I have never worked for a non-profit before, but I have a lot of experience working with children, so I took the job of educator and coordinator for this org excited to transfer my skills into something new.

On my first week, I was assigned to plan and facilitate one of their educational programs set to start 5 days from my start and ran daily for 8 weeks. Along with lesson planning, material prep for arts and crafts, and coordinating their goal of 2 presenters a week, I was expected to learn their applicant tracking system, complete admin work, and prepare the teaching space I’d be using that was in need of deep organization.

Though I was constantly being reassured from my director that I would have time and be supported, I learned quickly that this wasn’t the case. It all came to a head when after finally feeling hopeful to look over different activities/material prep over the weekend, I was told that they’d only allow me to this once as they don’t to follow labor compliance. I was frustrated wondering when they expected me to actually lesson plan and prep for the next 8 weeks when I hardly had any time during my normal work day.

After a teary conversation with my director where I expressed my concern and frustration over the lack of time to prepare and transparency over what exactly I needed to do before hiring, I decided that I couldn’t realistically meet their expectations under those conditions and resigned after completing one week of the program.

This experience has left me so jaded, and it feels like I need to hard reset my body after living in so much stress the last two weeks. And I don’t know how to explain the feeling because in hindsight, there were obvious signs to leave, but the decision was hard to come to because of my worry over who would give the kids an educational experience they deserved. Just looking for support or insight from anyone who may have experienced anything like this or just unsupportive management in general

Originally posted by u/Early-Ad-2324 on Reddit.

Top comment by u/OptimizedPockets2

I want to thank you for showing the field what healthy boundaries look like— expecting to be on the clock for the time that you’re working is 100% valid and something we should all be pushing for.

It sounds like your leadership was implicitly wanting you to work for free/ off the clock.