If you hope to get a serious commitment from a nanny, you have to guarantee your hours. Otherwise, the nanny will fit you in when it's convienent for her.

OP are you guaranteeing hrs? It was not clear from your wording and that impacts if it is reasonable.

OP I think it is find to offer 12 days. Personalky i think it is more confusing to say 4 days are yours than to just say one week your choice and one week hers for vacation plus 2 PTO days. That is only one day short of normal and you allow them to be used as vacation if she wants which helps give flexibility to offset (slightly) the lower number.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do 12 days PTO. Nanny earns 1 day/month, and can use them at her discretion for any need.

She also gets 8 holiday days off, and any time we're out of town (usually 2-3 weeks a year).

I thought the ability to schedule all 12 when she wanted (or use them as sick days) made up for the "missing" 3 days, especially since she still gets paid when we go out of town. But, if for some reason we didn't go out of town one year, I wouldn't have to worry about the "our choice" week, and I also don't have to split sick vs. vacation.

This still makes no sense. By your reasoning, she would need to work for you a full year before "earning" her days off. Additionally, in your initial post, you stated that you choose 4 of the 12 days for her and they could be days where you talke a full week off, effectively forcing her to either use one of her days, so really in that scenario, she is down to 7 days. It just sounds overly complicated and kind of shady. What is your reasoning for deviating from the standard? Do you assume someone who doesn't even work for you yet, and whose merit you can not possibly judge, isn't deserving of a full two weeks of vacation?

+1

I get the standard vacation (1 week my choosing, 1 week my boss' choosing) plus 5 PTO days. Those days accrued over time but I had earned all of them after 3 months of employment. That is standard in retail (no benefits for the first 90 days), but asking someone to wait 12 months to get their full PTO? Shameful. I'm so so grateful to work for people who don't nickel and dime me.

Anonymous wrote:I do 12 days PTO. Nanny earns 1 day/month, and can use them at her discretion for any need.

She also gets 8 holiday days off, and any time we're out of town (usually 2-3 weeks a year).

I thought the ability to schedule all 12 when she wanted (or use them as sick days) made up for the "missing" 3 days, especially since she still gets paid when we go out of town. But, if for some reason we didn't go out of town one year, I wouldn't have to worry about the "our choice" week, and I also don't have to split sick vs. vacation.

This still makes no sense. By your reasoning, she would need to work for you a full year before "earning" her days off. Additionally, in your initial post, you stated that you choose 4 of the 12 days for her and they could be days where you talke a full week off, effectively forcing her to either use one of her days, so really in that scenario, she is down to 7 days. It just sounds overly complicated and kind of shady. What is your reasoning for deviating from the standard? Do you assume someone who doesn't even work for you yet, and whose merit you can not possibly judge, isn't deserving of a full two weeks of vacation?

I do 12 days PTO. Nanny earns 1 day/month, and can use them at her discretion for any need.

She also gets 8 holiday days off, and any time we're out of town (usually 2-3 weeks a year).

I thought the ability to schedule all 12 when she wanted (or use them as sick days) made up for the "missing" 3 days, especially since she still gets paid when we go out of town. But, if for some reason we didn't go out of town one year, I wouldn't have to worry about the "our choice" week, and I also don't have to split sick vs. vacation.

Anonymous wrote: Where are you getting this arbitrary 4 and 8 from. This package does not make sense for anyone. If you are going to offer a straight PTO package as opposed to vacation and sick, it seems odd that you would stipulate any of the allowed times. You are trying to get out of offering an additional 3 days-as per most standard nanny situations-and it seems petty and cheap at that point to claim 4 of those for yourself.

+1

Bad form to start off so petty.

Where are you getting this arbitrary 4 and 8 from. This package does not make sense for anyone. If you are going to offer a straight PTO package as opposed to vacation and sick, it seems odd that you would stipulate any of the allowed times. You are trying to get out of offering an additional 3 days-as per most standard nanny situations-and it seems petty and cheap at that point to claim 4 of those for yourself.

I thinks its reasonable. If anything, stay with that and increase/adjust after the first year.

OP here, if nanny is unexpectedly ill, leave for that will not be requested in advance. I anticipate asking to be notified by 6 am if an emergency or unexpected illness will prevent nanny from coming to work. The one week notice for one day just helps with planning so if nanny has a scheduled appointment or something that will take a day or less I will be able to notify my office with enough time as well.

I guess I was hoping that by making the remaining 8 days PTO as opposed to designating some of it as vacation and some of it as sick leave, that offering technically less total time would be okay.

Nanny would be working a 5 day week. We always go on one week long vacation a year and Nanny would have that week off with pay. We might use the 4 days at our discretion that week or at other times (i.e., for long weekends). The remaining 8 days would be for Nanny to use as she wanted so she could have two 5-day blocks if she chose to use 5 of the 8 days to take a week long vacation.

Anonymous wrote:I know that the standard paid leave is 2 weeks vacation (1 at family's choice, 1 at nanny's choice) and 5 days of sick leave but I'm wondering what DCUM thinks of the below option.

12 days total PTO (no distinction between sick/vacation). 4 days to be used at family's choice, the remaining 8 at nanny's choice. Request one week advanced notice for use of 1 day or less and two weeks advanced notice for 2 days or more. Up to 4 days can be carried over to the next year and any days remaining at the end of the year, up to 8 days, will be paid out.

All federal holidays will also be paid time off.

Thoughts? Too little time? Too much time at family's discretion?

Is this nanny working a 4-day week? If so, it's fine. If not, it should be at least 14 days - so she has two, 5-day blocks she'd be able to schedule for vacation time (assuming she didn't get sick). Otherwise she's getting 4 days at your discretion, one week of vacation, and 3 sick days... trust me, you want your nanny to have two weeks of vacation time to recharge.

And speaking of not getting ill, what exactly do you expect her to do if she's sick? No one knows a week in advance when they're going to get the stomach flu...

Anonymous wrote:It sounds fine except for the fact that I don't normally know that I'm going to be sick a week in advance...

This exactly. What is the point of giving PTO if your nanny can't use it when they truly need to?

It sounds fine except for the fact that I don't normally know that I'm going to be sick a week in advance...

Sounds great as long as the nanny and the parents are in agreement. If not, negotiate.

I know that the standard paid leave is 2 weeks vacation (1 at family's choice, 1 at nanny's choice) and 5 days of sick leave but I'm wondering what DCUM thinks of the below option.

12 days total PTO (no distinction between sick/vacation). 4 days to be used at family's choice, the remaining 8 at nanny's choice. Request one week advanced notice for use of 1 day or less and two weeks advanced notice for 2 days or more. Up to 4 days can be carried over to the next year and any days remaining at the end of the year, up to 8 days, will be paid out.

All federal holidays will also be paid time off.

Thoughts? Too little time? Too much time at family's discretion?