Work Agreement Necessary

[Anonymous]

We employ a part-time nanny and have a good relationship with her. We outlined the general terms of employment and pay in an email exchange at the time of hire. So far as I know, neither of us have any objections to the way things are going. So she does have in writing from us (in email form) a statement of what she makes per hour and the situations in which we pay her (Federal holidays, Federal snow days, any time we cancel a regularly scheduled day).

However, I never wrote up or had the two of us sign a work agreement. Is it really necessary? I wonder if I have been remiss. But it strikes me as odd to go back and try to do it now.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Where are you? A written contract is legally mandated in some areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you? A written contract is legally mandated in some areas.

Maryland. But not Montgomery County, MD.

[Anonymous]

You could simply print out the email and have both of you sign it. Or, now may be a good time to sit down and discuss how things are going and write up a more detailed agreement that you both can sign after your discussion. As long as you aren't drastically changing the terms you both agreed to, I see no reason why she would object.

[Anonymous]

Can you think of any fine-tuning your nanny might want to suggest to the current arrangements?

[Anonymous]

Where is a contract mandatory?

[Anonymous]

We have one with our PT person. We have never had to pull it out and say, "remember, we told you blah blah blah,"nor do I think she has ever referred back to it. But it has helped in that, for example, she started working more hours for us (from 25 on average to 30 on average) so when she takes a day or a week off we now pay for 10 hours (or 30) versus 8. This was helpful when recently DH and I couldn't remember what to pay her for a vacation week. And, we actually wrote out the federal holidays for the year so that she has them well in advance.

We also included things like not having anyone smoke around the kids, not taking the kids to someone else's house without our prior knowledge, etc. None of these have ever come up with her and I can't imagine they would, but just in case, I wanted to have things spelled out.

Even though it may seem weird, I have felt better having a formal agreement. We don't call it a "contract"and it's not like we plan to sue her if she quits without the specified amount of notice; I think it just helps everyone to have these things spelled out in writing.