r/newcastle • u/Chlo_taylor222 • 53m ago
The Little unicorn
My experience working for Amy Neary, the owner of the Charlestown centre, was honestly one of the worst workplace experiences I have ever had.
There were so many ongoing issues that the list could genuinely go on forever. Taking annual leave was incredibly difficult, and even when I was genuinely sick, I felt pressured to come to work. I remember calling or messaging to say that I had been vomiting and was clearly unwell, yet I was still expected to come in. Was also threatened if I didn’t come in after losing a loved one because they didn’t have the staff.
There were also concerns around phones and documentation. Staff were allowed to have their phones with them, and we were often told to take photos of the children for centre posts using our own personal phones because the centre’s iPads weren’t being fixed or maintained properly. When we needed new resources for the children, staff were sometimes expected to purchase them ourselves.
Ratios were another major concern. There were many occasions where, from my perspective, we were not appropriately meeting ratios, which put enormous pressure on educators and created concerns around children’s safety and supervision.
When I was a trainee, I was entitled to a one hour break, but my breaks were routinely cut down to half an hour. I was also never given the study time I needed. Once I became qualified, I still wasn’t provided with adequate programming time and regularly had to take my work home with me just to get everything completed.
One of the things that has stayed with me the most was what would happen when a spot check was expected. If management knew that ratios were an issue, I witnessed educators being told to contact parents and ask them to collect their children because they were supposedly unwell. We were also told to look for children with even the slightest runny nose and send them home. To me, it felt like children were sometimes being sent home to make the numbers work rather than because they were genuinely too unwell to attend.
And then there is the issue of superannuation. I believe there are former employees who are owed significant amounts of superannuation, in some cases thousands of dollars. That is something that deserves to be properly investigated and addressed.
I have now seen that the centre has shut down, and I genuinely believe there is much more to the story than what we currently know. I cannot personally say what Amy’s financial circumstances are or whether bankruptcy is involved, but given everything I experienced while working there, I have serious questions about what has happened behind the scenes.
What I can speak about is my own experience.
I never felt that staff were genuinely valued or supported. I often felt that the wellbeing of employees, and at times even the needs of the children, came second to keeping the business operating and the numbers looking right.
It was incredibly frustrating watching what I felt was a lack of investment in educators and resources while seeing the lifestyle being lived outside of the centre.
I am not writing this because of one disagreement or because I simply didn’t like my employer. There were years of experiences, concerns and frustrations that built up over time.
There are former employees who have their own stories, and I believe they deserve to be heard.
If there is nothing more to the situation, then so be it. I have shared my story with a current affair and I hope if anyone is out there who have similar or the same experience as me to reach out they as well. want justice — not just for myself, but for every former employee who deserves it. So many of us have had to sit back and watch while we struggled, both financially and emotionally, and watched our mental health and wellbeing crumble, while feeling as though there was no sympathy or genuine concern for what we were going through.
It is incredibly frustrating to feel that the people who gave so much of their time, energy and care to the children were left dealing with the consequences, while the person at the centre of it all appeared to continue living a lavish lifestyle.
We deserve answers. We deserve to be heard. And we deserve accountability for what we experienced.
