5 Teachers, 1 Week: The Reality of Toxic Workplaces in Early Childhood Education
- maryline627
- Aug 15
- 3 min read
Five people reached out to me this week. Five.
All five are Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers, and all five told me a variation of the exact same disheartening story: their workplace has become toxic, they feel completely unsafe, and the moment they bring up valid concerns, including health and safety issues they immediately become the target.
Instead of being heard, these teachers are being targeted.
Just recently, I raised a Personal Grievance for a teacher who found herself in a disciplinary simply for speaking up about how health and safety was being handled in her Centre. Right on the heels of that, I'm about to file a claim with the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) for another teacher who was targeted with completely manufactured allegations. Why? Because the employer had a falling roll, wanted to trim staff quickly, and didn’t want to bother running a legitimate redundancy process.
I'm also heading back to the Employment Relations Authority yet again for another botched up dismissal. I also have a case lodged at the ERA for a teacher in Auckland regarding a dismissal under the 90 days because they raised a complaint about bullying and a failure to allow proper breaks.
The "ChatGPT Manager" and the Death of Human Relations
What these cases highlight is a trend: there are far too many employers and managers out there who are entirely out of their depth because they have not received the proper training.
Instead of taking the time to pause, step back, and learn how to manage people properly, some managers seem to just type a quick prompt into ChatGPT, print out an AI generated script, and use it as a shortcut for performance management or disciplinary proceedings.
Here is a reality check for leadership: Staff are human beings. ChatGPT cannot understand the subtle intricacies of employment relations or employment law. That understanding doesn't come from an algorithm; it comes through lived experience, empathy, and genuine legal knowledge.
When managers use AI to bypass human decency and due process, it doesn't solve problems, it creates problems. Don't get me wrong I don't have an issue with AI as I use it myself; but it needs to be used correctly.
What to Do If You Find Yourself in a Toxic Workplace
If you are an employee feeling targeted, isolated, or unsafe, you do not have to just sit there and take it. Here is how you protect yourself:
Document Everything: Stop relying on verbal conversations. If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen.
Follow Up in Writing: Immediately after any verbal discussion, send an email: "Thanks for speaking with me today. Just to confirm our conversation, I raised [Issue X] and you mentioned [Response Y]."
Raise Concerns Politely: Keep your tone calm, professional, and factual. Put your concerns in writing and explicitly request a path forward for them to be addressed.
Keep Personal Copies: Store all correspondence, emails, meeting notes, and incident logs on a personal device or notebook—never exclusively on work servers.
A Message to Employers: Stop, Step Back, and Talk
If you are an employer or manager reading this, take note. You can avoid the ERA, save of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and keep your Centre’s reputation intact if you follow basic principles of human leadership:
Address Issues Early and Low Level: When a staff member raises a concern, don't view it as an attack. Address issues at a low level before they escalate into grievances. Most workplace disputes can be rectified if caught early.
Take Health & Safety Seriously: Whistleblowers aren't "troublemakers"; they are protecting your business, your license, and the children in your care.
Drop the Blame Game: Remember that we are all human, and everyone makes mistakes. Neither employers nor employees get things 100% right strictly to the letter of the law every single day.
Choose Communication Over Confrontation: Before you jump to disciplinary action or fake allegations, step back. Take a breath. Sit down with your employee, put ego aside, and try to work things out reasonably.
The Bottom Line
A non confrontational, human centered approach to resolving workplace friction is not just the right thing to do; it is vastly more effective and infinitely less expensive than litigation.
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