Live-in nanny - babysitting for other families?
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Anonymous
| Is it common for live-in nannies to babysit for other families without discussing with host family? It's our first experience with a live-in, so trying to figure out what's common and how those situations are usually managed. I guess there is no harm in someone trying to earn some extra income, but thought it strange she hasn't coordinated with us. |
Anonymous
| Is she doing the babysitting in your home? If not, it is none of your business what she does in her off time. |
Anonymous
| No, but she is doing it at a time when I am also asking her to do overtime. May be a bad assumption, but assumed that by having someone live with us, we would have some priority in terms of overtime. We work hard and need some flexibility from a nanny. |
Anonymous
Are you asking her in advance? You can't expect her not to make commitments during her free time on the off chance you may need more coverage. |
Anonymous
| Yes, asking in advance. |
Anonymous
| Maybe she needs a break from your kids. |
Anonymous
| Thanks, that's a very useful reply. Came seeking actual, serious, helpful responses. |
Anonymous
| Talk to her and let her know you hired a live in for flexibility. If you want to reserve her time, then you should pay her a little holding fee or guarantee the hours. |
Anonymous
+1. She must need the extra income so if you guarantee the hours, she will be covered. |
Anonymous
| Thx, good suggestion. To be honest, we have been trying not to impose a lot of additional hours on her just because I think it gets to be a long day and didn't want her to feel burned out. Maybe we need to agree a base schedule plus a certain amount of guaranteed OT. Appreciate it. |
Anonymous
Not the Pp, but it is true. Maybe she just needs a break from your kids. And that isn't a bad thing at all. It doesn't mean your kids are terrible kids or that they misbehave, it just means that maybe she needs a change of scenery plus the additional income. I think all of us get fed up at our job at some point or another and if our boss asked us to work overtime, we'd kind of mumble under our breaths about it. Are the kids she is babysitting for different ages or genders? Or it could be that she's a little burned out and knows that if she babysits other kids, she can do some of the activities that she does with your kids, and they won't be bored of it because it will be new. |
Anonymous
| Be careful about guarenteed OT if you can't agree on right of first refusal to schedule it. We were burned on offering 5 hours biweekly guarenteed weekend overtime to our nanny. She took a lot of other jobs and ended up only being able to sit for us on Saturday mornings. We told her we were flexible on those hours, as in we understood she might often had personal plans, but we assumed she would give us priority for sitting time. Bad assumption! |
Anonymous
| Thanks, PP. Helpful advice as well. Yeah, to me having some concept of priority access was part of the point of having a live-in and justified the tradeoff. We do try to be respectful about not burning her out and want to make sure she has time for personal plans, but if she's just going to go babysit for someone else anyway . . . |
nannydebsays
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If you need her to be available, you need to offer to pay her for the hours you want her to "save" for you. That way, if you don't need her, she hasn't lost any additional income because she reserved that time for you.
So, discuss with nanny, and if she is agreeable, re-write your work agreement: Nanny will regularly work 7 am - 6 pm M - F. Nanny will be paid $XXX for those 55 hours a week. Nanny is also required to reserve additional hours on the following specific nights for family's use, and nanny will earn $Y/hour for these specific reserved hours. If nanny is not needed for the reserved hours, she will still be paid $Y/hour for those hours. If nanny is not needed, she is free to offer her services to others with no wage penalty from family. (List of specific reserved hours for each day of the week) |
Anonymous
| Guaranteed hours with right of first refusal are good ideas. If you are using her full-time, any extra hours will be paid at time and a half so working for you will probably be more lucrative than for anyone else. I would sit down with the nanny and work out an arrangement. It is possible that she needs the income and a change of scenery. Recommend you give her at least every other weekend off from caring for your kids. |