I need to fire my nanny

[Anonymous]

We had a new nanny start a few months ago and she greatly oversold her ability to speak English. I have absolutely nothing against her speaking Spanish (in fact, I have encouraged her to teach my son some, at her discretion). But the fact of the matter is, despite my explaining instructions multiple times, writing it down, texting it to her (so she could use google translate if she would like), everything is a mess and getting worse by the day instead of better. We have had issues with school pick-up for my son, missing activities, not following instructions within the home, etc. (not feeding him when I've asked, not giving him a bath, etc.). We have to constantly double check what she is doing and it is often not what we told her to do. I have spent so much time going through things with her each day and she says she understands me, but then things are still not done correctly. I feel absolutely terrible, as she is nice enough, but I'm at my limit and we need to let her go before something goes seriously wrong with my child. I can't trust her and I am terrified I'm going to be in a situation where she has to give him medicine or something and she can't follow my instructions.

Has anyone been in this scenario before? What did you do?

[Anonymous]

Find a replacement and give her notice as soon as possible. Severance would be kind. Anything up to a week as a cash bonus is generous.

[Anonymous]

Awww I’m sorry. I do understand though. If you want to keep her, maybe you could download Google Translate and communicate via text in Spanish?

If you really can’t get past the language barrier, then sit her down and tell her. Be generous with her severance if you can. Maybe offer to help find her a job with parents who speak Spanish.

I know it seems daunting but this does happen. You and she will both come out ok.

[Anonymous]

I completely understand. Agree with first pp to let her know asap so she can look for a new position.

[Anonymous]

Give her two weeks and be on your way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a new nanny start a few months ago and she greatly oversold her ability to speak English. I have absolutely nothing against her speaking Spanish (in fact, I have encouraged her to teach my son some, at her discretion). But the fact of the matter is, despite my explaining instructions multiple times, writing it down, texting it to her (so she could use google translate if she would like), everything is a mess and getting worse by the day instead of better. We have had issues with school pick-up for my son, missing activities, not following instructions within the home, etc. (not feeding him when I've asked, not giving him a bath, etc.). We have to constantly double check what she is doing and it is often not what we told her to do. I have spent so much time going through things with her each day and she says she understands me, but then things are still not done correctly. I feel absolutely terrible, as she is nice enough, but I'm at my limit and we need to let her go before something goes seriously wrong with my child. I can't trust her and I am terrified I'm going to be in a situation where she has to give him medicine or something and she can't follow my instructions.

Has anyone been in this scenario before? What did you do?

This is on you. You can tell immediately how fluent someone is in English as all you need is a simple conversation. Unless, of course, you are not fluent in English!

[Anonymous]

I have never personally been in a situation like this before, but I strongly empathize w/you OP.

And yes - I do agree that you definitely need to let this Nanny go + find a suitable replacement stat.

The language barrier can most definitely put your son in danger at any given time.

Sorry you are going through this & wishing you only the best in finding a more competent Nanny for your family!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a new nanny start a few months ago and she greatly oversold her ability to speak English. I have absolutely nothing against her speaking Spanish (in fact, I have encouraged her to teach my son some, at her discretion). But the fact of the matter is, despite my explaining instructions multiple times, writing it down, texting it to her (so she could use google translate if she would like), everything is a mess and getting worse by the day instead of better. We have had issues with school pick-up for my son, missing activities, not following instructions within the home, etc. (not feeding him when I've asked, not giving him a bath, etc.). We have to constantly double check what she is doing and it is often not what we told her to do. I have spent so much time going through things with her each day and she says she understands me, but then things are still not done correctly. I feel absolutely terrible, as she is nice enough, but I'm at my limit and we need to let her go before something goes seriously wrong with my child. I can't trust her and I am terrified I'm going to be in a situation where she has to give him medicine or something and she can't follow my instructions.

Has anyone been in this scenario before? What did you do?

This is on you. You can tell immediately how fluent someone is in English as all you need is a simple conversation. Unless, of course, you are not fluent in English!

-1

This is not true at all.

[Anonymous]

OP here - honestly, it really has been difficult. I can see how it should have been easy to tell the language barrier, but it wasn't because I had no issues communicating in the interview, when we negotiated our agreement, etc. Sometimes we have back and forth conversations with no issue. And then other times, I am like "can you please take him to the park this morning and then back here for lunch at 11:45" and she will be like "okay sure, no problem" and the next thing I know, it is an hour later and they are just playing in his room. A large part of me thinks she is just not listening and is pretending she doesn't understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Awww I’m sorry. I do understand though. If you want to keep her, maybe you could download Google Translate and communicate via text in Spanish?

If you really can’t get past the language barrier, then sit her down and tell her. Be generous with her severance if you can. Maybe offer to help find her a job with parents who speak Spanish.

I know it seems daunting but this does happen. You and she will both come out ok.

My main concern is that you cannot fire someone due to them speaking another language. So I need to approach it very carefully, even though it really has nothing to do with the fact she speaks Spanish. It has everything to do with the fact that she isn't doing her job correctly and it's impacting my son. That is why I'm concerned and was seeking advice from this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - honestly, it really has been difficult. I can see how it should have been easy to tell the language barrier, but it wasn't because I had no issues communicating in the interview, when we negotiated our agreement, etc. Sometimes we have back and forth conversations with no issue. And then other times, I am like "can you please take him to the park this morning and then back here for lunch at 11:45" and she will be like "okay sure, no problem" and the next thing I know, it is an hour later and they are just playing in his room. A large part of me thinks she is just not listening and is pretending she doesn't understand.

If she can consistently carry on conversations, it sounds more like she's deciding to do what she wants or doesn't want to set timers to make sure she does things on time.

[Anonymous]

Nannies are at will employees. You don't need a reason. It isn't working out; simple as that.

Can you piece together coverage and let her go immediately until you find a replacement? If so, give her severance and be on your way.

If you can't cover the care, then start interviewing and then give her notice/severance when you have a replacement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awww I’m sorry. I do understand though. If you want to keep her, maybe you could download Google Translate and communicate via text in Spanish?

If you really can’t get past the language barrier, then sit her down and tell her. Be generous with her severance if you can. Maybe offer to help find her a job with parents who speak Spanish.

I know it seems daunting but this does happen. You and she will both come out ok.

My main concern is that you cannot fire someone due to them speaking another language. So I need to approach it very carefully, even though it really has nothing to do with the fact she speaks Spanish. It has everything to do with the fact that she isn't doing her job correctly and it's impacting my son. That is why I'm concerned and was seeking advice from this forum.

You can’t fire someone for ethnicity or national origin, and maybe you “can’t”/shouldn’t fire someone for being ABLE to speak a certain language (Spanish) like if two line cooks in a restaurant talk in Spanish to each other while working, but you are not doing any of that. You are at most firing someone because they are UNABLE to speak a certain language (English) that is required to perform the job. And even that seems barely true; it’s more like she is UNWILLING to listen to instructions in English. This is not a language barrier issue based on what you’ve described, this is a motivation or attention to detail issue.

[Anonymous]

^ Meant to add: just don’t bring up the irrelevant Spanish bit. Tell her only the second part of what you wrote: you are letting her go due to her not performing duties/following instructions.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, you should give her 2 weeks salary and let her go on that day. I am a nanny, I am a foreigner, I do not speak Spanish but other languages. But your child's life and needs are important. Do not feel bad letting her go.