Anonymous wrote:Currently, (thankfully!) another family needed some emergency care for a few days this week so I have made some money in the lag time.
They want me to come back on to work for the next school year, but this "unplanned" leave has occurred before.
I agree with a prior poster who suggested sitting down and chatting with the family. They may not realize the position the unpaid leave puts you in and if you have a respectful conversation about it 1) you know that they know, 2) they have the opportunity to offer you something going forward and 3) you will know where you stand. I would do this, assuming you are otherwise happy with the position, before you just go look for another position. If you cannot come to a meeting of the minds, then by all means look for something else.
Guaranteed pay is a negotiated benefit, not a right. I have worked with many thousands of employers over more than 20 years and most are perfectly reasonable and in fact will compromise to retain a valued employee. What they are not is mind readers. Unless you have talked about this before, if you were my employee I would appreciate the opportunity to have the discussion and see if we can come to an agreement we can all live with.