Accommodating unpaid leave request

[Anonymous]

Our nanny started mid-October and gets two weeks of vacation, one week of my choosing. The contract states that vacation accrual begins January 1st 2017, but since we were going away for the holidays anyway, I asked her if she wanted to take one week's paid vacation (the week of our choosing) before she earned it. I told her that this would leave her with no PTO until the middle of the year. I guess she did not fully understand the ramifications because the other day, she told me she wanted to take a Friday and a Monday off in early February so she could go on a long weekend trip to FL. I reminded her she had no PTO until the second half of the year and she got upset. Our contract is really clear about the vacation policy, but now I realize that she doesn't look at it or remember what it says. She asked me if she could take the days unpaid or have someone substitute for her and I said no. She had excessive lateness issues the first couple months and already took an unpaid day in December. I am trying to be firm about the amount of TO she takes, paid or not, whether she finds us a sub or not. I want the person working for us to be there every day except her two weeks' vacation, when she is sick or if something extraordinary comes up.

Having said all that, I get the impression that this trip is something special. Someone invited her on this trip and it sounds like maybe it is partially paid for. I am willing to consider letting her go as unpaid leave but only if she does me a favor, such as babysit for no pay on a date night. Most of me thinks this is a bad idea, there is more downside than upside to my idea and I should just leave it alone. I was wondering how nannies on this board would feel about this proposal, though. Would you be offended and interpret my proposal as me being grabby by trying to get free babysitting? Or a reasonable effort to compromise? For the record, this is not my cheap way to get free babysitting, my husband and I have no problem affording a babysitter and we have a date night sitter who we prefer watch DC for date nights, not the nanny. And I would much, much prefer the status quo, i.e., nanny takes care of DC and does not go on this trip. My only motivation in making this suggestion is to give nanny the opportunity to go on this trip, but not freely (so as not to set bad precedent) and only if it is that important to her that she's willing to do something for us in return. I am leaning against it but would like to hear what others think.

[Anonymous]

You need to give her guaranteed hours. I also don't really understand how an accrual method works with a week she can't choose -- that also ties you to her accrual schedule.

I think it's fine to accrue vacation, but it's ridiculous that YOU used all of her PTO for her first six months of employment.

[Anonymous]

You are also talking about "banking hours," which is illegal. Please read this before you lose a series of nannies, and think seriously about how you would feel if your full time employment did this to you:

http://nannyfaq.com/offer-guaranteed-hours/

I am a MB, by the way, and I also balked at the idea of guaranteed hours with my first nanny. It only took a little time of thinking it through, though, to realize that it's the right thing to do. You are an employer now. Treat your employee with kindness and reasonableness, not as something you need to wring every penny's worth of "money's worth" out of.

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm sure she didn't understand - I have employed a nanny for last 10 years and I barely understand.

I guess I would let her go (because she wants to and she won't be a great nanny on the week her friends are all away together or whatever) and put in writing what you think the rest of her vacation is for 2018 and then it should be yearly January - December so everyone understands. And tell her that's all the unpaid time you will give and if she wants more, then you can fire her because you are only ok with 2 a year or whatever, and this is her two for 2017.

On the other hand, my nanny also gets 2 weeks but in reality she gets a lot more because if she requests to leave early when she knows I'll be home (tomorrow is good example) or we happen to be out of town, she gets a day off. If she really works 50 weeks a year, she might get burnt out. Just saying.

[Anonymous]

Also, don't tie it babysitting - that will make both of you unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to give her guaranteed hours. I also don't really understand how an accrual method works with a week she can't choose -- that also ties you to her accrual schedule.

I think it's fine to accrue vacation, but it's ridiculous that YOU used all of her PTO for her first six months of employment.

Before we hired the nanny, the nanny and I told each other our imminent vacation plans, hers for the Wednesday & Friday of Thanksgiving week and mine for the last week of December. We agreed that since it was so soon after her start date, that she would take those days off unpaid. If we were bowled over by her those first couple months, I would have paid her that week in December and not count it as PTO, but as I said before, we had been dealing with a serious problem of her not coming to work on time (regular occurrences of 30 minutes plus late) and contemplating letting her go. I know the holidays are an expensive time and offered her a choice for that week - take it unpaid (as agreed to) or paid but counting against PTO - but I would have been a fool to give it to her paid, no strings, since she would have equated our generosity with being very happy with her (which was not the case) and not feel motivated to shape up her act. Looking back, I should have just left our original understanding intact and not paid her for that week. Which makes me think I should let go of my idea of letting her take the vacay in February in exchange for babysitting. I honestly am worse off by that arrangement and my past attempts to be kind to her have ended up biting me in the rear.

[Anonymous]

This is OP again (and 17:21 was me, too). We do guarantee hours and we ALWAYS pay her for the full week when we relieve her earlier than her end time, etc. and have been doing so since she started in October EXCEPT for that last week of December, which we had discussed in advance. I read the link about banking hours and agree it is not a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Another MB and I think you do need to consider only having accrual apply to the PTO she chooses to use. I mean, you have guaranteed hours, so you really had no choice but to pay her and she didn't have any choice in going PTO negative for six months. It doesn't seem like a productive system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another MB and I think you do need to consider only having accrual apply to the PTO she chooses to use. I mean, you have guaranteed hours, so you really had no choice but to pay her and she didn't have any choice in going PTO negative for six months. It doesn't seem like a productive system.

That is fair. I researched nanny benefits and just assumed that PTO accrual applied to all PTO (I never read otherwise), but it totally makes sense that it apply only to days of her choosing. I will let her know that this is what we will do, but as such, she still cannot go on vacation first week of February since she won't have accrued the two days she's asking for until the end of May.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another MB and I think you do need to consider only having accrual apply to the PTO she chooses to use. I mean, you have guaranteed hours, so you really had no choice but to pay her and she didn't have any choice in going PTO negative for six months. It doesn't seem like a productive system.

That is fair. I researched nanny benefits and just assumed that PTO accrual applied to all PTO (I never read otherwise), but it totally makes sense that it apply only to days of her choosing. I will let her know that this is what we will do, but as such, she still cannot go on vacation first week of February since she won't have accrued the two days she's asking for until the end of May.

You sound like a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another MB and I think you do need to consider only having accrual apply to the PTO she chooses to use. I mean, you have guaranteed hours, so you really had no choice but to pay her and she didn't have any choice in going PTO negative for six months. It doesn't seem like a productive system.

That is fair. I researched nanny benefits and just assumed that PTO accrual applied to all PTO (I never read otherwise), but it totally makes sense that it apply only to days of her choosing. I will let her know that this is what we will do, but as such, she still cannot go on vacation first week of February since she won't have accrued the two days she's asking for until the end of May.

You sound like a nightmare.

+1

[Anonymous]

Let her go unpaid and see if she can find a sub for you for those days. Then let her go since you don't like her anyway.

[Anonymous]

Yikes!

First off, your "idea" to ask for free date-night babysitting is just wrong plus it seems kind of punitive to me as well.

Do not do it!
B-A-D idea!

And since you will not let her go on her trip next month, expect to have an angry, bitter Nanny.
Honestly I wouldn't want my child to be in the care of someone who had harsh feelings toward me,

Since she has been late on multiple occasions, I would let her go based on that.

This whole situation sounds like a bad match overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes!

First off, your "idea" to ask for free date-night babysitting is just wrong plus it seems kind of punitive to me as well.

Do not do it!
B-A-D idea!

And since you will not let her go on her trip next month, expect to have an angry, bitter Nanny.
Honestly I wouldn't want my child to be in the care of someone who had harsh feelings toward me,

Since she has been late on multiple occasions, I would let her go based on that.

This whole situation sounds like a bad match overall.

+1

Please don't ask for free babysitting. That sounds like you're nickel-and-diming her in the worst way.

Let her go on her vacation unpaid. Use that time to test out another nanny that might be a better match if you are not happy with your current nanny. 2 birds.

[Anonymous]

Wow! First, you should offer guaranteed hours if you expect guaranteed availability. Second, accrual is for her choice of vacation time, not yours! Third, I have done vacation accrual and it states in my contract that if I use more vacation than has accrued then it will be deducted from my final check if employment is terminated by either party. Lastly, you want her to take her vacation days unpaid AND offer free babysitting to you? If you said that to me I would be looking for a new position right away! You sound like the kind of person to nickel and dime and not look at the big picture. I bet she doesn't stay long, unless you hired someone cheap who is likely incapable of finding better employment or someone young who has a hard time standing up for themselves.