Is it wrong to poach teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t blame somebody for taking a higher paid job. I feel bad for the rest of the people at the school, and the school at some point, but I think people have to look out for their own best interests. At the same time poaching really seems unethical. These teachers now nannies should probably watch out for these employers down the line, because if they are unethical in one way, they might turn out to be unethical in other ways.

Conspiring to keep women in poverty is not ethical behavior. Offering someone a job is not unethical.

Conspiring?? Who?

It was unethical for these families to come in to a school and poach 4 teachers. It cripples the program and now it affects many other families. If these families needed nannies, they could’ve looked for nannies elsewhere, or waited until the end of the year if they loved those teachers so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know how much preschool teachers get paid, but I pay about $2.2k for a 4 year old (24 kids with 2 staffs). I assume they get paid at least $50k for the lead teacher, do I guess it righht?

When I taught, I got paid $24/hour and I wasn't covered for planning time. So I got 25k/year before taxes.I got no health benefits, no 401k, nothing but taxes taken out. I could only do it because my DH has a better paying job. No way to survive as a preschool teacher on your own in this area. But I've learned in LCOL areas they get paid even lower, so...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Preschool pay is very very low, despite costs for parents being so high. When I taught preschool I may have left for higher pay too, but especially if they were unhappy with the director. Maybe something else was going on that you didn't know about.

Maybe the administration was awful in some way, making leaving an attractive option for those teachers. But people choose preschool teaching for the children, not the administration, and not for the pay. I'm surprised that one teacher would abandon those 3 and 4 year olds, let alone more than one. TBH, I think OP is a troll. But to answer her question, yes, "poaching" is wrong, those teachers did the wrong thing, and the parents did the wrong thing.

[Anonymous]

When I worked as a lead a few years ago, salary prange was $21 - 25.00 an hour, assistants ranged 15-17.00

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I worked as a lead a few years ago, salary prange was $21 - 25.00 an hour, assistants ranged 15-17.00

And were the hours good for your schedule?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t blame somebody for taking a higher paid job. I feel bad for the rest of the people at the school, and the school at some point, but I think people have to look out for their own best interests. At the same time poaching really seems unethical. These teachers now nannies should probably watch out for these employers down the line, because if they are unethical in one way, they might turn out to be unethical in other ways.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel about this.

Though, I’m actually a little surprised preschools don’t have employment agreements with non-compete-like clauses that would forbid this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t blame somebody for taking a higher paid job. I feel bad for the rest of the people at the school, and the school at some point, but I think people have to look out for their own best interests. At the same time poaching really seems unethical. These teachers now nannies should probably watch out for these employers down the line, because if they are unethical in one way, they might turn out to be unethical in other ways.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel about this.

Though, I’m actually a little surprised preschools don’t have employment agreements with non-compete-like clauses that would forbid this.

Contracts are made to be broken. Is a preschool going to sue a former teacher for quitting midyear? Unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t blame somebody for taking a higher paid job. I feel bad for the rest of the people at the school, and the school at some point, but I think people have to look out for their own best interests. At the same time poaching really seems unethical. These teachers now nannies should probably watch out for these employers down the line, because if they are unethical in one way, they might turn out to be unethical in other ways.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I feel about this.

Though, I’m actually a little surprised preschools don’t have employment agreements with non-compete-like clauses that would forbid this.

Contracts are made to be broken. Is a preschool going to sue a former teacher for quitting midyear? Unlikely.

There's an anti-poaching clause in the contract with the parent, actually, if they are smart. And yea, a parent might pay you a liquidated damages fee just to be done with it.

But no, it would be dumb on a number of levels to try and enforce a noncompete on a preschool teacher (and just mean).

[Anonymous]

Our in-home daycare said that you could hire their teachers as a nanny but they would take a $1500 fee if that happened.

[Anonymous]

It's a free market

[Anonymous]

Did the families coordinate to poach the 4 teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our in-home daycare said that you could hire their teachers as a nanny but they would take a $1500 fee if that happened.

+1

I agree with this, not so much because of teachers being poached (though that sucks for the rest of the class, including those who opted for preschool because they could not find a nanny) - but because any nanny service charges well above that. I think the fee should be more at $5k. If these moms want the nanny so bad, they will pay.

What I do not understand is women poaching nannies from other women - no matter what they call it. You don't know someone else's situation, even if you think they don't "need" a nanny. Plenty of us would have had more kids, if we had proper help. I have seen people who live with/very near able bodied family try to poach nannies for about $10. an hour, plus a uniform requirement. Pitiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the families coordinate to poach the 4 teachers?

They likely know each other.

[Anonymous]

Good for the teacher and staff. They are not paid well. Most centers don't pay well. Better be a nanny

[Anonymous]

As a director of a program, it would be just devastating. We'd have to close a room if we suddenly had no teachers in a classroom, as we are full so we can't just move kids to another room. I just spent 3 months trying to hire 2 teachers - and we pay on the higher end, which is $45,000 (ish) for a classroom teacher, $51,000 for a lead teacher. And there is the DC Pay Equity Fund on top of that, for an additional $10,000 or $14,000 (depending on whether you are considered an Asst teacher or Regular Teacher).

Si, I do think it was a horrible thing to do.... BUT I also understand that if a teacher wants to leave I can't do anything and I wish them godspeed to make more $. This is all I can offer them and we already charge a gazillion $ in tuition!

I do think it's shitty of a parent to start at a school and very quickly pull their child out and take a teacher - there are MANY other places to hire a nanny than doing that.