Typical paid vacation?

[Anonymous]

We are hiring a nanny and she said that she got 3 weeks paid vacation with her previous employer (mainly to visit her family in another country). My understanding is that 2 weeks paid vacation was the standard but I'm curious if this is correct? 3 weeks at one time is tough, and we would like to stipulate the time of year she would take such a trip (she has indicated that the month we would request would have higher airfare). Does that seem fair? I'm not sure we can swing 3 weeks off at any time.

She also would like all Federal Holidays (including Preseidents Day, Veterans, Columbus, etc - that I don't get off as I do not work for the govn't), which I was surprised at as well.

Can you share your policy regarding paid vacation, holidays, and sick days? We want to be fair and start off on the right foot, but also don't want to over promise what the standard is out there. TIA!

[Anonymous]

3 weeks is NOT the norm. Sure SOME families may offer that but that is not what is normal. 2 weeks is normal and that is what I currently get/have always gotten. Some families will do 1 week of the nannies choice and 1 week of the families choice or some will just let the nanny choose her two weeks.

I always try and coordinate at least one of my weeks with my NF's vacations. I just took off the week of the 4th and was planning a Bahamas trip for this winter and coordinated it with my NF for when they will be going to FL without me. You could certainly ask her to coordinate at least one week with yours as I think that is totally reasonable.

As far as federal holidays, I currently get Federal Holidays paid off but not all of those small ones that you listed. I get Thanksgiving (as well as the day after), Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Day and Memorial Day. I don't care about the small holidays at all and there is no reason why you need to give her those off.

I also get 5 sick/personal days a year also. So 2 weeks of paid vacation of my choice and then 5 sick/personal days.

[Anonymous]

we give every fed holiday because we are off and we give 3 weeks vacation - two weeks her choice, one week ours. We had sick days in, but our nanny said she preferred just general PTO, which is fine by me.

three weeks at one time seems easier to me than bit by bit because you can find back up care easier than just for a day here, a day there.

as for the holidays, tell her that you do not get those days off so need someone who can work those days. If she won't, then find someone who is more respectful of your needs. I think the 3 weeks isn't abnormal (esp if it's to leave the country - that's expensive for a flight, so she should maximize time there). the holidays is a different story.

[Anonymous]

We give two weeks - one week of the nanny's choice and one of ours, which she could use consecutively. We usually end up giving another week or two, because we might take a vacation in the summer but then also take a couple of days off between Christmas and New Years or something and we give as much notice as possible so she can try to plan something if she needs. We also offer all federal holidays that we are off - so Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. as well as additional days we get off which are not federal holidays (ie: Day after Thanksgiving , Christmas Eve), but not Columbus Day, Veterans Day, etc. when we are expected at work.

The reality is you have to offer what works for you - three paid weeks (or frankly unpaid weeks) at a time plus federal holidays we have to work wouldn't work for us. Nanny candidates have to find jobs that offer the right perks for them. It doesn't sound like you've found a good match, honestly. Whether or not what she is asking for is typical (and I don't think it is), she obviously needs the chunk of time to go home and will keep looking for a job that is going to let her have that. And if you plan to ask her to go in December or around Christmas, than I agree with her - international flights anywhere are significantly more expensive at that time (by hundreds sometimes even thousands of dollars).

[Anonymous]

That's definitely an above average request, but that's what negiotating is for!

Seems like she has a specific reason for wanting the three weeks. So if you really like her, personally, I'd try to work with her and negiotiate on other fronts. Also take into account, especially if the three weeks will all be on her schedule, how much other vacation time she will get when you go out of town. If you will almost certainly take, for example, two additional weeks of vacation, I'd write into the contract that she can count on 5 weeks of paid time off (three at her schedule, two on yours) YOu could then counter with a slightly lower hourly rate. Or, ask that one or two of her weeks be unpaid.

As far as the holidays, good for her for asking (rather than being annoyed later that she has to work). If you have to work those days, I'd counter with paid days off that match your schedule.

[Anonymous]

I would agree to two as you have to pay another provider. Two weeks and some sick deals is reasonable. I would expect her to work all "holidays" that you work and have off all holidays that you have off. She is not going to find an exact match and both of you have to make some compromises.

[Anonymous]

I give two paid weeks off. One of the nanny's choice and one of our choice. Dh has his own business and I work long hours. We need a lot of coverage. I think we have 8 days off?

[Anonymous]

Our nanny has two weeks vacation (her choice of when/how to take it), one week sick leave, and 10 paid holidays. The holidays are mostly the federal holidays, but modified slightly to reflect what I actually get off, versus total federal issue (for instance I don't get the holiday in November but I get the day after T'giving instead - so that's what the nanny gets.)

Three weeks vacation, plus all the holidays regardless of when you have them off, sounds like a tough ask. But this is a negotiation (if you want it to be). I agree w/ another poster that finding fill-in help for a longer chunk of time is easier than finding piece meal, one day at a time kind of help.

So maybe I could work with the three weeks off, but I would not give holidays that I don't have off (and the reason for that should be pretty clear to the applicant). The other thing is that I would offer benefits to a proven employee over time that I wouldn't extend in the first year. So you could consider something like that - maybe 3 weeks off wouldn't be too bad if her attendance record and reliability were stellar.

Definitely an area for negotiation and also for trusting your gut instincts here about whether this individual is a great solution, really good fit for your family and this is what you need to do to make it work. Or, is she feeling like this is already proving difficult and there is a little voice in your head that's already getting annoyed? If the latter I'd walk away and find a better fit. If the former, then figure out what you can actually offer and be transparent about your thinking.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

We give two weeks of vacation of nanny's choosing and one week of sick days, plus ten holidays (matching up to what we get--no Veterans or Columbus, but I think maybe Presidents Day is on the list? I never remember if I get that one!) It is also common in our area to do one week of nanny's choosing, one week of family's choosing.

I am personally not okay with doing three weeks of PTO in lieu of two weeks vacation/one week sick, because I think it encourages an employee to come to work sick in order to save the PTO for a longer trip. (I feel this way not just in the nanny situation, but in any employment situation, FWIW, and believe strongly in paid sick leave, so I feel that I should support that in the one little area in which I do actually have some control.)

In your situation, assuming you really like this candidate otherwise, I'd simply say that you'll approve a three-week leave, but that only two of the three weeks will be paid. Then when she takes that time, you can find a temporary caregiver for that chunk of time, which in some ways is actually a bit easier than trying to cobble together a week here and a week there. (We've done both in different years.) Alternatively, if you were planning one week of her choosing and one of yours, you can tell her that only one week will be paid of the three if she takes the vacation in such-and-such month, but if she takes it in one of the months you identify when you could also take your vacation week, you can coordinate. That gets a lot more complicated, though.

[Anonymous]

3 weeks is NOT the norm. Sure SOME families may offer that but that is not what is normal. 2 weeks is normal and that is what I currently get/have always gotten. Some families will do 1 week of the nannies choice and 1 week of the families choice or some will just let the nanny choose her two weeks.

I always try and coordinate at least one of my weeks with my NF's vacations. I just took off the week of the 4th and was planning a Bahamas trip for this winter and coordinated it with my NF for when they will be going to FL without me. You could certainly ask her to coordinate at least one week with yours as I think that is totally reasonable.

As far as federal holidays, I currently get Federal Holidays paid off but not all of those small ones that you listed. I get Thanksgiving (as well as the day after), Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Day and Memorial Day. I don't care about the small holidays at all and there is no reason why you need to give her those off.

I also get 5 sick/personal days a year also. So 2 weeks of paid vacation of my choice and then 5 sick/personal days.

This is basically the package we have for our nanny. Technically, we pick one of her two weeks and she chooses the other, but in practice, we discuss vacations and often overlap. If she had a particular reason to want to choose both weeks (special trip or something), we would accommodate that. We could never offer three weeks paid vacation all at once. We would lose all our leave covering that and we wouldn't have any vacation time for our family. That would not be fair.

Now, if our nanny wanted to visit family internationally, she could take her paid week, coordinate with our vacation and have two weeks paid and either confine her trip to two weeks, or we would allow up to another week UNPAID. If she wanted to take an extra week unpaid, I could hire a backup nanny affordably for that week. I'd be happy to accommodate that situation.

As for holidays, I am not a Fed, so I don't get all Federal holidays off. We offer the paid holidays we get, and the extra days the PP above gets because they are days and half days my work usually gives us.

We also lump sick/personal days and offer five PTO days, hours accrued over time because we could not accommodate our nanny if she chose to take them all at once and call them extra vacation. Of course, if our nanny is ill or has an emergency and has only accrued 2 days and needs 3, we would definitely advance it. We don't roll over any vacation or PTO from year to year. For one thing, we want our nanny to take full advantage of her time off and take care of herself. Secondly, we can't afford to roll it. That said, if she were to leave in the middle of the year, we would definitely pay out the year's accrued time.

I hope this helps. The only additional advice I would give you is to be very specific in your contract about holidays, PTO, all of this. We have spelled everything out and have had no problem with our nanny. She will be with us five years next month, so the above policies are working for us.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a negotiating point, OP. Figure out what will work for you, make an offer to your nanny, and listen to her concerns. I'm sure you can sort it out.

I have ALWAYS had all federal holidays and a minimum of two weeks vacation. If you could offer her the third week provided she worked Xspecific holidays which you don't have off, that might be agreeable to her?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the responses - very helpful! She is not insistent, just letting me know what she had in the past, so I know we can negotiate. I just want to be educated on what is out there so I am being reasonable. Appreciate the help!