SFU Childcare Society

Working in an environment plagued by favouritism, a lack of support from the management, high employee turnover, relentless work demands, and frequent meetings during breaks is a recipe for professional misery.
Toxic favouritism creates a sense of injustice and inequality, where promotions and recognition seem reserved for a chosen few, regardless of qualifications or performance. Qualified educators often do not get a higher position because of unfair promotions. 
Employees are expected to have heavy workloads -weekly curriculum meetings and documentation, meeting notes, and bi-weekly newsletters that are leading to burnout. The work educators do to take care of the children is a ton of work already, but that's not enough for the management. The absence of work-life balance takes a toll on mental and physical health. If you are taking a sick day often, the management calls you out for a meeting. 
The scheduling of meetings during breaks demonstrates a complete disregard for the well-being and needs of employees. It's an example of how the workplace prioritizes its demands over the basic rights of individuals to take a breather and recharge. If anyone speaks up about the breaks, the management will tell you you are getting paid for your breaks.  
The high employee turnover rate is a clear consequence of these problems. Talented individuals leave in search of healthier work environments where their efforts are acknowledged and rewarded fairly. 
The absence of support from the parents' board about the issues of turnover leaves feelings of frustration and helplessness among educators. It's disheartening to see a lack of action when it's most needed.

I was so excited to work in the beginning because of the past reputation. It's a large childcare at a big university. The managers sounded nice and promised all the support, ONLY at first. Later on, it was very hard to get answers and support. You may get different answers because the managers seemed to be new too. Just do it as what they tell you, and don't complain if you just want a job. It is not fun though. It was so hard so many teachers were leaving and coming. I was advised not to be comfortable because teachers will be moved around quite a bit. I guess 4 weeks vacation is great but the daily workload is VERY demanding. Poor kids and families never have the same teachers. I wish there was just unpaid REAL breaks because either under staffed or no casuals or meetings.  They said there is admin time but that's not enough at all. So I used my own time a lot. I felt burned out. I also wish management was more fair to everyone not only to their favored ones. It is very clique. Maybe okay to work for one year if you are patient for your resume and reference.  They say 4 weeks notice to leave but not necessary it is not in the union contract.

- High educator turn over because staff are not valued, are overworked and burnt out.
- Many inexperienced (Responsible adult) staff hired just to keep ratios in classrooms.
- 4 weeks vacation, but you must cover your own time off with casuals who have no availability or often cancel last minute. 
- Management is not supportive and puts blame onto educators when they ask for help.
- Management picks favourites if they are willing to do anything to hide management's mistakes and gossip behind other educator's backs.
- Management gets upset if you take time off when you're sick.
- Poor work/life balance: You are made to feel that your family and personal life are not important and that you should be grateful for your job. 
- Have unqualified and untrained educators working in middle management positions (i.e. Curriculum Leader) who are on power trips.
- Expect you to attend meetings on your breaks and work through breaks often because "your break is paid."

Educators are tasked with endless responsibilities—writing newsletters, attending meetings, caring for children—and yet, breaks are rarely respected. The shifts are absurd, and Appreciation? A joke. It’s so meaningless, Training? Nonexistent.
Even senior staff set their own rules—showing up late and changing the shift to cover it up. 

The philosophy they push expects educators to give up their time and energy, but there’s no time to actually live up to it. Instead, everything—policies, documents—feels fake, designed to look good on paper but lacking any real substance.

The biggest loss? The quality of care. It’s all surface-level, and the core of what we’re supposed to do—caring for children—ends up taking a back seat. If you’ve worked anywhere else, you’ll notice right away: it’s hard to find another center this size that’s so chaotic, draining, and careless about something as basic as break times. 
After reading some of the reviews below, I couldn’t agree more. 

I worked at this daycare as an ECE and, unfortunately, I felt very unappreciated and burned out.
The expectations from management are often unrealistic, and there is very little support for educators. The centre may appear nice and well-organized to families from the outside, but behind the scenes, educator well-being does not seem to be a priority. Staff turnover is constant, which says a lot about the work environment.
One issue is breaks. Although paid breaks are supposed to be provided, they can be interrupted or cut short if management needs you on the floor or in a meeting.
In my experience, management is the biggest problem. There is a lack of support, favoritism, and leaders may seem nice only when they need something from you. Overall, I would not recommend this workplace to educators looking for a supportive and healthy environment. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Indoor and outdoor environments

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Keeping up with daily tasks while addressing emotional behaviours between 1 and 2 to 3-4 children at the same time

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Cooperative and collaborative work environment and culture among educators and management.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is free play in the morning and snack with choice of circle time or outdoor play after snack. Then lunch is prepared for serving and short story time and nap/rest time.  Following nap/rest time there's more indoor free play, snack and outdoor play time.  Clean-up after indoor play time and prepping morning snack.  Admin time for newsletter or other admin tasks are done daily for 1.5 hrs.

Very political now, used to be a great place to work
First, understand that there are high turnovers everywhere in ECE field due to wages but at sfuccs another main reason for turnover is lack of support from management.
Since recent management changes, we lost a lot of quality educators, therefore quality of care has gone down. SFUCCS used to pride itself as leading in childcare but not anymore. Recent educators hired were only hired to fill for those who left. There is also favouritism but everyone is hush hush. 
Educators deserve more than this. Even when wages weren't the best years ago, educators stayed because of the work culture plus management was always someone you can rely on

The demands on educators are relentless, from administrative tasks to childcare duties, yet breaks are consistently disregarded. The workload is crushing, and genuine appreciation is scarce. Training is lacking, and leadership's actions often contradict their words. Policies and procedures seem designed to impress rather than genuinely support staff and children. As a result, the care provided feels superficial, and the true needs of the children are overlooked. This center's chaotic atmosphere, lack of respect for staff well-being, and poor management are glaring issues that many reviews have also highlighted. The coordinators that are supposed to support the Senior Ed.or the regular educator can only blame you, can only write you off , can report you to the program director right away

Management is a serious problem at SFUCCS.  Extreme lack of support for staff, emails or requests unanswered, HIGH turnover of excellent educators who have tried hard to focus on the children but shameless disrespect received from management not to mention the favoritism made this work environment impossible.  Parent board members were disappointing turning a deaf ear and a blind eye when educators relayed difficulties which the parents themselves recognized and shown concerned for but ignored.  How an organization such as this has been allowed to continue in this manner is beyond me.  Whole teams of educators have left leaving voids in all programs.  

I’ve had the unique opportunity to work with all age groups from infants to school-age children, through a range of roles including practicum student, on-call educator, educator, and senior educator. Each role has played a meaningful part in shaping not only my identity as an educator, but also my growth as a leader within early learning communities. What began as a student placement evolved into a space for ongoing reflective learning, opportunities, and professional development that has deeply impacted both personal and professional life. 

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