Beloved daughter submitted her two-week notice of departure to her boss today. The job looked so promising, but it turned out to be horrible.

Childcare center. So they should care about the kids, right? Wrong–the other teachers just wanted to sit down and let the infants and toddlers fight it out in the middle of the room. Many bite marks and scrapes resulted. When daughter tried to introduce activities and engage the kids, the other teachers became hostile (too much work). The boss was only interested in saving money, so almost nothing you would expect was provided by the center. Kleenex? Paper towels to clean up after the kids? Diaper cream? Batteries for toys? Crayons? Tape? It all had to come out of the pockets of the seriously underpaid teachers.

The boss herself was a real piece of work. She lied to our daughter about what she would be doing, she lied to her about what her hiring bonus would be. (We have the flyer advertising the job–but the amount listed is not what she got.) The boss also lied to parents about what their kids were doing, how their kids were doing, who was teaching them, etc. My favorite lies are the ridiculous ones she told parents about my daughter, who is Chinese by birth. The boss told the Korean parents that my daughter was Korean, the Venezuelan parents that she was Venezuelan, the German parents that she was German! (I could not possibly make this up . . .)

The boss wanted my daughter to do as she was told, even if it meant hurting the kids–and that’s what BD refused to do. So she was criticized for insubordination. She has an auditory processing disorder, and had some trouble hearing the boss if all the kids were screaming. So the boss actually made her repeat back her instructions word for word, like my daughter was some sort of idiot.

The worst, though, was what led up to her resignation. The kids’ parents all loved my daughter, because their kids all loved her. So the boss, in an effort to exert control, reduced her hours with them, and assigned her to diaper changing rather than activities. And when the parents became enraged, the boss blamed my daughter, claiming she had “chosen” not to work with the kids, and was just “in a bad mood.” So there was a huge scene, daughter became overwhelmed, and gave her notice as soon as she got home. (With the full support of both parents, of course!)

And people wonder why autistic unemployment is so high.