Working With The Adults In Child Care

1.                  Treat the adults like they are children in your classroom; be clear and concise and straight to the point.

2.                  Find out the structure of your organization, who makes the rules, what the rules are and who has the power to enforce or change them.

3.                  Cut gossip by encouraging the person who is breaking confidentiality to only share information directly with the person they are upset with.  “I think you need to speak directly to ____ about this issue.  If you need help after that try talking to_____.”  DON’T LISTEN TO GOSSIP OR SPREAD IT

4.                  If there is a really big problem see if you can come up with a system everyone understands and can follow.  When things are clearly defined there won’t be trouble in the future.  For example, if a person is using profanity around the children there could be a work rule that states that this is unacceptable in the workplace and it can detail what will happen in the event a person breaks the rule.

5.                  When you have a big problem at work ask yourself a few questions: How much does this bother me?  Am I a part of the problem?  How could I get this moving in the right direction so it will stop happening?  What are 2-3 possible solutions to this problem and whom do I need to talk to first to share my ideas?  How long can I put up with this situation and by when do I need to see a change made?  Are things so bad and bothersome that I need to look for a new job?

6.                  Remember that the policy manual should be available and contain the basic recipe for how things are supposed to work at work.  Look for the chain of command and the grievance policy so that you know exactly who to speak to when.

7.                  Try to encourage your director to spend 15-20 minutes with you every month so that you have quiet time to ask questions, build a relationship and work on small problems before it reaches a crisis stage.

8.                  Be open and honest with your director/administrator so things can be solved.

9.                  Lack of money is at the root of many child care workplace problems.  If you want to work with young children you need to transfer those skills to working with the adults as well.

Compiled by Renee Zaman,  608-527-2512