What is reasonable in this situation?
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Anonymous
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The nanny told me this morning that because she wants to vote next Tuesday she needs to either come late or I need to come home early so she can leave early. Of course it's completely reasonable that she wants to vote but the thing is her normal end time is 5pm and the polls close at 7pm which gives her 2 hours to get there when she leaves my house. She just doesn't want to go then because it will be more crowded. She's in general very flexible for me and I really try to reciprocate as much as I can but I have 2 issues with this. 1 is that DH and I are both physicians and neither have ANY flexibility in our work schedules just 1 week in advance. I can't cancel patients who made appointments a month ago because the nanny wants to leave early to vote. My mom is usually my back and because her work schedule is much more flexible and she really does a ton to help the nanny and has taken days off to help her out (and I don't just mean when she had planned vacation) even at the last minute. I just hate asking my mom to help in this instance for something she CAN do after work. The other issue I have is the way she brought it up. She didn't ask me. She just told me she needed to either come late or I needed to come home early. If she had a doctors appointment or something else that HAD to be done during work hours it wouldn't bother me but I just don't think "I don't want to go when it's crowded" is a good enough reason for her to not ask.
So, is it reasonable for me to say "If you want to go during the day you have to take the children with you, otherwise you have to go after I get home at 5pm"? |
Anonymous
| If she normally drives the children places, I think asking her to bring them during the day is very reasonable. |
Anonymous
+1. Most parents do this anyway. |
Anonymous
| Have her take the kids with her and they can go out for lunch afterward or something. Make it fun. She's being unreasonable. You guys need to get vote by mail like Oregon has. |
Anonymous
+1. If she doesn't like that, she can go in the evening after her workday ends. She is being very unreasonable. |
Anonymous
| I agree with PPs. Offer to let her take the kids with her and then pay for them to go to lunch. If she can't compromise then tell her that you won't be able to come home early or leave late, so she will have to go on her own time. |
Anonymous
| Nanny here- I bring the kids when I vote. I vote in LA county and I've never waited more than 5mins. Your nanny is unreasonable. And also dumb and inflexible for not even considering taking the kids with her! |
nannydebsays
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| Yeah, that's unreasonable. If she worked 7:30 - 6:30, asking for time off would be necessary, but she doesn't seem to have considered any options. |
Anonymous
| Who cares what the reason is, it's honestly none of your business. She has asked for time off, grant it. She can make her own choices about she wants to spend her time off. |
Anonymous
| She has a right to vote when she wishes, in fact, there is a Federal law mandating employers give time off to vote. My heart is breaking for two physicians too cheap yo hire a babysitter so your nanny can exercise her Constitutional right to vote. |
Anonymous
| If the polls are open when I finish work, I go then. If it is busy, that's life. If I can't get to the polls due to my work hours, I request the approprite amount of time off, as per my right, I think that's reasonable. |
Anonymous
| I knew the trolls would come out eventually. Before you start spouting law that you don't know anything about, maybe you should check the actual law. In maryland the law is that employers have to give employees time off to vote ONLY if they don't have 2 hours in which to vote before or after work. She does have that so it's not a legal requirement. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thankfully the trolls above are not my nanny. Not that I would hire someone like that anyway. I spoke with my nanny and she has no problem taking the children to the polls with her. I think she thought they might get tired of waiting in line but she can bring toys and I don't think it's a bad thing for them to do things like that to learn patience. |
Anonymous
| Actually there are no laws of any kind protecting nannies from anything. Just like a nanny can get fired for becoming pregnant, she can also be refused time to vote. Since there are no such laws in place for private employees, I work for cash. Why should I follow a law when I can be discriminated against for any reason whatsoever? |
Anonymous
| My employers encouraged me to take the kids with me when I voted. The nanny doesn't need time off. We all have been in voting lines. |