Nanny payment question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, I get that it adds up but I am not asking her to stay late. DH or I are home by 5 (we actually WFH so we come out of our office) and head to wherever they are.

I guess I just need to tell her we can’t pay for extra time so to make sure she is out the door by 5.

That said, I am surprised that there isn’t a 5 min grace period to have her get her things, use the bathroom, put a couple last toys away - if not that means we need to relieve her between 4:50-4:55 each day so she can be ready to go.

You should come out at 4:50 to make the transition easier on your children anyway. But, yeah, I think a five minute grace period is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our new nanny started 2 weeks ago and we have been very happy with her so far. The first week she started we let her go a little early most days but last week we had her stay her full 9-5 each day. I paid her on Friday as usual and yesterday she texted that she worked an extra 30 minutes across the week because she stayed around 10 mins late each day so she rounded it down to 30 extra mins, so she wanted to see if we can pay her the extra for that.

She is correct that she didn’t run out the door right at 5 but if I remember correctly she spent those 10 mins straightening up the playroom (one of her job responsibilities), finishing something she was doing with the kids or getting her stuff together.

Just curious if this is normal to pay extra for this kind of thing. I guess moving forward we will make an effort to ensure she is out the door at 5 but I wouldn’t have imagined she would expect to be paid for an extra 5-10 mins per day.

Sounds like she’s just setting a precedent with this new job. You have no idea how many employers are habitually late and don’t care. I see it a lot with my friends and it’s not fair or respectful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, I get that it adds up but I am not asking her to stay late. DH or I are home by 5 (we actually WFH so we come out of our office) and head to wherever they are.

I guess I just need to tell her we can’t pay for extra time so to make sure she is out the door by 5.

That said, I am surprised that there isn’t a 5 min grace period to have her get her things, use the bathroom, put a couple last toys away - if not that means we need to relieve her between 4:50-4:55 each day so she can be ready to go.

Don’t you come out a bit earlier than 5 to ask about how the day went?

[Anonymous]

1) Pay her for the 30 mins from last week.
2) You cannot work from home 9-5 if she works 9-5. There’s transition time that she needs to be compensated for. Even if it’s just “there’s pb&j for lunch, he slept great, see ya later” and “nap went great, he loves his new playdoh, see you tomorrow.” You can work 9:10-4:50, max. If you’ve literally not been appearing until 5pm exactly, your nanny is absolutely right.
3) Apologize for your lateness last week, explain that you will appear a few minutes before 5pm to relieve her and debrief, but also note that you don’t have the budget for overtime, so you will need to work together to make sure she’s able to leave by 5pm everyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Pay her for the 30 mins from last week.
2) You cannot work from home 9-5 if she works 9-5. There’s transition time that she needs to be compensated for. Even if it’s just “there’s pb&j for lunch, he slept great, see ya later” and “nap went great, he loves his new playdoh, see you tomorrow.” You can work 9:10-4:50, max. If you’ve literally not been appearing until 5pm exactly, your nanny is absolutely right.
3) Apologize for your lateness last week, explain that you will appear a few minutes before 5pm to relieve her and debrief, but also note that you don’t have the budget for overtime, so you will need to work together to make sure she’s able to leave by 5pm everyday.

This. This is good advice, OP.

[Anonymous]

The nanny is nickel and diming you on her second week. The tell is that she sits in her car until the clock strikes 9, meaning she won't work a minute unpaid. This won't end well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Pay her for the 30 mins from last week.
2) You cannot work from home 9-5 if she works 9-5. There’s transition time that she needs to be compensated for. Even if it’s just “there’s pb&j for lunch, he slept great, see ya later” and “nap went great, he loves his new playdoh, see you tomorrow.” You can work 9:10-4:50, max. If you’ve literally not been appearing until 5pm exactly, your nanny is absolutely right.
3) Apologize for your lateness last week, explain that you will appear a few minutes before 5pm to relieve her and debrief, but also note that you don’t have the budget for overtime, so you will need to work together to make sure she’s able to leave by 5pm everyday.

This. This is good advice, OP.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Pay her for the 30 mins from last week.
2) You cannot work from home 9-5 if she works 9-5. There’s transition time that she needs to be compensated for. Even if it’s just “there’s pb&j for lunch, he slept great, see ya later” and “nap went great, he loves his new playdoh, see you tomorrow.” You can work 9:10-4:50, max. If you’ve literally not been appearing until 5pm exactly, your nanny is absolutely right.
3) Apologize for your lateness last week, explain that you will appear a few minutes before 5pm to relieve her and debrief, but also note that you don’t have the budget for overtime, so you will need to work together to make sure she’s able to leave by 5pm everyday.

This. This is good advice, OP.

+1.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s her responsibility to have things picked up etc and be ready to leave at 5. If you are there ready to take over at 5 then that extra time is on her. She’s being petty. Our nanny does this too but we make sure at 5 to say “you can head out” and if she wants to do “one more thing” then that’s on her.

No she’s not being petty. You are. Agree that if you can’t pay past five, then it’s fine for her to walk out at five, even if tidying etc still needs to happen.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. I wouldn't have asked for the 30 minute pay, but I've been fortunate to have two long term positions where we helped each other out on needing a little extra time/me asking for a little time off, without either family ever nickel and diming. It's a give and take.

As far as starting the day, yes, I arrive right on time and not a few minutes before, but I do make sure the last 15 min each day before leaving to pick up and straighten as I need to, as well as throughput the day. I don't just start doing that on my end time.

[Anonymous]

She should have all the toys picked up by five.

If she does not - then that is on her.

And if you have any questions for her, you should arrive home by 4:50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all, I get that it adds up but I am not asking her to stay late. DH or I are home by 5 (we actually WFH so we come out of our office) and head to wherever they are.

I guess I just need to tell her we can’t pay for extra time so to make sure she is out the door by 5.

That said, I am surprised that there isn’t a 5 min grace period to have her get her things, use the bathroom, put a couple last toys away - if not that means we need to relieve her between 4:50-4:55 each day so she can be ready to go.

If you aren't walking in until right at 5, you are keeping her past 5. You have to build some time in for the handover, and that handover is on-the-clock time.

You say you understand the extra time adds up, yet you seem to feel entitled to it for free? 5 extra minutes per day is over 20 hours annually. How much unpaid OT is that?

It seems petty, but she's setting a boundary that needs to be set to avoid resentment and maintain a good relationship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nanny is nickel and diming you on her second week. The tell is that she sits in her car until the clock strikes 9, meaning she won't work a minute unpaid. This won't end well.

Being unwilling to perform unpaid labor doesn't make her a bad employee. The expectation that you're entitled to free labor makes you a bad employer. Super weird how that gets confused. You're the a$$hole in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nanny is nickel and diming you on her second week. The tell is that she sits in her car until the clock strikes 9, meaning she won't work a minute unpaid. This won't end well.

Being unwilling to perform unpaid labor doesn't make her a bad employee. The expectation that you're entitled to free labor makes you a bad employer. Super weird how that gets confused. You're the a$$hole in this situation.

The nanny getting her bag and walking out the door is not unpaid labor. There have been much more extreme cases of employees having to do things to get out of work that have been upheld by the courts as not being considered paid labor- eg getting bags checked, walking a long distance in a big building to leave the premises, etc. Our nanny is like this- fine with nickel and diming us when it suits her but not the other way around. eg one day she was 30 minutes late and I didn’t say anything and planned to just pay her normal weekly wages. She ended up staying at 15 minutes late that day because she was late getting back from an outing (that she walked to, so no traffic excuses). She asked to be paid for those extra 15 minutes, no mentioning that being late evened out her hours. You bet I stopped giving her slack on paying her for being late

[Anonymous]

You need to tell her that from now on, you will be returning at 4.50PM so there is time to do a catch up/tidy up. If that isn't possible, you need to either pay her overtime or work out a way in which she gets the time to clear up without it going past 5PM.
She should not be expected to go unpaid.