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[quote=Anonymous]OP, here's the thing.  There's no real common or "right" thing to do.  One thing I can say for sure though, you should have talked about this with her already a few weeks ago.  Given that you haven't, you need to make a plan and sit down with her ASAP to tell her what is happening.

Any of us can like it or not, but just like Federal employees to the Federal government, nannies are employed by the family.  It becomes a very close relationship necessarily, but it is an employer paying for a service.  If that employer can no longer afford the service, they terminate the relationship.  The nanny is similarly free to leave any time it's not working for her anymore.

That's why this is such a balance - obviously as the employer and someone who wants to keep their nanny on long-term, the best thing to do would be to keep paying her what you can as long as you can, making sacrifices elsewhere and keeping her informed the whole time.

But sometimes employers are going to lose their jobs, or in this case where both parents are Feds, they will have zero income for as long as this lasts.  We are always told to have so many months of savings for emergencies, but what if you don't?  Or what if you did, but you just spent it on an emergency (like a maternity leave - Feds don't get maternity leave either, so OP probably exhausted all her leave and then took a month or so with no pay).

If the OP already exhausted her savings and has no income coming in to the family at all for a period of a week or more, what is she going to do?  It's not personal, and certainly she can assume that her nanny will start looking for a new job.  But what is the other option?

OP, be up front with your nanny immediately that if shutdown happens, you can only afford to pay her for X days.  Have her work for those X days and then if it continues, unfortunately, you'll have to lay her off.  She will likely be looking for a new, more stable job after that point, so you should probably be planning for if she doesn't come back.  It is what it is. [/quote]

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