Severance or notice?
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Anonymous
| We plan on letting our nanny of 6 months go the first week in December. DH would prefer to let her go on the Friday of that week and pay her 3 weeks severance plus a holiday bonus of $500. Is this fair? Should we give her more notice or does the 3 weeks of severance cover? I feel horrible doing this right before the holidays, but we have a daycare spot that just opened and we can't afford to keep her on until January and pay for the daycare. |
Anonymous
| Did she know you were waiting for a daycare spot? If not, you're right, you should feel horrible. Finding a new job, as well as being unemployed, in December is very difficult. I think you should do both. Notice and severance. |
Anonymous
| You should give her notice now so she can start looking for a new job. Tell her when her last day will be, and that you intend to pay her 3 weeks severance plus a holiday bonus. Explain the situation and let her know how sorry you are. Offer her a (paid) day off to go on interviews if necessary. |
Anonymous
| Also, don't forget to give her a recommandation letter. |
Anonymous
| Yes, be as generous as possible. |
Anonymous
| Why are you waiting until December to let her know? She's going to have enough trouble finding a new position as it is. Let her know ASAP, pay her her bonus, and as much severance as you can. Poor woman. |
Anonymous
| MB here. You need to tell her now and give her the package you described. It baffles me that you don't plan to do this. Your poor nanny. |
nannydebsays
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Tell her now. If you know you are switching to daycare, and you don't tell her, you are minimizing the time she has to find a new job.
If you fear she'll find something and leave before you want her to, add a week of severance in exchange for staying through the first week of December. |
Anonymous
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Please tell her now ANd give her the bonus and severance.
Did she know this would be a temporary position? |
Anonymous
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Both - I am curious like most previous posters why you would wait to inform her of this.
The parents in my previous job had to switch to daycare in a much shorter timeframe than we originally discussed but they were very good at giving me lots of notice and doing as much as possible to assist me in finding a new family. |
Anonymous
| Op here. We were not waiting for a spot in daycare, we intended to have a nanny for multiple years, but our income changed suddenly (and will not recover in the foreseeable future) and we can no longer afford a nanny. We found a daycare we like that has a spot open so I don't want to miss that opportunity. Just trying to let our nanny go as fairly as possible. Thanks for your thoughts. |
Anonymous
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Give her notice now, but make the severance contingent on her staying until the first week of December. If she was really good, you could assist her in finding a new job by posting on your neighborhood list serve or here.
Also, write her a recommendation letter and offer to be a reference. Don't feel bad, OP. You're not a bad person. Things change and jobs end and your nanny will find a new job. |
Anonymous
No one said she was a bad person, but why shouldn't she feel bad? This is a shitty thing to do right before the holidays. She has to look out for her family of course, but it is selfish, and she is screwing her nanny. She also was planning to do either severance OR notice, instead of both like a normal person. |
Anonymous
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If you can afford to do so, I would offer her as much money as I could afford.
Don't feel guilty about your finances. Such is life. Happens all the time. |
Anonymous
I agree with this PP - tell her now, make payout contingent on staying until end date; if she leaves earlier it should be for a new job and you can reevaluate whether you still want to give severance, etc if she's left early and is already employed. It is not selfish to end her employment. You're not doing it out of spite; you've had a change of circumstances. Try to do your best by her but don't feel guilty that the job needs to end. It's not your responsibility to protect someone else's feelings at the expense of your family's financial security. |