Working at Kindercare — Reviews by Employees

As a Director in one of NJ's more successful centers, I would like to say that it ALL (like anything in life) depends on which center you're at. You can have a crappy center or a stellar one. My team and I- including everyone from the cook to the district and REGIONAL directors/vice presidents- have huge hearts and take care of their people. Yes, there's pressure- but which job doesn't? Yes, there's b.s- but which job doesnt'? Yes, there are days where you HATE your job- but again, where is there 100% happy days all the time. I lead a fantastic team of dedicated ladies and couldn't ask for a better group of girls. I urge anyone who's reading this- especially if you're reading up on Kindercare as a potential employee- to research and experience the center on your own. Judge for yourself and please understand and believe me- not all the centers are the same. I'm saddened when I read these horrible reviews, and truthfully, coming on here to complain and degrade your workplace is shameful. Nothing will ever improve this way. I hope you can have the relationship I have with my district manager- a pleasant, honest, and open one- where you can share and voice your concerns in hopes of positive changes.

Yes, it's a business, Kindercare NEVER tries to deny the fact that it's a corporate-run organization. But I can tell you this much, the day-to-day interactions are on a "local" and personal level. I treat my families with utmost respect and those kids....you love them like your own.

I'm not doubting there are areas to improve on, I'm not saying it's all wonderful all the time, BUT I am saying that any judgement on a global scale is ridiculous, as there are some wonderful Kindercare's out there.

Just think about it....

The problem with any company is that, in a capitalistic society, it has to make money to survive. No other requirements. Just make money. And since KinderCare is a business first, it is going to care about money above all other things. Case in point: these "extracurricular" classes they offer - phonics, music, Spanish, etc. - for an extra fee per month. At both centers I've worked at, we've told the DM again and again, our parents don't have any extra money. But we are forced to push and push it in their faces week after week. It's very unethical. But then, that's business. (I was an asst. director, by the way)

I think the pay is absolutely abominable. KLC does not get its money from state or federal governments, therefore they shouldn't act like minimum wage is all they can afford to pay the teachers. I think they do it because someone high up still believes that childcare is just typical women's work, and we should be glad to be getting paid for doing it in the first place. It really upsets me. I no longer work there, and while searching for simple administrative support positions, I found that people who do MUCH less work than I ever did get paid five, six, seven dollars more per hour. I made more than the poor classroom teachers, but KLC still stuck it to me. I not only lived paycheck to paycheck, I couldn't even afford the occasional luxury purchase, like a DVD or a new pair of jeans.

They also are flagrantly, flagrantly inconsistent when it comes to staff discipline. As middle management, I dealt with employees who left children unattended (the child came inside from the playground to an empty classroom without being noticed) - which is supposed to be an automatic firing - employees who hit kids; even one lady who literally told a mom of an 11-mo.-old that her son had been performing oral sex on another infant. She obviously was joking, that's impossible, but she said it and they didn't fire her.

Yet employees have been fired for something as simple as calling out a child's lie to her face. Where's the justice?

Most of what everybody else here is saying is true. They overstuff rooms in disregard of state licensing standards (our infant/toddler room was licensed for 16 total, our CD was instructed to keep enrolling, so we had 19 and 20 babies at a time); they shift kids back and forth in order to send employees home, rob them of their hours, and comply with what the "labor tool" allows us; they got rid of the cleaning companies so now cleaning the entire center every night is the job of the closing staff and manager (saving money! That's what's important); they stopped giving raises in 2009 and I can't see with what incentive they'll ever reinstate them; they up the tuition prices every August even with the freeze on employee raises; and they don't allow us to buy new, more interesting toys and manipulatives and games for the kids too often. We're encouraged to "make" stuff ourselves.

And you can forget about any real discipline if your child attends a KinderCare. We're not allowed, of course, to be authority figures in these young children's lives. We wouldn't want to anger a parent by doing the right thing and have them withdraw their child. I'm not talking about spanking or anything crazy. I'm talking about they don't even want teachers to use time-outs. Just "redirect." So now our kids learn that when they do something wrong - hit a teacher, run out of the building, dump their lunch on the floor - the worst that will happen to them is we'll give them a piece of paper and some crayons?

I have dealt with school-agers you typically only see in juvenile halls, because KinderCare doesn't want to lose the money (usually from the state, since so many of these troubled kids are foster, and state money is GAURANTEED). One twelve-year-old was bipolar and no one felt the need to tell us that until he put a kid in a choke-hold, then tried to bite the you-know-what of another boy. Another girl, again twelve, was so bitter and so undisciplined that she actually snapped at a parent who told her she needed to calm down. I mean, told him "you don't know me, you can't talk to me, get out of my face." At my last center we had two twins - whose mom was military! - who had no self-control whatsoever; the boy would mutilate the dolls from the home living area and once threw a rock across the street and hit a house, along with the usual blatant talking back and throwing basketballs at six-year-old's heads; his sister made as many loud, ugly noises as possible on an hourly basis.

Disenroll them? Whatever do you mean?

It is so awful and so unfair to hear an employee of ten years say that she doesn't even want to come to work anymore because the Center Director REFUSED to disenroll kids like that.

I could go on and on, but I just needed to vent here and feel a little better. I no longer work for them, but I do miss the cute little ones and I can say that when you have a good staff, they keep you going, especially with laughter. It's too bad that a corporation (there's your clue) that proclaims to care soooo much about children and their well-being, really in the end can only cares about one thing, and that's money. Money does very strange things to people.

No raise in 2 years, the only time you hear anything from mang. is if you did something not quite right. We would like to hear some positives too. We have a teacher in the the 3 year old class who does her children's art work at nap time while the children are asleep.since the director never comes out of the office she never gets to see this happening. But at the end of the day it looks like she is doing her job. We have had our hours cut so we do alot of planning at home so we can run a quality program, after all the children are the most important thing and we can't let them down. One day we are hoping the corporate office will get it's proverbial head out of you know where and realize you have to spend money to make money. Basic supplies are lacking - paper, glue, paint etc. But I am glad to have my job, so I just suck it up and keep going.

If Kindercare wasn't paying for my education I would be outta here. I have never in all the years working in current or past jobs where I felt so under-appreciated by my director as I do now. She shows no respect for us as her staff or the lives we live outside work. She gives us our schedule the day before we are to work it. We are loosing children because the parents don't like her. Can't say that I blame them, I don't either.

it's...not great. i tried it and it wasn't the best experience. management is more concerned about who said what about them and making people sign policies on not gossiping. it's bizarre. a lot of over-crowding, mixing ages, nodding at the parents and then teachers and management made fun of them behind their backs. very fake smiles, then a lot of backstabbing to get to the top. weird for a day care huh?

I have worked at three different Kindercares, but it seems since it joined with Knowledge Learning Centers it has just gone downhill. I've been at my current center for over a year and a half now. The pay is a joke. I have over 11 years experience and make the same as someone who came in with no experience. There are way too many children enrolled in my class. We have so many children enrolled, that we are out of cubbies. My Director plays favorites, and will bend over backwards to keep her two favorite employees happy. She is also racially biased, allowing employees of her race to get away with much more. I have vacation time, but can never get off because there isn't enough staff to cover. My director gets mad when she has to come giving potty breaks. I love my Asst Director, and my co-teacher, but both of us have about had it.

I worked for KinderCare for 6 long years of my life that I will never get back. Why i stayed with the company for that long is a good question? It is the WORST company I have ever worked for!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They treat their employees hoirrible, they pay horrible, they treat you like you have no life outside of work, you are never allowed to make a mistake, etc. I can not explain how horrible the company is!!!! The charge parents way too much to send their kids there and then quality of care the kids get is crap. I would never put my child in a KinderCare EVER!!!!! Do not send you kids to any of their centers. They are cheap and a mess. They are lucky that they get such good people who care about the families to work there.

I worked in the 4's room for almost 2 years and the whole center was a mess.. I would never send my child there or work there again.

I have worked for the company for 3 1/2yrs and since i have been there, the company keeps getting worse every year. My managers don't know how to run the building, you don't get any support from anyone. if you ask to get help in your room they huff and puff cause all they want to do is sit in the office and talk. Sometimes if we have to go to the bathroom we have to wait a hr or more till someone relieves us. There have been incidents where people should have been fired on the spot but since there buddy buddy with the district manager they get away with everything. The pay sucks, you can do all the schooling u need to become a lead teacher or w e and they still won't give you a raise. ive know people who have had there cda for 2yrs now and they still havnt gotten there raise for it. ALL KINDERCARE CARES ABOUT IS MONEY NOT THE FAMILIES.....its sad to say but its true. i wouldnt refere anyone here.

Kindercare Stoneham is the worst place i have ever worked in my entire life. Never have i ever hated waking up and having to go to work as much as i do now. I feel like I'm walking back into high school when i walk into this building. There are cliques left and right..people talking behind peoples backs and just plain old FAKE BITCHES. My biggest complaint is about the center director..she is an absolute DOUCHE BAG. she has absolutely no respect for any of her workers and will do anything to save her own ass. the center is so poorly run and so unorganized. the only reason i am there is for my kids..and their families. management walks around all day long with their heads up their asses thinking they know what its like to be in a classroom all day long..when all they really know how to do is sit on their fat asses and eat take out. never will i ever send my child to Kindercare stoneham or any kindercare for that matter..i would rather send my child to a zoo. FUCK YOU KINDERCARE STONEHAM AND ALL YOU NASTY ASS BITCHES THAT RUN IT..YOULL BE WIPING MY ASS SOMEDAY!!!!!!