How does accrued PTO and a week of family's choosing work?

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking of offering our future full-time nanny 15 days PTO, accrued at 1.25 days per month. But I'd like 5 of those days to be of my family's choosing. Does this make sense, or is it too complicated?

Also, what happens on snow days where I still have to work from home, but the nanny can't make it? Is that a PTO day or a regularly paid day? If the nanny has to take 2 hours off for a doctor's appointment, should that use up part of a PTO day?

In addition, suppose both of our families want to take the week between Christmas and New Year's off. Does that count as PTO or not, given guaranteed hours and all?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I would do 10 days a year of vacation and say that 1 week ( or 5) days are of your choosing and 1 week ( or 5 days) are of her choosing.
If you choose to let her be off additional days then you need to pay for those, Like between Christmas and New Year.
If she cannot get to work in the snow I don't think its fair to dock her a day for this. Maybe come in a few hours late if she can, I think you have to trust her on this and know that shes not taking the day off for an inch of snow. If there is a foot of snow and everything is closed then let her stay home paid.
Also pay for all Federal holidays.

I think allowing for less official days but not nickle and diming over a snow day or a doc appt will make everyone happier in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Make the week between Christmas and New Years your choice of week. She can choose any two other weeks she wants, with two months or more of notice for full weeks (so you can plan to take your time simultaneously, if possible), with 2-4 weeks notice for 1-4 days of planned PTO, and with a call by a certain time if she’s sick. Most people prefer to work in whole days, but many will allow half days for appointments.

[Anonymous]

We treat nanny choice and family choice vacation as two separate buckets. Do 10 days of nanny's choice PTO that accrues (0.83 day or X hours/month). Week of family's choosing doesn't accrue in the sense that you should pay in full no matter what time of year you choose to take it, and you also pay if you take vacation in excess of that. We actually did put an accrual clause for family choice vacation in our contract because we pay for any unused vacation in either bucket, so if she were to leave the job in June but we hadn't taken any family vacation for the year at that point, we'd pay her a prorated 2.5 days of "unused" family choice vacation (plus any accrued but unused nanny choice vacation). But this may be more complex than you really care to get into.

For doctor's appointments and rare occasions where she's asked to leave early due to feeling ill, we said that if it didn't exceed ~3 hours of missed work, we wouldn't count it as anything (and trust the nanny not to abuse this). So for us PTO only gets counted in increments of half-days. This is because we have some flexibility to shift hours and WFH occasionally. If you do it this way, I think it's within reason to ask the nanny to make up those hours elsewhere in the week, especially if you need to make up that time at work to cover the absence (though we almost never do this). If you don't have the flexibility in your job to shift hours or WFH, or if the nanny started to take advantage of this too often, then maybe do PTO in hourly increments and just deduct whatever amount the nanny had to miss.

[Anonymous]

Personally, for the accrual, I ask that all of my vacation time is given up front and if I have used more than my allotted time when we part ways, it is taken from my last paycheck.

You can offer her one week of her choosing, one week of your choosing, and one week of sick pay. That is the lowest amount of vacation generally given and personally I want at least 3 weeks guaranteed. All additional vacation time that you take is paid per guaranteed hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, for the accrual, I ask that all of my vacation time is given up front and if I have used more than my allotted time when we part ways, it is taken from my last paycheck.

You can offer her one week of her choosing, one week of your choosing, and one week of sick pay. That is the lowest amount of vacation generally given and personally I want at least 3 weeks guaranteed. All additional vacation time that you take is paid per guaranteed hours.

Same. I’ve had families who tried to tell me I took my vacation, when they had taken theirs, so they didn’t want to pay out vacation. Not anymore

[Anonymous]

You have no right to give PTO and then insist that you have a choice for five days. Does your boss insist on choosing your vacation days or charging you for snow days.

[Anonymous]

We gave our nanny 5 days of sick leave a year which she got upfront at the beginning of each year (sick leave did not accrue). We gave 12 days of vacation leave which accrued at 1 day each month. 5 of those days were family days which we could elect to use at any point. We had the family days "accrue" between months 8-12. Our nanny got all federal holidays off and we followed federal inclement weather policy to include delayed arrival as well as closures. Those were regular paid hours whether she worked or not. If we didn't need her on a day she got it off without taking it from her vacation leave. It was a regular paid day where we just didn't need her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have no right to give PTO and then insist that you have a choice for five days. Does your boss insist on choosing your vacation days or charging you for snow days.

THIS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have no right to give PTO and then insist that you have a choice for five days. Does your boss insist on choosing your vacation days or charging you for snow days.

THIS!

Yes, my company absolutely has the right to refuse to allow me to take vacation days if those days will interrupt my work. Yes, my company also requires me to use my personal leave if OPM deems the streets safe to travel but I am unable to get to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have no right to give PTO and then insist that you have a choice for five days. Does your boss insist on choosing your vacation days or charging you for snow days.

THIS!

Yes, my company absolutely has the right to refuse to allow me to take vacation days if those days will interrupt my work. Yes, my company also requires me to use my personal leave if OPM deems the streets safe to travel but I am unable to get to work.

I bet you go through nannies the way the rest of us go through toilet paper.

[Anonymous]

Remember you want to build trust. This person is taking care of your child. We have had the same nanny for many years and it is a joy for our children and it is give and take.

Do not nickel and dime your childcare provider, it will only hurt you in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have no right to give PTO and then insist that you have a choice for five days. Does your boss insist on choosing your vacation days or charging you for snow days.

THIS!

Yes, my company absolutely has the right to refuse to allow me to take vacation days if those days will interrupt my work. Yes, my company also requires me to use my personal leave if OPM deems the streets safe to travel but I am unable to get to work.

I bet you go through nannies the way the rest of us go through toilet paper.

My child is 4. One caregiver. You what they say about people who make assumptions...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have no right to give PTO and then insist that you have a choice for five days. Does your boss insist on choosing your vacation days or charging you for snow days.

NP here, and we are very generous with our amazing nanny. But to answer your question, yes, I do have to coordinate my PTO with my employer. I also need to either work on "snow days" or take PTO.

[Anonymous]

That 1 vacation of your choosing and 1 vacation of our (the employers) choosing is such BS. Just like any occupation, any PTO your given or accrue, should be used when you want with notice. I could understand if you don’t want to pay for inclement weather days in the event the nanny can’t get to you and it should either be unpaid or nanny use PTO, unless, the employer doesn’t have to report to work then it should be paid and the nanny shouldn’t have to use PTO.

In my situation, PTO is given upfront and any time that requires me to be off 2 or more days, I give a months notice at minimum so they can make their own arrangements (my decision not theirs). Nannies are expensive and if you can’t afford one or willing to give them the same privileges as any other occupation, then send your kid to daycare or you watch them yourself.