Working Moms

nanny question - please help

Am new here but I am hoping I can get some opinions on a nanny question (my DH and I disagree)

We have a nanny M-Th, 36 hours.  She takes care of our child and another baby whom she watches 5 days a week.  Last week we were away Mon/Tues, and paid her for the full 36 hours as usual, but we also asked her to work 4 hours on friday which she does not usually do.  So, she worked a total of 22 hours of the usual 36, although the friday hours were a deviation from her usual schedule.  She wants us to pay her fo the extra 4 hours.  My husband and I disagree whether we should or not... I am at a loss...

Re: nanny question - please help

  • Your agreement with her is that she gets paid for 36 hours a week, regardless of whether she watched your kid or not, right?  Regardless of whether or not you were on vacation?

    I would honor that, in which case the four extra hours were additional work for her - so I would pay her for the extra four hours.

    I'm not sure of the thinking here, that she got 18 hours "off" and so the four hours would come out of the 18 hours and you wouldn't pay her for the extra four hours?

    Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
  • Hmmm..that's tough.  Were the Monday and Tuesday hours charged to her vacation (assuming she gets vacation)?  If none of this was discussed in advance I would say pay her the four hours.

    If you charged 2 days of your M-Th schedule to vacation and your employer wanted you to come in and work some hours on Friday, wouldn't you want to be paid for those hours?

    image

    My twins are 5! My baby is 3!

    DS#2 - Allergic to Cashew, Pistachio, Kiwi

    DS#3 - Allergic to Milk, Egg, Peanut, Tree Nuts and Sesame

  • Loading the player...
  • First, what is your agreement with her on vacation days, personal days and extra hours worked?

     

    Secondly, I wouldn't pay for those additional hrs. You swapped days and she still worked less hours than she usually does.

  • I agree with the first reply.  Pay her for the four hours. 

    #1 It's a small sacrifice on your part to keep a (presumably) good employee happy. 

    #2 Put yourself in her shoes--how would you like it if your employer did that to you?

    #3 She'll be more likely to agree to coming in on her normal days off or weekends in the future if you go ahead and pay her now.

  • imageluvmagoldn:

    If none of this was discussed in advance I would say pay her the four hours.

    I think to keep a positive relationship you have to pay her.  She made those 36 hours that were previously agreed upon available to you, but you chose not to use them.  The additional four hours require her to rearrange her own time.

    If you don't want it to be that way in the future, make sure you come to an agreement ahead of time about the fact that she is paid hourly only for the time she actually works. 

  • I would pay her because the 4 hours were, like you said, a deviation from her usual schedule.  Our nanny is full time Mon-Thurs. and half days on Fri. so she schedules all her errands/appts/etc. for the Fridays when she's not with us.  If I wanted her to work extra on Fri, I would pay her regardless of the time she worked for the rest of the week because the change in schedule would involve rearranging on her part.
  • Thanks so much everyone.  I think my DH's thinking was that we pay for 36 hours so as long as those hours fall within normal business hours and we give notice about the schedule (which we did), they can be flexible.  I think it gets down to the fact that we don't have an agreement in writing which we should... this nanny stuff is complicated (and expensive)!  Bottom line is keeping her happy since she takes care of the most imporant guy in our lives. 
  • I definitely agree that it's worth it to just pay her for the four extra hours. We pay our nanny a little extra than we had agreed each week because we asked her to show up a little earlier than we had originally agreed, and even though we let her go early when we get home early, we never nickle and dime it to where we say "well, we got her 15 minutes earlier last night, so we're not paying you for additional 15 minutes you gave us in the morning". I know 15 minutes isn't 4 hours but I'd let it go.

    Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers image
  • I did not read all the responses, but here's my 2 cents. I think it depends on your agreement with the nanny.

    Our arrangement is that nanny gets 15 paid days off (any reason), 7 of those at her choosing, 8 are at our choosing. She has already used her 7 days, so if she wants to take time off or is sick, the expectation is that she will NOT get paid. When we go beyond the 8 days of our choosing, I do feel it's appropriate to pay her, especially b/c I get 5 weeks vacation time per year and that rolls over year to year, so I can take off a lot more time than she can.

    It is a very standard work place practice that if you don't have paid vacation time and you are not working - you don't get paid (if DH or I do not have vacation time and want to take time off - it's unpaid), so I have never understood why when it comes to discussing nannies the feeling is we (the families) must always pay regardless. 

    That aside, what I have found  works well and to both our nanny's and our families advantage is to "trade" time off. Meaning, she needs to take a day off and instead of not paying her for that day, she will come and sit for us on a weekend or stay late during the week so DH and I can do date night.

  • let me ask you a question......do you get paid if your employer gives you off for 4 hours in the afternoon? 

    I think not.

    Your nanny is told by you that she gets 36 hours of pay per week. She depends on that meager salary to pay her bills. if YOU give her the time off, you pay her, period. 

  • imageDallasHorn:

    I did not read all the responses, but here's my 2 cents. I think it depends on your agreement with the nanny.

    Our arrangement is that nanny gets 15 paid days off (any reason), 7 of those at her choosing, 8 are at our choosing. She has already used her 7 days, so if she wants to take time off or is sick, the expectation is that she will NOT get paid. When we go beyond the 8 days of our choosing, I do feel it's appropriate to pay her, especially b/c I get 5 weeks vacation time per year and that rolls over year to year, so I can take off a lot more time than she can.

    It is a very standard work place practice that if you don't have paid vacation time and you are not working - you don't get paid (if DH or I do not have vacation time and want to take time off - it's unpaid), so I have never understood why when it comes to discussing nannies the feeling is we (the families) must always pay regardless. 

    That aside, what I have found  works well and to both our nanny's and our families advantage is to "trade" time off. Meaning, she needs to take a day off and instead of not paying her for that day, she will come and sit for us on a weekend or stay late during the week so DH and I can do date night.

    Re: the bolded part - I think the issue is that OP does not have any kind of formal agreement to allow her to do anything other than pay the nanny for 36 hours a week no matter what. 

    Regardless of what you end up doing for this scenario, the response here may be something to consider moving forward, if you decide to put a more formal arrangement in writing.  Seems like it provides flexibility for both nanny and family and is win-win.

    Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"