Weather related time off

[Anonymous]

What arrangement do you have with your nannies regarding weather related time off?

I work for the government and even if OPM closes the government due to weather, I’m telework ready and still required to work at home. If I don’t have childcare, I have to use leave time. Do you still pay the nanny if you had to take off? I would think yes but I guess I’m just not sure (first time having a nanny and we never discussed it).

Similarly, OPM got early dismissal the other day but I still had to work as well. I didn’t think weather was that bad but the nanny wanted to be dismissed early just in case. I was perfectly fine with it. You still pay for the full day despite the early dismissal, right?

Do you negotiate a cap on this? Like if we had a bad winter and ended up being shut down for more than two weeks (total for the winter and not two weeks in a row), I would have had to take off and also paid for additional leave for the nanny.
That’s all reasonable?

[Anonymous]

I should add...Spouse does not work for the government and essentially has to go in or work from home no matter what. They hardly get time off for weather...probably not unless their whole IT system was taken down by weather related events.

[Anonymous]

If schools close, she gets the day off (we don't live in DC). I have to work regardless of what the weather is. Dh can work from home. Dh works from home while taking care of DS, although a lot of screen time is involved. His work allows this.

if schools are open but she feels that she can't drive, she takes a PTO day. If we feel like it would be better if she doesn't drive (which we've done in the past), its just an extra paid day off.

But, we also live in NH where I think people are more used to the snow

[Anonymous]

I used to be a Nanny and I made it to work most snow days, even if I was late. On days where I legit could not get to work I still got paid.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. In all of my contracts, I request that we follow OPM. However, I use my judgement as well. I’ve come in when OPM was closed once my street was clear. With the early release I left early but, that was Bc they came home. I didn’t ask to leave early. I get paid no matter what. If during contract negotiations you elect not to follow OPM or want to put a “cap” on money I will reject the offer. These are two nonnegotiable issues for me.

[Anonymous]

We pay our nanny for 40 hours a week, no matter what. If the government is closed, our nanny generally stays home and one of us takes leave. Yes, it's not ideal. But that's life with small kids.

[Anonymous]

This is exactly why some parents demand a live-in nanny if they can afford the extra expense, and they have suitable private living quarters to offer the nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is exactly why some parents demand a live-in nanny if they can afford the extra expense, and they have suitable private living quarters to offer the nanny.

+1 I take positions in which parents CANNOT miss unless they are physically not able. Weather, child illness/injury, whatever. I’m the one that handles it.

[Anonymous]

We live in California. Snow is never an issue. If there are mass transit delays the nanny will just leave earlier to get to us, or we sometimes offer to send an Uber to pick up.

[Anonymous]

Our nanny lives about five minutes away, so we have never run into any issues. We would certainly be accommodating if she was running late due to inclement weather. If it is truly horrendous and we could swing it (by both staying home and playing hot potato with the kids as work triage needs to happen), we would let her stay home and pay her anyway. I believe our formal contract says that if she chooses to stay home and we need her, she goes without pay. That being said, as a general rule I am not looking for reasons to dock my nanny's pay as long as everyone is being reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is exactly why some parents demand a live-in nanny if they can afford the extra expense, and they have suitable private living quarters to offer the nanny.

You cannot demand that a nanny live in. You may make this a part of the job but only a fool would take a live-in job.

[Anonymous]

The big issue is can the nanny get safely home. If there is an early release and she lives an hour away with everyone panicking it can take 3 hours. Its hard to predict how quickly the storm will hit and if it sticks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is exactly why some parents demand a live-in nanny if they can afford the extra expense, and they have suitable private living quarters to offer the nanny.

You cannot demand that a nanny live in. You may make this a part of the job but only a fool would take a live-in job.

12.32 here. I only take live-in positions, because I want a different relationship with the family. And I’m not a fool, thanks.

[Anonymous]

If she lives far then set it to follow OPM. If she lives close enough that you could drive her if needed then set it at your discretion but you need to be willing to drive her in your car if needed.

We used to do OPM but then got burned when stuff like the metro being shut down (our nanny drove) led to an OPM closure even when streets were ok. Also it is often the case that roads are bad in the AM but ok by noon but OPM has given the whole day off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she lives far then set it to follow OPM. If she lives close enough that you could drive her if needed then set it at your discretion but you need to be willing to drive her in your car if needed.

We used to do OPM but then got burned when stuff like the metro being shut down (our nanny drove) led to an OPM closure even when streets were ok. Also it is often the case that roads are bad in the AM but ok by noon but OPM has given the whole day off.

This. Be willing to drive the nanny and you’re good to go!