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[quote=Anonymous]I'm here to share the story of a situation I found myself in last Fall/winter.

I was working a split schedule with two nanny families; Monday Wednesday and Friday with one family, Tuesday and Thursday with the other. It went great for about a year, then the Tues/Thurs family's grandparents moved from across the country to be closer with grand-daughter, and suddenly (I was given three weeks notice) they didn't need me any more. I had been feeling overworked anyway, and sought out some half day positions for Tuesday and Thursday.

I found an ad that said they were looking for care for an 8 year old boy and almost four year old girl. They needed someone from 7am to 1pm Tues/Thursday, primarily for the girl (drop big brother off at school by 8). The pay was listed at $16/hr. I scheduled an interview. When I showed up, I started saying things like "in the email you said..." And the parents kind of looked at each other and said, "oh, you didn't email us!" I was confused, and they explained that their "main" nanny had coordinated everything. I was confused, but liked the way the job seemed to be shaping up (lots of freedom to go do fun things around town, use of their nice car, museum memberships, good hours for me, etc), so I went with it.

Over time, I began to understand more about their "main nanny." She was a college student (second year), 20 years old. She had been their "nanny" for less than two years. She had been the one to place the ad because she "really wanted to keep working with them, even though her classes that semester conflicted with their needs." (Read: as soon as that semester was over, my hours either were to change or be lost completely). I am a professional nanny, 32 years old, with 14 years of full time nanny experience, and a bachelors degree in ECE. This 20 year old second year college student (who was studying psychology and theatre) was making $20/hr with the family. And yet, when she placed the ad, she decided to advertise her "subcontracted" hours at $16/hr?? That really was frustrating, for obvious reasons.

However, she also acted completely irresponsibly. I only ended up working with them for two months (I quit, due to a number of issues). But in that time, the "main nanny" was late to relieve me THREE times! And, she wasn't just like a little late. Once she was 20 mins late, once she was 30 mins late, but the third time she was 75 (SEVENTY FIVE!) minutes late. And since MB left me a prepaid check in the morning on Friday, and since this girl was late consistently on Fridays, it would've been a pain in the ass for MB to compensate me for the time (I would ve had to come in on Saturday probably). So "main nanny" would pay me cash out of her pocket (at my rate of $16/hr), and coolly say something like "MB doesn't need to hear about this" (although after the third time I did tell her of course). It was frustrating, knowing that she was getting paid $20 for that hour that she wasn't even there, so even when she gave me the $16 it was like she still made $4/hr when she wasn't even there!

I strongly suspect, looking back, that that girl also had thought she would be pulling something over on me and her MB when she advertised the position for so much less than she made: I think she was hoping MB would still pay her her normal rate, and that she would then pay the "other" nanny, so she could continue to make money on the deal for hours she wasn't really there.

And for the record, the times she was late had nothing to do with school, or any real reason, because I later found out that her Friday class ended at 11am, and she usually then went to "have lunch" at her boyfriends apartment before heading over. More than once she told me she "accidentally overslept" at her boyfriends place as her excuse! And, I found out that the charge always took a 2 hour nap right at 1:30, and "main nanny" was relieved at 4:30. So I would spend ALL morning playing with the charge at the park, art projects, prepare and clean up from breakfast, snack, and lunch. Then she would waltz in, put the charge down to sleep immediately, and "work on schoolwork."

There were multiple times, especially near the end, when "main nanny" asked me to wash, dry, fold, and put away the family's laundry. I did it once, as a favor. The second time I told her that she needed to manage her time with the family better so she could do the laundry herself, because she spent five days per week there, and every single day involved a two hour nap, which I didn't get (and as I explained, I'm too busy engaging with the charge and preparing meals and doing the dishes to make additional time to clean and fold a whole load of laundry). It was the third time she asked that I said "you make $20/hr and I make $16/hr, doing all the chores that you are supposed to do during your shifts. So no, I won't do the laundry for you anymore." She seemed somehow hurt; I think she was in shock that I actually knew her real rate!

It was about that time that I quit. I guess the lesson is don't do a subcontracted position (where you're being relieved and in a sense overseen by another nanny). I'm sure most aren't as awful as she was but...I'll certainly never do that again![/quote]

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