OP here. We are firing her. Her references said she never missed work and her last position was for over a year and she hadn't missed a day. We had to have her stay home again today because she has the flu. We can't have that unreliability. She has missed she has only worked 4.5 out of the 10 days in her first two weeks.

Since she DID come highly recommended, plus she is amazing w/your baby, I would probably consider giving her another chance.

However my guard would be up at this point & she would need to make a stronger impact on me to more than prove that she is reliable.

Sure, things happen in life and the timing can sometimes just suck balls.
But in the majority of jobs, employers expect someone who is highly reliable. They could care less about floods, illness, etc.

Unfair? Maybe.
But that is life.

Even though Hilary Clinton had pneumonia on 9/11, she was still expected to show up in N.Y.C. to do her job.

OP, if anything else catastrophic occurs after this, then I would most definitely issue her her walking papers.

Just curious.....Did her references tell you that she was reliable when working for them?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure she doesn't get paid for taking time off (beyond what you agreed to). That will help ensure reliability.

Are you serious, this mom told the nanny to stay home? Of course she should be paid even if the mom decides to terminate. You do not ensure reliability by playing games.

No. I agree with this. Especially in the beginning, do not pay for more days off than she has earned. Or, if you feel you need to, be sure that you explain clearly that this is an exceptional circumstance (such as, she's a live in, and a flood at your house destroyed all of her belongings). You don't want to set a precedent that you will pay for unlimited absences, or set a confusing standard for which ones you will cover over and above.

Personally, any absences in the first month of work, for any reason besides me telling the nanny not to come in, would be unpaid.

Anonymous wrote:Make sure she doesn't get paid for taking time off (beyond what you agreed to). That will help ensure reliability.

Are you serious, this mom told the nanny to stay home? Of course she should be paid even if the mom decides to terminate. You do not ensure reliability by playing games.

We have the world's greatest nanny who, in her first month with us, got a terrible cold and then a stomach bug that was going around. I worried that maybe this was a sign of problems with absences. One year and two months later and she has never gotten sick again and never missed another day of work. Sometimes shit just happens.

Make sure she doesn't get paid for taking time off (beyond what you agreed to). That will help ensure reliability.

I'd cut her a break. She can't help her house flooded nor can she help getting the flu. I would not want someone with the flu in my home. Better she rest, get better than work. Let her come back, giver her a chance and then decide.

Anonymous wrote:Since she has amazing references, I would probably just chalk this up to unfortunate timing and bad luck - though if you are out on leave still it's possible that the timing could have been worse if it had all happened right after you went back to work.

Personally if she seems to be a great nanny then I'd give it a bit more time. Finding a good fit can be hard and I wouldn't throw that away just because of something like this.

I wouldn't say anything to her, but I'd be keeping track over the next few months. A string of bad luck could happen to anyone, but some people seem to always have a reason they can't work. Yes, you need a backup plan, but she needs to be able to handle issues in her own life without always taking off work.

Our nanny really impressed me when during her first month with us, her car broke down on the way to work. She was late that day, but she got here, and she figured out how to get herself to work over the next couple of days while her car was being fixed, and was able to arrange to get it fixed without it becoming my problem at all. That's how a grown-up handles things. I had had several nannies before this who would have called in when the car broke down, and then made the entire set of logistics my problem.

Our morning person (housekeeper/mother's helper) ended up in the hospital about two weeks after she started with us. She was ultimately out almost two weeks. I didn't say anything, and she has been incredibly reliable since then. You just have to wait to find out if this is an anomaly or not.

So, I guess I'm saying that you need to wait an see. She may be the kind of person who is always sick or always having personal crises, in which case she needs a job with more flexibility. Or, it could just be two incidents with bad timing.

Anonymous wrote:You do not get the flu from a flu shot! I'd let her go just for thinking I would believe this.

You absolutely can! I suffer from severe flu symptoms for days after getting a flu shot. It's not at all uncommon.

You do not get the flu from a flu shot! I'd let her go just for thinking I would believe this.

Anonymous wrote:We are into week 2 with our nanny and he has missed 5 days already. The first week we gave her a pass because her stuff was nearly destroyed in a flooding we had. She missed 1.5 days ( came in the next day for a couple hours). This week she got hit with the flu after getting her flu shot and has been out all week. I told her to stay home since her temp is still high. She came very highly recommended by a couple in the neighborhood. She had amazing references and we did a background check. The most important is she has been amazing with our baby. We do feel like she is the right fit but I'm getting worried about reliability. I go back to work next week and we have no family in town to cover. We know you can't help being sick but would it be fair to issue a warning or let her go?

I agree you might want to give this time, qualified nannies are hard to find. Remember nannies are people and they do get sick, also you did tell her to stay home. Did she get the flu shot on her own or was it a request? As for the flood part, this is devastating to experience. What kind of warning would you issue, you are not aloud to get sick? If you really are thinking of letting your nanny go for these reasons then you should and yes it is understandable with your concern to going back to work. But what are you going to say to a future nanny, that they cannot get sick.

Since she has amazing references, I would probably just chalk this up to unfortunate timing and bad luck - though if you are out on leave still it's possible that the timing could have been worse if it had all happened right after you went back to work.

Personally if she seems to be a great nanny then I'd give it a bit more time. Finding a good fit can be hard and I wouldn't throw that away just because of something like this.

A warning for what? Mother Nature bringing on a flood or getting the flu and running a high temperature? You said yourself her references were good so these are things she obviously couldn't help.

You gave perfectly reasonable explanations for her absences. These are not issues that come up frequently. She has clearly had a string of bad luck. Otherwise, you say she's been amazing with your baby, came highly recommended, and you still feel she is a good fit. What kind of warning would you give her? "Don't have anymore bad luck while you work for us because we (irresponsibly) have no backup plan." Use this time to work out what your backup plan will be for when she inevitably needs time off to be human, and be grateful both for this opportunity to spend some unexpected time with your baby before going back to work, and for the fact that you've found a good nanny for them.

We are into week 2 with our nanny and he has missed 5 days already. The first week we gave her a pass because her stuff was nearly destroyed in a flooding we had. She missed 1.5 days ( came in the next day for a couple hours). This week she got hit with the flu after getting her flu shot and has been out all week. I told her to stay home since her temp is still high. She came very highly recommended by a couple in the neighborhood. She had amazing references and we did a background check. The most important is she has been amazing with our baby. We do feel like she is the right fit but I'm getting worried about reliability. I go back to work next week and we have no family in town to cover. We know you can't help being sick but would it be fair to issue a warning or let her go?