Awkward! Nanny saw her job advertised. MB's WWYD?

[Anonymous]

So the nanny's performance the last couple of months has been below par. I have had several discussions with her esp. in regards to punctuality, respect, and taking initiative to complete job related tasks. She usually improve for like a week or so. Anyhow, two weeks ago I decided I had had enough after she came late despite begging her to be on time since I had a meeting. I requested DH to have a talk with her end of the week to see if there was a problem. She was very disrespectful... She told DH that she doesn't like "being told what to do" and that we don't acknowledge when she is "on time."

I decided enough was enough, I advertised the position since clearly things were not working out. Fast forward to today afternoon, she saw the job advert and she was able to put one and two together. She left me a teary voice message saying she "will work on anything and everything," basically asking for a second chance.

My plan was to give her a one month severance end of the year and start afresh next year. I am however dreading an awkward situation come next week. WWYD?

[Anonymous]

a month's severance is beyond generous.
if you want to have a discussion, point out the many discussions you've had with her.

[Anonymous]

Trolllololol.

"I requested DH to have a talk with her" is your signature style, honey.

[Anonymous]

I would fire her immediately. Severence is up to you but not at all needed in this case. Imo severance pay is when you love your nanny but the job ends for whatever reason. Not when you are fired.

[Anonymous]

Was she looking for a new job when she found your ad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would fire her immediately. Severence is up to you but not at all needed in this case. Imo severance pay is when you love your nanny but the job ends for whatever reason. Not when you are fired.

Agree completely. Just say she should have done her job. Now it's too late, but maybe with her next job she will be on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was she looking for a new job when she found your ad?

She claims that she was looking on behalf of a friend. I suspect she knew her job was in jeopardy so she was looking to see what is out there...

[Anonymous]

I agree, this is clearly a troll.

[Anonymous]

So your nanny found the advertisement prior to you letting her know that she was about to be fired? Yes, I agree...Bad timing.

She sounds super unreasonable to me. Why should she be acknowledged when she shows up to work on time? Shouldn't it be a simple given that that is what she is supposed to do...??! Wow. Also, she told your husband that she didn't like being told to do? Another wow. If that is the case, then let her start up her own business so that she can dutifully work for herself ONLY.

She has a crummy attitude OP & I wouldn't let her care for my child come this week.
Reason being is that she now knows that she is being canned for someone else so if you think her current job performance is below par, just wait until the next four weeks!

Plus it is not a good idea to leave your child alone w/an unhappy nanny. Ask anyone.

I wouldn't pay her any severance, she does not deserve it. Let her go + focus on finding a brand new nanny.

[Anonymous]

I'm upfront with any family who hires me that I am looking during a trial period or when I feel my position isn't stable. I've been terminated out of the blue due to a parent's job schedule changing, custody changing and other things out of my control changing. It's up to me to be proactive. I don't interview with anyone else without informing my current employers, but I'm not going to stop looking around at what's available just because I'm going to start with a family in 2 days, not if there's any uncertainty about whether it would work out long-term (and the most important source of uncertainty for me is whether a SAH or WAH parent will allow me to be an authority with their children).

With that said, OP's nanny knew that her position was in jeopardy because she was habitually late. She should also have known that telling her boss that she didn't like being told what to do (about punctuality!) was a death knell. So she found the posting? It just means that OP needs to arrange someone else for this next week. I agree that having her work this week could be problematic, though not necessarily because she would take out her frustration on the children. OP and her husband don't need to deal with the nanny's drama, they don't need to worry about whether she will be on time or even show up, and they shouldn't have to deal with waterworks because the nanny finally realized that they were serious about her being professional.