Reply to We have a wonderful nanny...

Forum Index » General Discussion

Reply to "We have a wonderful nanny..."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is apparent to me that the MB is not putting her cup in the dishwasher because the dishwasher is full of clean dishes.  Emptying the dishwasher is a five or ten minute job, not a thirty second job.  That's five or ten minutes that the mom may not have as she's trying to feed the kids and get out the door on time.  But the nanny certainly can find five minutes to empty a dishwasher when she works with one baby who takes several naps.

To the poster who said the MB needs to pay more if she wants to ask the nanny to start emptying the dishwasher--you are nuts.  Jobs evolve as needs are identified.  If my boss assigned me to handle some new five minute task every day and I said "okay, but that will cost you another dollar an hour," I would be laughed out of a job.
[/quote]

If that five minute job had absolutely nothing to do with your job, you're damn right it would require more money, especially if that job is actually someone else's and they are changing/adding to your title. If your boss asks you to start cleaning out his email mail box daily for him, it takes 5 minutes, but 1) it isn't your job, 2) some people are particular about how said job is done, and 3) it changes the nature of your job and will undoubtedly snowball. In OPs case, today it the coffee cup, next week its all of the breakfast dishes, in a month they are bothering to do any dishes, soon enough she's cleaning up after all meals, washing pots and pans, straightening the kitchen, and more. No. If you want to start adding housekeeping needs as you see them, the privilege will cost you, or you will evolve yourself right out of a nanny. [/quote]

Most of you fail to differentiate between the nanny profession and the nanny job.  The nanny's profession is childcare.  As an at-will employee, her job is whatever the employer defines it as, at whatever time the employer perceives a need to add/subtract/or alter the scope of work.  At that point, the nanny can either stay in the job, leave, or try to negotiate.

BTW, you are wrong about the email example.  My profession is being an attorney.  My job is to practice law, but it is also to help my firm run smoothly and meet the needs of its clients, even when that means doing these that fall outside the practice of law and/or underutilize my skills and/or test my ego.  If I had substantial downtime during my workday and my boss asked me to triage his emails because he was having trouble keeping up with it, I would absolutely do it and consider it part of my job.  The fact that he might be particular about how it gets done just means I need to take the time to learn how he wants it done.  Yes, assuming this task might change the nature of the job and I might eventually get sick of it.  In that case, I would do my best to fill my time with alternative work that is more valuable to the firm than the email-checking gig, and after having done that, I would ask the boss to put someone else in charge of his inbox.  If the email box snowballed into, say, cleaning the office toilets, I would object and possibly quit AT THAT TIME--not in defensive anticipation of the possibility that the inbox might snowball into toilets.  That is just a function of maturity and confidence, I suppose.  I'm willing to give a few inches because I don't doubt my ability to say no and have that no respected if someone tries to take the mile.  Not sure why nannies have so much trouble with that.     [/quote]

Nannies have trouble with that because we are at the mercy of our bosses on a level I'm not sure that you comprehend. Our bosses answer to no one, most workplace protections do not extend to us, we are incredibly isolated, and most of us cannot afford to pursue matters legally even in the face of the most outrageous abuses. I've had bosses steal money from me, threaten my life, invade my privacy, make outrageous demands, ask me to break or ignore the law, and more (most of these were the same terrible family). In the end I could do nothing more than quit, and lose a reference I worked my ass off for. Saying no as a nanny is really hard, and it honestly is much easier to have firm boundaries from the beggining than to try to say no after saying yes for too long. I'm sorry that makes me stupid, immature, or lacking in confidence as you put it. I guess you're just better than me.  :roll:  If only MBs could just put wash their own coffee cups, we wouldn't even have an issue. [/quote]

PP, we need a clapping icon. You are so right.

And MB PP, no, the nanny's job is what is outlined in their contract NOT whatever the parents decide it is on a given day. If OP needs housework done she needs to address that by speaking to her nanny about changing needs and whether she's agreeable to changing her job description (and compensation). I do all kinds of things that aren't in my contract, from swiffering to taking out trash and recycling, cleaning windows, loading, running, and unloading the dishwasher, washing towels and kitchen rags, etc. Not because it's in my contract and certainly not during the first 5 months I worked there, but after we established a good relationship and I felt confident my going above and beyond would not result in job creep I wanted to help out. PP is right that as a nanny with few recourses (and seriously, how many nannies have the financial stability to just quit a job because their boss left breakfast dishes everywhere?) you have to be firm in the beginning to protect yourself and your job.

My bet is that if OP took the time to put away her own dishes most of the time, her nanny would happily handle it on the occasion she was too rushed to do so. If she's leaving this mug out every day, and dishes in the sink regularly, nanny is probably thinking that OP wants her to do it - is lazily leaving the mess with the ASSUMPTION nanny will do it - and really wants to be clear that is not what she was hired to do.[/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