Reply to asking me questions about my nanny ad

Forum Index » Childcare other than Daycare and Preschool

Reply to "asking me questions about my nanny ad"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I put up a testimonial for my family's much beloved nanny who has been with us a number of years on a few local listservs listing my nanny's cell and email and also my contact info in case people had further questions.  people have been asking me a bunch of questions that have made me uncomfortable and I don't know how to respond appropriately, namely what is her age? how many sick days has she taken? how much do you pay her? Am I being too sensitive?

For the first two questions, she's not old, barely takes any sick days, but I feel they're inappropriate questions somehow, because people shouldn't make hiring decisions based on age and sick leave information they wouldn't have unless I told them.  For the last one about salary, she was with us for a long time, and got regular salary increases, so I don't know if she'd charge a family that had 1 kid rather than 2 the same rate we paid her, or vice-versa, she may want to make more with another family. In any case, I believe these people should ask my nanny these things directly.  Am I being too sensitive?  How should I respond politely?  I really want our nanny to find someone great, but I feel like some of these questions blur the lines on legality in terms of things you ask in a hiring process.[/quote]

Age is irrelevant, some people are fit and active at 60, others are couch potatoes at 20.  Turn it to discussions of what she was able to physically with your kids.

Pay is always asked, normally benefits are included too.  Nobody wants to waste time on someone who is looking for $30/hour if they can only afford $18.  You should also be clear on how much vacation she was offered/took, because some families can’t accommodate two consecutive weeks but can do 5 total weeks, while others can do three consecutive weeks, but three weeks total is the limit.

Sick days, tardiness and extra unpaid days all go to reliability.  It doesn’t matter if she’s the kid whisperer, if she’s only there for 6 hours of a shift that was supposed to be 9 or she misses 2/5 days, she’s not reliable.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics