How would you handle this re spring break?

[Anonymous]

We are going to be away for a week and a half at spring break. I told our nanny this a month or so ago when we booked the tickets. We're going to pay her regular pay for when we are gone, and won't charge her vacation days. I just realized that, for the week we leave, we really need extra hours in the beginning of the week. Would it be awful to shift her schedule for that week and tell her "since you're off all day Thursday and Friday, can you work those hours earlier in the week?" Or do I really need to pay her extra for working the first part of the week, even though I'm giving her the whole next week off with pay? We pay her a very generous rate as it is.

[Anonymous]

MB here. Yes, you do need to pay her extra if she works the extra hours. However, if you won't be going over 40 hours of actual work that week, I think it's reasonable to pay them at base rate instead of overtime. That being said, it's a request and an offer.

As long as she gets plenty of vacation time, you could have made the hours shifting request initially, again as a request not a demand, but now that you've offered the time as extra PTO, it's really bad form to revoke that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MB here. Yes, you do need to pay her extra if she works the extra hours. However, if you won't be going over 40 hours of actual work that week, I think it's reasonable to pay them at base rate instead of overtime. That being said, it's a request and an offer.

As long as she gets plenty of vacation time, you could have made the hours shifting request initially, again as a request not a demand, but now that you've offered the time as extra PTO, it's really bad form to revoke that.

If she is working OT, it is NOT all right to PAY her at base rate!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MB here. Yes, you do need to pay her extra if she works the extra hours. However, if you won't be going over 40 hours of actual work that week, I think it's reasonable to pay them at base rate instead of overtime. That being said, it's a request and an offer.

As long as she gets plenty of vacation time, you could have made the hours shifting request initially, again as a request not a demand, but now that you've offered the time as extra PTO, it's really bad form to revoke that.

If she is working OT, it is NOT all right to PAY her at base rate!

Right, that's what I said. If she's actually working over 40, she gets OT, but OT is not required unless the hours are actually worked. PTO doesn't count.

[Anonymous]

9:18 is right. OT rates only apply for actual hours worked in excess of 40. So regardless of whether she is receiving her regular salary, you don't need to pay OT rates if she is only working less than 40 hours in that week.

You are also, as an employer, legally allowed to change the agreed upon working hours, without notice.

So you have a couple of ways to work around what you need. The best way to do that in a reasonable, human, smart manner that supports the ongoing relationship is a different test than the legal one.

Lots of info on the legalities of this can be found here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime_pay.htm

[Anonymous]

I know th legalities. I'm just looking for what people think is the norm here.

[Anonymous]

9:18 here. Sorry this got sidetracked on the legality. My main point, legal rights aside, is for the sake of a good relationship this should be approached like an extra request. You can offer $100/hr extra to do these hours, but I don't think it's neccesary. The main point is to respect the time off was given, and shouldn't be taken away. Shifting the hours is essentially taking away the extra PTO. Offering extra pay for extra work preserves your relationship by both honoring the extra PTO and the nanny's ability to decline changes in schedule. Changing a schedule is stressful for an employee and, IMO, should be reserved for serious emergencies.

[Anonymous]

Agree with others. You need to pay extra for the extra hours, but not necessarily at OT rates unless she's actually physically working over 40 hours. I also wouldn't necessarily expect her to be available for the extra hours. Part of guaranteed hours is that she guarantees availability for a particular schedule. She may not be available or even want to work the extra hours and you should be prepared to have a good attitude about that.

[Anonymous]

In the past when we've been in this situation, I have paid for the extra hours as PP have said, as much as anything to keep a good working relationship with our nanny. Because we have a good relationship, our nanny has also volunteered to do things that I would not expect but really appreciate. For example, on one trip we were leaving and heading to the airport before her normal starting time. I had already told her that she had the day off since we had to leave for the airport before she would normally be at work, but she offered to come early to drive us to the airport (which meant at least a 2 hours of her time because she would need to use our car and then coming back to our house to pick hers up) and didn't expect us to pay extra. She could easily have just taken the whole day off and I really appreciated her help. I'm guessing that she really appreciated the PTO days that we were giving her that week and the next week while we were on vacation.

When I was new to having a nanny it was a little frustrating realize that I would be paying extra for days over 8 hours on weeks when I was also giving one or more days PTO because we were away or had family in town, etc but I recognized that it was fair to the nanny. Now I'm glad that we have since we've had great long term relationships with our nannies and in general they have gone out of their way to make our lives easier.

[Anonymous]

How much of a shift in schedule do you want? There's a big difference between asking her to work an extra 30 minutes or so versus an extra two or three hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are going to be away for a week and a half at spring break. I told our nanny this a month or so ago when we booked the tickets. We're going to pay her regular pay for when we are gone, and won't charge her vacation days. I just realized that, for the week we leave, we really need extra hours in the beginning of the week. Would it be awful to shift her schedule for that week and tell her "since you're off all day Thursday and Friday, can you work those hours earlier in the week?" Or do I really need to pay her extra for working the first part of the week, even though I'm giving her the whole next week off with pay? We pay her a very generous rate as it is.

You need to offer her extra pay for extra hours. Stop trying to be such a cheapskate.

[Anonymous]

It basically is all principle now.

If you already told her one thing, then you certainly cannot do something else later on.

[Anonymous]

You can ask. But without knowing her plans and schedule you can't really force it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are going to be away for a week and a half at spring break. I told our nanny this a month or so ago when we booked the tickets. We're going to pay her regular pay for when we are gone, and won't charge her vacation days. I just realized that, for the week we leave, we really need extra hours in the beginning of the week. Would it be awful to shift her schedule for that week and tell her "since you're off all day Thursday and Friday, can you work those hours earlier in the week?" Or do I really need to pay her extra for working the first part of the week, even though I'm giving her the whole next week off with pay? We pay her a very generous rate as it is.

If the total amount of hours you are asking her to work is less than her normal total hours for the week I wouldn't pay her anything extra. But, be aware she may decline covering hours outside of her normal schedule as she may have plans or another job.