical in my staffing level.

My assistant who is wonderful and talented just put in her notice, and I am in the hiring process of another great person. If it takes a long time I am in trouble really, I need stable staff for some of my trauma kids.

[creaker]

I would hope she doesn't take it personally, it just sounds like refining some boundaries - ("smartass" is on the language list, only call people during their off shift for emergencies). Maybe just some reassurance that "it's a lot of stuff to learn in the beginning, but you're doing fine"?

[Zoe Girl]

I think lots of reassurance is very important, and then a boundary for me around not taking it too hard if she does not respond well. I tend to be very sympathetic to staff and not as firm as a manager. However she did respond well to Thursday afternoon. I gave her a form with part of our evaluation process on it and had her take lots of notes on what she saw about how the activities were led and how the children acted. I even gave her the safety page where you check for first aid backpack and fire extinguisher. Maybe she just doesn't do well with unstructured? I have kids like that.

I actually went to a manager about something over a week ago, and feel total cringing over it. I won't go into details but basically I do a lot of deep listening, support, etc of staff and families and kids. So I had an expectation around that and I am pretty sure I wouldn't do it again.

[JaneV2.0]

It sounds like your job involves "child care" for the adults on staff as well, which strikes me as kind of weird.

[Yppej]

Where I live this work requires post-secondary coursework and certification but does not pay much more than minimum wage. So being sympathetic is good.

[rosarugosa]

I would not do well in an environment where a bit of judiciously used cursing was forbidden!

[Zoe Girl]

I would not do well in an environment where a bit of judiciously used cursing was forbidden!

We care for children, so during program time it is not okay at all. After all the kids go home I would not have so much of a problem, before program we are in a school building still. So I am pretty clear during the interview and training process on this with people who have not worked in this environment, kinda up to her if she can do it.