KinderCare Learning Centers Employee Reviews about "children and families"

Pros

I love the children and parents they are a jot and an inspiration.The staff is friendly and supportive about education.

Cons

upper management suck and polocies are outdate

Pros

I have been working at Kindercare for a total of 19 years between two different centers. Watching children learn and grow and the relationships you have with their families is amazing. Working with a great team is what makes it work. I have had that throughout my years too. You have to love children or it is not the place for you. But the rewards you get from the children and their smiles each day is worth it. Kindercare also inspires you to grown and learn yourself and provides inservice training for you to give you that opportunity. You will find a life time of great experiences at Kindercare.

Cons

At this time threre is none

Pros

Best reasons to work at Kindercare: Free leftover food (food waste is abundant) The children

Cons

Downsides of working at Kindercare: Understaffed Over ratio constantly Constant gossip among staff Children with exceptionalities/children in need of extra attention and care are not cared for properly. Accommodations are not made to serve these children Classrooms are not adequately cleaned, nor held to a high standard of cleanliness Management seems to often be out of touch Supplies are few and far between Burnout among employees is constant Pay is not adequate, and requests for raises are seemingly not put through/not regarded by corporate kindercare

Pros

Coworkers were genuinely interested in the development of the children and worked together to try and make everything run smoothly.

Cons

Leadership in certain locations were flawed and didn't know how to run smoothly. Curriculum didn't allow for different types of learning nor did it make it easy to prepare children for the next age group, which meant some kids were behind when they moved up. Didn't allow teachers to be creative and do outside of the box learning. They basically shunned anything that isn't in their written curriculum, although parents enjoyed the extra learning. Leadership doesn't always stick for their staff. Expect staff members to do multiple positions throughout the school but don't allot them enough time to prepare for each position. I at one point was the cook, the music teacher and then I was moved around to several different classrooms as the lead teacher.

Pros

Great facility. The long term staff genuinely care about the children and families and work very hard. The curriculum is very easy to adapt and build up or down depending on a child's level of understanding.

Cons

Turn over is horrendous! Poor wages and little respect for the jobs held. No support and very money driven to the point of it not even being looked at as childcare. Bonuses only go to Directors even though Assistants do all the same work, sometimes even more. Curriculum was sub par and not developmentally appropriate but also easy to adapt and change to fit the needs of the children, but only if you as a teacher knew how to make such changes. Often times under-qualified teachers were forced into lead teacher roles. There is no work/life balance at all with this company. Once you are employed you are expected to be there every day and when they want you. Granted any childcare job it is expected that you may or may not be needed your full shift or even past your shift but employees are taken advantage of pretty severely and when something happens in their personal life that requires attention they are reprimanded for asking for time off and often times, even when it was a death in the family, have had such requests denied. There is a lot of favoritism as well and moving up is not as easy as one would think. In the district I am in alone there have been over 8 new directors and the Assistants seem to be coming and going through revolving doors in less then 2 years. Bottom line as a parent, go with your gut. If the staff and management treat you nice and take great care of your children then the politics of the company wont have any effect on your child's care. If you are looking for a job in management or otherwise be prepared to deal with disorganization, sub par benefits, lack of respect and recognition, lack of support and constantly changing standards.

Pros

There was no discipline for staff. As long as you showed up anything you did was okay.

Cons

No type of leadership. No real training. You were thrown on a computer for a few days and then into a classroom. Lead teachers have no control over their classrooms or the staff in it. Not unheard of for one staff to take care of 12 children due to laziness of other staff.

Pros

Lovely to meet and make connections with families in your community! Lots of resources to support you teaching children and having lots of educational and fun activities! Sometimes you get gift cards or lunch which is a fun surprise.

Cons

Overworked at my center very common to work 50 hours or even if you work your 40 it's almost like you're treated like you don't want to work. Understaffed constantly people would get hired go through the process and leave which no blame to them the pay is low and the work is hard. No or very few bathroom breaks and at least 1-2 times per month no lunch breaks or short ones. Can be overstimulating to walk into your job and be over ratio for a moment or have different age group of kids and limited ability to leave room for supplies to do activities or even to grab a water.

Pros

There's a real opportunity to help children reach their highest potential in school readiness. The benefits are also great.

Cons

The pay is not worth the amount of work you have to do. There seems to be favoritism when it comes to work schedules and work load. Management seems to only help when they benefit in someway. Preparing lessons requires a lot of my personal time including breaks and time at home. They do not give you extra time to prepare classes. You will never get over time. Promotions seem impossible to attain. Some of the children are unruly and require strict discipline. Positive reinforcement does not teach them respect most times. Very high turnover.

Pros

they hire anyone who's ever been around a kid or is pregnant. (Seriously, I had to help one of the other 'teachers' follow diapering instructions that were already listed.) She also obviously didn't like her job or was depressed.

Cons

One manager screamed at an older employee who was totally legally looking up info on unemployment since all staff had been cut down to 1 to 3 hours a day when we had all been full-time. That's intimidation . A different manager (after leaving work) grabbed an employee's breast in front of me. The manager was gay. The employee said:'You can't do that.' And the employee obviously didn't want that sexual contact. That's harassment. One manager refused a different older employee (in her 50s or 60s) a bathroom break, which is illegal. Management asks staff to be supportive and positive to the children while harassing and negatively talking to staff. You get moved around a lot. Behavior problems are not handled well by managers. I know it's a franchise situation, but I knew teachers at different sites, too. High turnover rate. They pay badly. You break your back for them. And your knees.

Pros

- the kids will mane you laugh and smile and they’ll surprise you; it’s so much fun bring with them all day and learning with them - flexible hours are an option; shifts starting between 6:30 and 9:30 are available at some centers depending on your needs - materials are provided by the company

Cons

- pay isn’t awful, even if you’ve been with the company for a while; you have to threaten to quit to get a substantial raise - preferential treatment; some staff and administration are friends and its palpable - new hires with no experience might get hired at a higher rate than teachers with experience and certification who’ve been there longer - you almost definitely won’t be properly trained; you have to ask to be shown how to do things and where things are if you want to do your job properly - almost all female work environment usually so there’s cattiness and gossip between everyone, administration included - sick leave and personal leave used to be separate but now they’re the same and you don’t accrue much per pay period so if you’re sick and need time off and just started working, you won’t get paid for your time to rest and recuperate - the fact that corporate doesn’t care about staff or children and solely cares about money is palpable - it’s stressful when the center is understaffed multiple days out of the week because you end up with different children from other rooms every day who aren’t in the same developmental stage as your usual students - very few paid holidays - there’s a possibility you’ll be asked to come in and clean on a Saturday. You’ll get paid for your time but it should be built into the work week so you can have a personal life - you might not leave work on time because management is understaffed and has no one to come in the room for you - turnover rate is high