Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic. You can and should ask about her social distancing and that of her family/roommates as it directly relates to your child’s health. Volunteer information about your protocols and ask her the same.

+1

I just had a furniture store call about delivering a chair to us. They asked me multiple questions about whether anyone in the house had shown symptoms or been sick in the last 14 days, whether any of us had been to any kind of medical facility, whether we had had other people in our house, etc. It was very intensive. And that was just to drop a chair off! I'd assume a good nanny would want to ask you a lot of personal questions now and I think it's fair for you to do the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

What can you tell me about your ability to carry a 30-40 pound child? How many sick days have you taken in the last three years? Do you have anyone at home (covers spouse/so, children, elderly parents) who may need help from you requiring time off if they were to get sick or become injured? Do you have any other commitment that would prevent you from being on time everyday? Do you have any reasons why you would not want and/or be able to start early or stay late, even on a very infrequent basis?

Don’t ask about her life. Ask whether she can commit to doing the job.

Excuse me. But you are exactly doing it. You are asking all these personal Questions regarding to Her personal life in all these questions above. "Spouse, children, elder parents". What kind of question are those. You will be scaring the Nanny right away.

I’m a nanny, helping OP. I do think it’s relevant NOW as to whether a nanny has a spouse or dependent at home who may need care if they contract covid. I did NOT tell OP to ask about the size of the household, what outside contact they have or anything else. I simply said to ask if there is anyone who may need care during an illness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

What can you tell me about your ability to carry a 30-40 pound child? How many sick days have you taken in the last three years? Do you have anyone at home (covers spouse/so, children, elderly parents) who may need help from you requiring time off if they were to get sick or become injured? Do you have any other commitment that would prevent you from being on time everyday? Do you have any reasons why you would not want and/or be able to start early or stay late, even on a very infrequent basis?

Don’t ask about her life. Ask whether she can commit to doing the job.

Excuse me. But you are exactly doing it. You are asking all these personal Questions regarding to Her personal life in all these questions above. "Spouse, children, elder parents". What kind of question are those. You will be scaring the Nanny right away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

What can you tell me about your ability to carry a 30-40 pound child? How many sick days have you taken in the last three years? Do you have anyone at home (covers spouse/so, children, elderly parents) who may need help from you requiring time off if they were to get sick or become injured? Do you have any other commitment that would prevent you from being on time everyday? Do you have any reasons why you would not want and/or be able to start early or stay late, even on a very infrequent basis?

Don’t ask about her life. Ask whether she can commit to doing the job.

You mean you don't want her to ever have plans after work (obviously am NOT referring to current situation). Normal people sometimes do have plans after work. Don't you?

I’m a nanny. No, I don’t have plans after work, but the availability I promise my families is not something most nannies could or would promise. Please look above at the bolded. It asks whether the nanny is willing and capable of flexing her hours at least once a year. Personally, I don’t think that very infrequent need to come early or stay late should bar a nanny from a position, but a family may have different needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

What can you tell me about your ability to carry a 30-40 pound child? How many sick days have you taken in the last three years? Do you have anyone at home (covers spouse/so, children, elderly parents) who may need help from you requiring time off if they were to get sick or become injured? Do you have any other commitment that would prevent you from being on time everyday? Do you have any reasons why you would not want and/or be able to start early or stay late, even on a very infrequent basis?

Don’t ask about her life. Ask whether she can commit to doing the job.

You mean you don't want her to ever have plans after work (obviously am NOT referring to current situation). Normal people sometimes do have plans after work. Don't you?

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic. You can and should ask about her social distancing and that of her family/roommates as it directly relates to your child’s health. Volunteer information about your protocols and ask her the same.

Anonymous wrote:I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

What can you tell me about your ability to carry a 30-40 pound child? How many sick days have you taken in the last three years? Do you have anyone at home (covers spouse/so, children, elderly parents) who may need help from you requiring time off if they were to get sick or become injured? Do you have any other commitment that would prevent you from being on time everyday? Do you have any reasons why you would not want and/or be able to start early or stay late, even on a very infrequent basis?

Don’t ask about her life. Ask whether she can commit to doing the job.

I am OP. Thanks for the first reply and for the PP who explained the other topic was the wrong forum. I was pretty confused!

What types of personal questions are you allowed to ask? At work we can't ask about marital status, kids, etc. Only qualifications and experience.

Do a video interview and ask her how she and her family or roommates are practicing social distancing (hopefully she’ll volunteer that she lives alone!). Ask her about her protocols to get an idea how seriously she is taking this pandemic. Ask her about her flu vaccines (and measles and tDAP) if you have a newborn. Ask her to suggest a social distancing day for your child.

As to sick leave, I honestly have no clue anymore. Our nanny has unlimited sick leave and has never taken one hour in 1.5 years.

We are looking to hire a nanny to start in June. How would you handle inuding statements about covid (eg whether or not to work during future stay at home orders, sick leave for nanny if she contracts covid, policy for having nanny work if kids are sick with something other than covid, social distancing outside of working hours)?

Normally I would provide a week of paid sick leave and not ask questions about who the nanny lives with and their occupation(s) as I wouldn't see it to be relevant. However now it is a whole different world. Fwiw, I would be willing to answer how we plan to do social distancing.