How do you keep track of hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

We have one with interexchange. it's just not very practical to write things on paper for us. things might change while I am at work and I want to document right away so it's much easier to keep a central online calendar. if it's online, maybe people can also add/edit it: me, my husband, AP, even my older kids can see their activities from their phones.

What if you have an AP that doesn't know how or isn't comfortable accessing her schedule electronically? And how will she know that a change has been made?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, Cultural Care gives the "Au Pair Communication booklet". Each page is a weekly day by day calendar, and you write the Au Pair's schedule/hours each day in there. and any activities and special notes. She looks at it every weekend to see her schedule for the upcoming week.

Every host family I know uses this.

Don't the other agencies have the same thing?

We have one with interexchange. it's just not very practical to write things on paper for us. things might change while I am at work and I want to document right away so it's much easier to keep a central online calendar. if it's online, maybe people can also add/edit it: me, my husband, AP, even my older kids can see their activities from their phones.

What if you have an AP that doesn't know how or isn't comfortable accessing her schedule electronically? And how will she know that a change has been made?

That's part of our training when she arrives in our home. When I hand her the iPhone, Google Calendar is already set up and all she needs to do is open the calendar app. Every event also has the address (for dropping off kids to activities), from which you can launch Google Maps to she can follow instructions on the GPS. The calendar app also sends notifications so it will let her know 15 minutes before any event.

If I make a last minute change, I also text her to let her know. Otherwise, I make changes a few weeks out and mention it casually if it is really different from the usual schedule (as opposed to a 30 minute start time change).

We have have 4APs use this approach (and 4 before that), and none have had trouble with this. If one did, she would probably have difficulties accomplishing other tasks and would not be the right candidate for us. It's not rocket science and she is expected to adapt to how we do scheduling in our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:on Friday.

So the week is Tues to Mon and you pay the AP early (the Friday before that Monday) except the last week (51) which you pay on the last day, a Monday, instead of the previous Friday?

With CCAP, you owe the whole stipend for even an hour of work in a week, so it doesn't really matter, even though it seems strange. One AP totaled the car on a Monday and we still had to pay her for the week.

This is absolutely true. Our LCC could not come over the weekend to do the transition, so she came on Monday at 8am. Because the AP had stayed home with DS while I drove DD to school, (even though not interacting with him), she was still considered "on" and I owed the entire week's stipend. I made a fuss about it, and CC did end up crediting me a week of the agency's fees, but I had to pay the AP the full stipend for about 15 minutes of non-work.

I understand that even a minute of work in a "week" means the AP must be paid a full "week" of stipend (with CCAP).

My question is about the week as defined by a PP as Tues to Mon. So, if the AP worked that Monday, isn't that Monday the last day of the "week" and not the start of a new "week", even if the AP is paid the previous Friday ... therefore if the AP works Mon, but not the next days - Tues, Wed and so on, then the AP does not get paid an additional "week" for working on a Monday - because Monday is the last day of a week and not the first day of a "week"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:on Friday.

So the week is Tues to Mon and you pay the AP early (the Friday before that Monday) except the last week (51) which you pay on the last day, a Monday, instead of the previous Friday?

With CCAP, you owe the whole stipend for even an hour of work in a week, so it doesn't really matter, even though it seems strange. One AP totaled the car on a Monday and we still had to pay her for the week.

This is absolutely true. Our LCC could not come over the weekend to do the transition, so she came on Monday at 8am. Because the AP had stayed home with DS while I drove DD to school, (even though not interacting with him), she was still considered "on" and I owed the entire week's stipend. I made a fuss about it, and CC did end up crediting me a week of the agency's fees, but I had to pay the AP the full stipend for about 15 minutes of non-work.

I understand that even a minute of work in a "week" means the AP must be paid a full "week" of stipend (with CCAP).

My question is about the week as defined by a PP as Tues to Mon. So, if the AP worked that Monday, isn't that Monday the last day of the "week" and not the start of a new "week", even if the AP is paid the previous Friday ... therefore if the AP works Mon, but not the next days - Tues, Wed and so on, then the AP does not get paid an additional "week" for working on a Monday - because Monday is the last day of a week and not the first day of a "week"?

You can count your 45 hours from any start day you want to, so long as you provide the schedule at the beginning and respect all the time off owed. Most do M-Su or Sa-Fr. The point is, as soon as the AP starts working for the "week", you might as well give her her 195.75 because you'll owe it to her no matter what happens. Word to the wise: CCAP tries to push their mediation meetings past Tuesdays to be able to pocket an extra week fees. So you call the LCC on Friday for a meeting, and she is magically unavailable until Tuesday, when you suddenly are out another week of fees to CCAP.

[Anonymous]

our lcc with ccap has told me that if our ap works two days in a week then she is due the full stipend. the 15 min is absurd

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:our lcc with ccap has told me that if our ap works two days in a week then she is due the full stipend. the 15 min is absurd

And mine says 1 hr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:on Friday.

So the week is Tues to Mon and you pay the AP early (the Friday before that Monday) except the last week (51) which you pay on the last day, a Monday, instead of the previous Friday?

With CCAP, you owe the whole stipend for even an hour of work in a week, so it doesn't really matter, even though it seems strange. One AP totaled the car on a Monday and we still had to pay her for the week.

This is absolutely true. Our LCC could not come over the weekend to do the transition, so she came on Monday at 8am. Because the AP had stayed home with DS while I drove DD to school, (even though not interacting with him), she was still considered "on" and I owed the entire week's stipend. I made a fuss about it, and CC did end up crediting me a week of the agency's fees, but I had to pay the AP the full stipend for about 15 minutes of non-work.

Wowza - that's crazy. I would put that on the LCC's shoulders. They can have the au pair at their home if they prefer, but I wouldn't have paid the extra week in that case.