Reply to Daycare, wait lists, and notices

Forum Index » General Discussion

Reply to "Daycare, wait lists, and notices"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]You have a responsibility to her, as her employer. You say you think a family member pays her rent, but you do not know that. She HAS bills and obligations; she has to be able to buy food. If you are really struggling this much to afford proper severance, then you are likely paying her poorly as it is (you can try to justify it to yourself all you want, but if you are paying any less than $12/hr you are not paying a fair wage), so she is probably already struggling financially, and is heavily dependent upon her paycheck. Giving an hourly, low wage employee no notice and no severance is literally setting up that person to default on loans, take a credit hit, possibly have possessions repoed, and maybe even end up homeless if she can't pay rent. I know these examples seem extreme, but they are very real possibilities.

As others have pointed out, if you can't afford severance, you never should have hired a nanny in the first place. It is grossly irresponsible because another persons life and well being are at stake, but you clearly don't give a shit anyway, which is competely despicable.

I was in a similar position myself, recently. A family (who I had worked with for 3 years) told me they put their son on a wait list at daycare/preschool and weren't sure when he would get in. They actually had told me his care there would only be part time so I would still have some hours with them. But about 6 weeks after telling me that, they heard from the preschool that they had a full time opening in 3 weeks and "decided to go for it." I was pretty irked because I'd been previously told I'd still be able to work with them 18-20 hours per week (when they had said preschool would be part time), and they gave me no severance, but ultimately 3 weeks notice did give me /some/ time to find a new job.

But even 3 weeks wasn't really enough time to ensure no gaps in employment; it took 3 full weeks of sending applications and going to interviews before finding a family that was a good fit (in terms of hours, location and pay, but also a good fit between the parents personalities and parenting styles and my own), and even then the position didn't start for 2 weeks, so I ended up with a two week gap in employment anyway (which is why even one week of severance from my previous employer would've been very helpful).

Any less than two weeks notice is NOT ENOUGH TIME, especially without severance. In my case it took 5 weeks to find and begin a new position, and I am highly qualified. ( I have 12 years of nanny experience with families of up to 5 children, including experience with autistic children, cerebral palsy, newborns, preemies, twins, etc, and I have a bachelors degree in ECE, CPR and first aid certified, and I'm a native USA English speaker but also speak Spanish (which I studied in college), and I have my own car, great driving record, and glowing references from families I worked with long term, etc).

If you really feel you can't afford to pay your nanny severance or her last two weeks, then you need to tell her that NOW. You need to tell her that as soon as your kid gets into daycare she will be let go with no notice or severance. Be prepared for her to leave, but at least you won't have someone's possible complete ruin (of credit and possibly descent into homelessness and/or deep deep debt) on your conscience. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics