“A shortage of staff has caused remaining staff to be exhausted and burnt out in an attempt to cover the gap. These remaining staff question whether the work they are passionate about is worth the burn-out/toll on their mental health and often end up looking elsewhere for less exhausting jobs that pay better, which causes a spiral of the loss of a staff leading to more staff loss. I’ve personally worked myself past the point of exhaustion because I had no choice but to work 60 hour weeks to meet ratios when staff call in due to covid protocols. When educators have to call in ill due to COVID protocols but there is no one available to cover them due to lack of employee retention it creates a great sense of guilt in educators, putting a toll on their mental health, and also leads to room or centre closures because we can’t meet ratio if staff become sick.
We can’t run at full capacity due to the staff shortage which exacerbates a shortage of childcare in our region. At bare minimum we have 30 childcare spaces (from infant to school-age) that cannot be filled due to lack of staffing but over 150 children on our waitlist waiting for care. This is untenable for both educators and families.”