Nanny contract question

[Anonymous]

Hypothetically, if a family may be away (work or emergency related/family death) beyond scheduled vacation, is it appropriate to incorporate in contract that these hours be made up in the form of mutually agreed upon date night or weekend errand childcare?

[Anonymous]

No. I would just pay for the extra vacation. It isn’t fair for her to have to find extra weekends or nights to be free because you take extra time off (especially on short notice like a family emergency). Legally you can’t bank hours between pay periods (pay for work in one week that is actually done in another week). Legally you are allowed to not pay her for those hours but most nannies want guaranteed hours so their pay isn’t cut randomly at their employer’s whim.

However, it would be fair to ask her to come in while you are away, ideally child related work but potentially reasonable to negotiate some generic errands like watering plants or restocking groceries. Occasionally when we take long vacations that exceed the guaranteed amount in a year, we ask our nanny to stock the fridge the Friday before we get back, make some batches of frozen toddler food or do a sweep of the kids’ rooms and pack up outgrown toys/clothing.

[Anonymous]

This is helpful. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

You’re going to build resentment if you ask your nanny to make up hours. My employers take between 4-6 weeks of vacation per year. They have never asked me to make up any of the hours, nor have they asked me to come to the house and do chores while they are away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. I would just pay for the extra vacation. It isn’t fair for her to have to find extra weekends or nights to be free because you take extra time off (especially on short notice like a family emergency). Legally you can’t bank hours between pay periods (pay for work in one week that is actually done in another week). Legally you are allowed to not pay her for those hours but most nannies want guaranteed hours so their pay isn’t cut randomly at their employer’s whim.

However, it would be fair to ask her to come in while you are away, ideally child related work but potentially reasonable to negotiate some generic errands like watering plants or restocking groceries. Occasionally when we take long vacations that exceed the guaranteed amount in a year, we ask our nanny to stock the fridge the Friday before we get back, make some batches of frozen toddler food or do a sweep of the kids’ rooms and pack up outgrown toys/clothing.

+1

There's usually some kid-related thing that the nanny could do, or basic house-sitting-type stuff, and that's reasonable to request, but it's not fair to expect your nanny to give up her free time because you chose not to have her work during her scheduled hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. I would just pay for the extra vacation. It isn’t fair for her to have to find extra weekends or nights to be free because you take extra time off (especially on short notice like a family emergency). Legally you can’t bank hours between pay periods (pay for work in one week that is actually done in another week). Legally you are allowed to not pay her for those hours but most nannies want guaranteed hours so their pay isn’t cut randomly at their employer’s whim.

However, it would be fair to ask her to come in while you are away, ideally child related work but potentially reasonable to negotiate some generic errands like watering plants or restocking groceries. Occasionally when we take long vacations that exceed the guaranteed amount in a year, we ask our nanny to stock the fridge the Friday before we get back, make some batches of frozen toddler food or do a sweep of the kids’ rooms and pack up outgrown toys/clothing.

+1

There's usually some kid-related thing that the nanny could do, or basic house-sitting-type stuff, and that's reasonable to request, but it's not fair to expect your nanny to give up her free time because you chose not to have her work during her scheduled hours.

Just adding my agreement to these two posters' comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re going to build resentment if you ask your nanny to make up hours. My employers take between 4-6 weeks of vacation per year. They have never asked me to make up any of the hours, nor have they asked me to come to the house and do chores while they are away.

Agree...This has been my experience too.

Idk how I would feel if a family asked me to come in to do chores. I usually try to take my vacation when my families take theirs.

[Anonymous]

If we're away, we may ask the nanny to come by to bring in mail every other day or water the plants. But we definitely pay for that time. It's not the nanny's fault and shouldn't be their financial problem that we decide to take a trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re going to build resentment if you ask your nanny to make up hours. My employers take between 4-6 weeks of vacation per year. They have never asked me to make up any of the hours, nor have they asked me to come to the house and do chores while they are away.

Agree...This has been my experience too.

Idk how I would feel if a family asked me to come in to do chores. I usually try to take my vacation when my families take theirs.

To be clear, we only ask our nanny to come in and do some tasks if we know we’re giving her more than the guaranteed vacation that year already. Usually the work is a few hours instead of a full day, and any days she works while we’re away obviously don’t count as any kind of vacation. She also gets extra vacation days of her choice on top of whatever we take.