Anonymous wrote:Without giving details, my nanny job is expanding more and more into my off (non-paid) hours. I thought my employers, who know about the "expansion", would compensate me or at least bring it up to me but they haven't. I've never once done them any favor without being asked to do it a second, third and fourth time and then it becomes expected.
Yes, I need to address it with them and yes, I probably should have learned by now never to offer to ever do them any favors - but why? Why can't employers who KNOW that you are doing "above and beyond" for them at least mention that they are grateful?! It's like some weird game of "how much can we get away with".
I'm so tired of this. Please don't tell me they don't know - they do.
I guess this is more of a warning to other nannies who might be as stupid as I have been - DO NOT EVER OFFER TO DO ANYTHING EXTRA FOR YOUR EMPLOYERS.
OP, I'm sorry your employers are expecting you to do extra work and not compensating you for it. I don't agree though with the bolded part above. I think that is the case with some employers because they will come to expect extra work but that in not the case with all employers. You definitely need to know your employer though before you do anything extra but in the right relationship it can work well for the nanny as well. For example, my children's nanny does occasionally empty the dishwasher for me if I forget to run it so I have time to empty it. It's definitely not her job to do it and I always tell she can just leave the dirty dishes in the sink but she does it anyway. It happens maybe once a month at most. In return though I try to be extra accommodating for her. When she told me it was her daughter's birthday and she hoped I could be home from work a little early one day I made arrangements for a backup to come and relieve her so she could have the afternoon off and I didn't deduct any of her vacation time for that. The best nanny/parent relationships involve give and take on both sides. I'm sorry you have not had that experience but there are parents out there who DO appreciate the little extra things a nanny does.