by Melissa A.F.

Created on: May 20, 2009

I love working with kids, so while I was pursuing my Masters degree I worked in a daycare. The director was named Mary and she seemed very friendly when she interviewed me. We even exchanged a high five or two in the course of our conversation. So when I was offered a job teaching preschool from her, I took it thinking this seemed like a fun and laid back place to work.

To say I was wrong was the understatement of the year.

I should have picked up on the clues from the other daycare workers that Mary was psychotic, but she hid it well for the most part. Sure it came out here and there, but being the new girl I was able to sidestep her wrath for a bit. I witnessed her manipulate people, start fights between coworkers, and torture people so that they would quit because if she fired them she would make them eiligible for unemployment. She called one of her employees a bigot in front of the whole staff and this employee was married to an African American! When she had it out for you, she would stop at nothing to make you miserable. I was just happy she seemed to like me.

One day, that changed.

I was having horrible hot flashes to the point where it seemed like I was near passing out some days. I do not mean just sweating a bit, I mean soaked through my clothes and feeling faint on a daily basis. I called a meeting with Mary to ask her if I could refrain from going outside with the children on hot summer days until I received some tests from my doctor so we could figure out what the problem was. Mary was helpful at first, saying that my health was important and to just bring in a doctor's note stating that I could not be in excessive heat for now.

So about a week later when I came in with my doctor's note I was sure everything would be able to be worked out. I was wrong. Mary called a meeting with me shortly after receiving my note from the doctor and told me that now that she had a document stating that I could not be outdoors, I was not able to fulfill my job requirements and she would not be able to use me any further in my current position. Instead she wanted to reduce my hours to 20 a week (I was working 32) and dock my pay a dollar an hour (and let me tell you, daycare workers do not make any money to begin with). Not to mention they took almost one hundred dollars a paycheck out for benefits. That would leave me with basically a weekly paycheck not even in the triple digits.

To say I was shocked and angry would be putting it mildly. This woman used the very doctor's note she had asked me to get against me to drive me out of her daycare because I was having a medical problem she did not want to deal with. Of course I turned down her offer. I was a college graduate for God's sake, I was not some uneducated person with no other options. So I took the option of leaving and never looking back. I still feel sorry for those who have to deal with that woman but I am lucky that I was able to get out when I did.

I still hear horror stories about good old Mary, and from what I hear whenever my name is brought up she gushes about what a genius I was with the children and how sorry she was to see me go. I wonder how a bi-polar psycho gets away with directing an organization that cares for children, but I am just happy to not have to go to work there anymore. I still think of her on the hottest of summer days and turn my air conditioning up a little higher in her honor.

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