Quote Originally Posted by Roger View Post
Anecdotal feedback - I had an interesting discussion with my sister-in-law over coffee yesterday. She works at what was previously an upmarket day care centre in one of Auckland more affluent suburbs which was taken over by Evolve some months back.
I asked her how's things at work and got the following.
Bloody awful.!!...said with a highly discontented frowning look. I took the bait..as you do and asked why ?
Her - The whole atmosphere of the place has changed. We're not allowed to even heat the place properly, (this piqued my interest as I'm aware that according to the world health organisation the minimum temperature for a healthy workplace is 16 degrees Celsius).
Me - What do you mean don't they have a heat pump or two ?
Her - No they have a single electric heater and we're not allowed to run it much.
Me - What has been a typical temperature during the last week inside the centre ?
Her - 11 degrees and if we complain we run a real risk of being fired like my friend was last week. She went on - The kids used to get fresh fruit and decent lunches, now they get cheap rice crackers, (for those that don't know these are the $1 packs of cheap biscuits) and for lunch its mainly pasta and rice.
Me - Because that's the cheapest food they can provide right ?
Her- You got it.
She continued - I wouldn't dare ask for new teacher aids, equipment or toys for the kids...the word has come down, we keep costs to the absolute minimum.
Me - How are parents reacting to this ?
Her - We've had quite a number of parents pull their kids out of the centre in the last few weeks. She continued - I'm really not happy and to make matters worse we don't have quite the ideal number of qualified v unqualified care givers...really they have one too many qualified caregivers for the ideal ratio and I think they're trying to get rid of me and hire an unqualified replacement because its cheaper.
Me - They want to run the leanest legally allowable qualified v unqualified care-giver ratio for the number of kids at the centre to keep costs to the lowest level don't they ?
Her - How did you guess ?
Me - What would happen if you reported the unhealthy environment, (meaning lack of heating), to the authorities ?
Her - I'd be certain to lose my job and get a bad reference so would probably be unable to find another one.
Me - Do the other staff feel the same way ?
Her - Yep.

We then went on and discussed my brothers problems at his workplace....I felt bloody happy to be self employed at the end of that discussion.

Undernourished, cold, discontented kids...is this the future of early childcare in N.Z ?

Me ol mate Norah Barlow...you can really trust her to direct this company in a manner that's in the best interests of our young kids right ??????

Do you really want to invest in a company knowing they're not committed to the very best standards for early childhood education and welfare and that its only for profit. Profit comes before kids welfare...something makes me really uneasy about that.
Roger, That really is a quite shocking account. Maybe I have this one wrong.