Nanny is 10-15 minutes late every day but wants to be paid for the time

[Anonymous]

Kind of at a loss here. Start time is 8 but she gets here between 8:10 and 8:20 every single day. We let it go for a while (she was new) but it's been a few months and we just told her we were going to start adjusting the paycheck because it adds up to over an hour a week. She is upset because she says she "can't control traffic". We asked if she could stay later when she comes later but she said she has to get home by a certain time. She is well paid, on the books, good benefits, great with the kids. Should we just eat the cost?

[Anonymous]

No, she should leave earlier.

[Anonymous]

Well, technically you are correct. At other jobs if traffic is an issue the employee is just expected to leave their home early enough to account for traffic. But if good nannies are difficult to find, you may want to let it go.

[Anonymous]

Explain to her why you need the 8:00 start time, and ask her whether she can leave the house earlier in order to arrive on time. And if she can’t, either get rid of her or stop paying her for the time she’s late. If she protests, ask her if she thinks she should get paid for time she’s not working. But if she’s fantastic and you can make an 8:30 start time work, do that and adjust her pay?

This would annoy the hell out of me.

[Anonymous]

She may not be able to control traffic but she can control when she leaves her home. It would be one thing if every once in awhile she was a little late-that's not being able to control traffic accidents. 10-15 minutes every day is a her problem not a traffic problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She may not be able to control traffic but she can control when she leaves her home. It would be one thing if every once in awhile she was a little late-that's not being able to control traffic accidents. 10-15 minutes every day is a her problem not a traffic problem.

This. It's shocking to me she does not acknowledge this.

[Anonymous]

Is the reason she can’t leave home earlier because she has kids? I ask since she has to get home at a certain time. If so, and you’re otherwise happy with her, I would let it go.

[Anonymous]

It depends on how much it impacts you. I have an employee who is late 30 min every single day. I've talked to him about it and it hasn't changed. But... he's my top employee so I'm just letting it go. If he had any other issues at all, I would be harsher about it.

[Anonymous]

No, follow through on adjusting her pay if it continues. She is taking advantage of you, period.

[Anonymous]

If you need to leave the house at 8 or be online at 8 then yes I would tell her she needs to be there at 8. If you just decided 8 was a good start time but you actually don’t love the house and are putzing around drinking coffee while she’s there, then yes I would let it go and not adjust the pay.

[Anonymous]

Don’t leave the house not don’t love the house

[Anonymous]

Adjust her pay and she's gonna leave. So decide how important that one hour of pay is!

[Anonymous]

We had a nanny like this and it turned out she was lying about a bunch of stuff and texting while driving with the kids were in the car. The kids finally started telling us stuff. They were so happy when we fired her. She was very sweet to them in front of us but just ignored them when we weren’t watching.
Contrast with our long term nanny who was always early because she didn’t want to risk being late. She would sit in our driveway getting caught up on emails or whatever for those 5-15 minutes.
But if there’s some legitimate reason she can’t leave earlier—like her kids bus comes at a certain time—you may want to just let it go.

[Anonymous]

Start looking for someone new. When you find the new nanny, let her go without notice or severance for cause.

[Anonymous]

Traffic is a valid excuse when being late is not a common thing. If she is consistently 10-20 minutes late then she is leaving 10-20 minutes later than she should.