Hiring a nanny questions - wwyd?

rmaxim · August 2010

We're about to hire our first nanny, I've interviewed 5 candidates, all who I found to be good enough, so it's a matter of picking between my two favorites. Here's the dilemma - nanny A lives 40 mins away but has her own car. Nanny B lives 10 mins away but does not have her own car and would take the train or bus to our house (or possibly train and walk). Nanny B is our first choice because of how well she connected with DS (though nanny A was great too), but the transportation situation makes me nervous. I would be fine with picking her up at the train station (2 mins away) on nasty/cold/rainy days and such, but don't want to have to do it regularly. I also like the idea of the nanny being able to drive DS around, but I don't yet feel ready for him to ride with someone else. Has anyone had a similar transportation situation and what did you do? We live in a DC suburb so we have the metro and a good bus system.

Second question... my nanny's schedule will vary depending on if I work from home (shorter day) or commute to work (longer day). I'd like to pay a salary instead of hourly to keep it simple, but I'm not sure if this is normal or acceptable to a nanny. We would set the expectation of 45 hours/week and I would work very hard to stick to that. Is giving a flat salary ok or common at all?

Irishsapphire · August 2010

I was lucky that my nanny was nearby with the car, and it was summer. I honestly paid our nanny hourly. You may want to think through if she is late or if you are late coming home, just in case, and just make it is clear on how to handle those situations.

Regarding the transportation issue, this is just my insight on that.

What if it snows? Or Nanny A's car breaks down or she gets into a car accident? I know in the past when I have had jobs with a long commute, it really weared on me, and eventually I found a job that was closer or I moved closer to my job.

What is the parking situation around where you live?

My work is actually a 30 minute walk--but a little faster if I take a bus part of the commute. Seriously, I have no problem with walking in the snow to get to my job. As well, I am sure that Nanny B is a big girl (I say this as someone who lives in Seattle--I am prepared for any rain with either a rain jacket or umbrella). If she does not have a car, then she knows she has to walk or take public transportation to get there. The only drawback is if public transportation is shut down (snow in seattle can shut down the buses with the hills here)---seriously we walk, but if it is too far, then we have to call our jobs and not come in that day.

ahava2005 · August 2010

I live in Boston with a good transportation system. Our requirements were only that the nanny had a drivers license. She didn't need a car.

You can pay her salary if she is fine with that. You may want to have some sort of exemption if she happens to work more than a certain number of hours or something, though. Also consider what you would do if she called in sick...would she still be 'salaried'? how would her sick time be considered?

EastCoastBride · August 2010

On the transportation front - living in the DC area, if nanny A lives 40 mins away on a good day, what about in bad weather, etc? You're concerned about Nanny B for those reasons, but I'd actually be more concerned about Nanny A!

Also, just to give you another perspective, I used to work in HR where we weren't allowed to ask "do you have a car?". ALL you can ask in an interview was "Can you be at work by ___?". As long as they say they can, that's what matters. HOW they get there is immaterial. I dont' know if it was actually illegal to ask - but it's an issue of discrimination that we wanted to avoid.

Salary- I live in Baltimore and most nannies seem to be paid more of a salary. At least a weekly or daily rate. We pay a daily rate regardless of how many hours we use her. We usually use her the full day, but if I happen to get home early, she still gets the same amount. As w/ you - I didn't want to have to deal w/ figuring out every day the hourly amount.

rmaxim · August 2010

Thanks for all the feedback - very helpful! I'm going to ask her if she's ok with a salary based on her requested hourly rate x 45 hours/week (then rounded up).

I had wondered about the legality of asking about transportation, as it turns out they both brought it up on their own.

I understand that in bad weather, things may not work out. Since I also take the metro to work, if the metro is shut down I'm working from home or taking a personal day anyway. As long as I'm in the same situation as the nanny about not being able to get to work, I'll be fine with that!

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