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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she’s otherwise a great nanny I would let it go. They are in fact hard to find. If this one of many issues I would let her go.

But I would not pick a fight over $20-40/ a week (or whatever it is). Petty.

Agreed. When I had a job with string union protection (small federal agency) our contract specified something like a 40 minute window for arrival before you could be considered “late.” It really cut down my stress. If she’s a good nanny overall, don’t quibble over silly stuff.

Some jobs are not time-dependent and some are when it comes to start time. I work in an elementary school. You can’t arrive 10-20 minutes late several times a week. You simply can’t because it impacts others’ work. Others would have to scramble to cover my class. If the nanny’s late arrival is impacting OP’s ability to leave on time for her own job, it’s not “silly stuff.”

Can you imagine the DCUM posts? "DC's teacher is late every day!!!" Well, maybe the teacher is like OP.

OP, how does her late arrival affect you? Can you adjust her start time, or does your schedule not allow for that? I wouldn't pay someone to be late every day. At my job start time was start time, a continually late nanny would have resulted in me being fired.

[Anonymous]

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

I'm sure you would love being fired without notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I'm sure you would love being fired without notice.

If I was late every single day, I'd expect it. I "would love" that I wasn't fired even sooner!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 am is a pretty early start time. if you overall like her and dont yourself really need to leave or log on for work until 8:30 am, id just pay her the same and let it go. childcare is a lot of money out of pocket for you but not a lot of income on her end.

In lazy town maybe.

[Anonymous]

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

This. We have the exact same situation with ours. 15-20 mins late a day. It annoys me out of principle that I’m paying for time she isn’t here. But, the money is meaningful to her I’m sure while it isn’t to us, so I just eat the cost.

[Anonymous]

I’m the PP with the nanny who’s 20 mins late every day. I calculated it and it costs me over 2,000 a year. It’s not nothing. But I still don’t do anything abt it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

I'm sure you would love being fired without notice.

If I was late every single day, I'd expect it. I "would love" that I wasn't fired even sooner!

op should warn her. Perhaps she thinks if she does a good job it is ok with op.

[Anonymous]

If she can't come on time because of her own kids or whatever and doesn't want her pay docked, another option is to give her an added task that would make your life easier, i.e. some kind of housekeeping task that would take 20 minutes a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 am is a pretty early start time. if you overall like her and dont yourself really need to leave or log on for work until 8:30 am, id just pay her the same and let it go. childcare is a lot of money out of pocket for you but not a lot of income on her end.

? Not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This. We have the exact same situation with ours. 15-20 mins late a day. It annoys me out of principle that I’m paying for time she isn’t here. But, the money is meaningful to her I’m sure while it isn’t to us, so I just eat the cost.

To me, it wouldn't be just about the cost. If I told my nanny I needed coverage at 8 am when I hired her, it's because I NEED coverage at 8 am. If I don't get that coverage at 8 am, then my work suffers, and I could get fired.

Maybe other posters here have jobs where they won't get fired if they are constantly late, but do you think your boss/co-workers don't notice that YOU are late every single day? Is it possible there have been opportunities that your boss didn't even consider you for, because of your lateness? You might not even know those opportunities existed, because like I said, your boss never even considered giving it to you.
Or maybe that's not your situation. But it is the reality for some people so to call it "silly" is ignorant.

[Anonymous]

How come OP hasn’t come back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This. We have the exact same situation with ours. 15-20 mins late a day. It annoys me out of principle that I’m paying for time she isn’t here. But, the money is meaningful to her I’m sure while it isn’t to us, so I just eat the cost.

To me, it wouldn't be just about the cost. If I told my nanny I needed coverage at 8 am when I hired her, it's because I NEED coverage at 8 am. If I don't get that coverage at 8 am, then my work suffers, and I could get fired.

Maybe other posters here have jobs where they won't get fired if they are constantly late, but do you think your boss/co-workers don't notice that YOU are late every single day? Is it possible there have been opportunities that your boss didn't even consider you for, because of your lateness? You might not even know those opportunities existed, because like I said, your boss never even considered giving it to you.
Or maybe that's not your situation. But it is the reality for some people so to call it "silly" is ignorant.

But then it’s not about the money. That’s the thing. Either it’s a very important failure to meet the demands of the job (terminate) or it isn’t, it’s just annoyance. I guess it’s sort of bimodal. It’s either incredibly important, or it’s not very important at all. For me it’s the latter so I would never quibble over the money. But if it’s putting you in a bad spot at work, it’s also not about the money, it’s about serious harm to your professional life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

This. We have the exact same situation with ours. 15-20 mins late a day. It annoys me out of principle that I’m paying for time she isn’t here. But, the money is meaningful to her I’m sure while it isn’t to us, so I just eat the cost.

To me, it wouldn't be just about the cost. If I told my nanny I needed coverage at 8 am when I hired her, it's because I NEED coverage at 8 am. If I don't get that coverage at 8 am, then my work suffers, and I could get fired.

Maybe other posters here have jobs where they won't get fired if they are constantly late, but do you think your boss/co-workers don't notice that YOU are late every single day? Is it possible there have been opportunities that your boss didn't even consider you for, because of your lateness? You might not even know those opportunities existed, because like I said, your boss never even considered giving it to you.
Or maybe that's not your situation. But it is the reality for some people so to call it "silly" is ignorant.

But then it’s not about the money. That’s the thing. Either it’s a very important failure to meet the demands of the job (terminate) or it isn’t, it’s just annoyance. I guess it’s sort of bimodal. It’s either incredibly important, or it’s not very important at all. For me it’s the latter so I would never quibble over the money. But if it’s putting you in a bad spot at work, it’s also not about the money, it’s about serious harm to your professional life.

So if it's not about the money, but about the harm to the nanny employer's professional life, how else does the employer stress to the nanny the importance of being on time--if not firing or docking pay?

[Anonymous]

Acknowledge your mistake in letting it slide so long
Reiterate that the start time for the job is 8 AM.
Ask if she is able to be at work at that time

Traffic happens everyday - if she realistically can’t get there at 8 am due to other obligations than this is not the job for her and you need to part ways
Leaving just 5 minutes earlier can make a huge difference in this are btw

You also need to think about it a bit - saying she can’t control traffic is an immature response. Something you would expect from a high schooler. This should give you some insight into her mindset and decision making skills.

[Anonymous]

I think not making an effort to be on time means she’s not taking your preferences and requirements into account and that would concern me. Are your kids old enough to let you know what things are like when you aren’t there?