OP here. If you've already been working for them for 7 months, and it's been all good, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Actually, I'm in the same situation! We both have copies of my contract, went over it together, but never sat down and actually signed it, and I've been with them about 7 months. They are an amazing family and treat me very well.
The main issues I've had in the past with former employers (and which I therefore included in my contract) were details about PTO/sick days, guaranteed hours (and not 'banking' unused hours), paid federal holidays (listing out exact days) - so mainly about money issues.
If things started to come up, then I would request a 'meeting' to go over and sign the contract, but for now I just wouldn't worry about it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A clarification on how guaranteed hours will be handled when grandparents are in town or the parents' schedule otherwise changes - i.e. you cannot ask me to leave early Tuesday and Wednesday and make those hours up on Saturday. I am available for my scheduled hours and am happy to work, but if you don't need me I still get paid (like a daycare). This is never an issue until it is, and then it's uncomfortable for everyone, so I put it in the work agreement very explicitly.

Employers will provide a written letter of recommendation every four months, for use in applying to PT jobs etc. It's also a nice way to get a written review regularly.

I hear enough about how important guaranteed hours is to those in the nanny field on this bulletin board. It's a nice idea too. But other hourly workers, like those working in retail or food service, your hours change every week and if you are not working, you do not get paid. Mention the idea of guaranteed hours to your boss at the local diner and you will get laughed off the interview.

Daycares are a different situation. They have a business where they have an "opportunity cost." If you take up a child slot and only come and pay for 20% of the time, then they are losing money that they can get from another child who did not reserve. A nanny is a nanny for ONE family and their rates are already much higher than daycare. You do not have opportunity costs that you missed out on because if you move to another family, they will eventually have scheduling problems too.

"Employers will provide a written letter of recommendation every four months." Wishful thinking, again. How about every 4 months, I evaluate you and tell you that you need to be better about cleaning up and not leave crumbs around and nitpick. It's really the same thing because a letter of reference should really be honest and feedback should be a 2 way street. Sounds like you are afraid of getting a bad reference so you want to have a good letter of reference in your back pocket at all times. The world just does not work this way. That's why it's wishful thinking.

An hourly employee in retail and food service industries are either PT if they have a different changing schedule weekly, or they are FT and have a pretty regular and consistant schedule. Even those working PT can have a pretty consistant schedule each week. I can walk into many places every Monday at noon and see the same people, and the same thing with other days of the week. Some work all mornings, some work mornings and afternoons but the days always stay the same (like Mon mornings, Tue afternoons, Wed afternoons, Thu mornings and Fri afternoons). Many work places do this with schedules that allow for college students to have regular classes mixed in with a regular work schedule. Or 2 different jobs even. They realize that they keep employees for longer if they can give a regular schedule as not as many people want to work a changing schedule and if they do work one then they lose them and have to rehire and train over and over again. Retail and food service already have a hire turnover rate, so the longer they can keep the good employees, the better for them.

A nanny if FT is putting all her time towards the one family yes, but if it was less hours on a regular basis, they could take on a SECOND family PT (or several other families for occasional work) to help with income. If the first FT family wants nanny to be available for all these hours on a regular basis, then paying to hold those hours with her is common. Just like a family that uses a daycare for most of the week but takes a day or 2 off now and then still pays to hold THEIR spot at the daycare. Sometimes if the day they want to not use is consistant (like every Friday), then they can find a daycare that won't charge for that day since the daycare can then offer that one day to another family/child. But if you didn't normally use that day, you wouldn't be able to expect them to take your child randomly on a Friday (with extra pay), it would be more of a situation where if the daycare has an available spot that day then you could. FT nanny is the same thing. The nanny could schedule another family or more during that time the first does not need her if it is a regular thing. The random and especially last minute (which happens a lot) days off unpaid are harder to fill and so this is why guaranteed hours are common.

Anonymous wrote:A clarification on how guaranteed hours will be handled when grandparents are in town or the parents' schedule otherwise changes - i.e. you cannot ask me to leave early Tuesday and Wednesday and make those hours up on Saturday. I am available for my scheduled hours and am happy to work, but if you don't need me I still get paid (like a daycare). This is never an issue until it is, and then it's uncomfortable for everyone, so I put it in the work agreement very explicitly.

Employers will provide a written letter of recommendation every four months, for use in applying to PT jobs etc. It's also a nice way to get a written review regularly.

I hear enough about how important guaranteed hours is to those in the nanny field on this bulletin board. It's a nice idea too. But other hourly workers, like those working in retail or food service, your hours change every week and if you are not working, you do not get paid. Mention the idea of guaranteed hours to your boss at the local diner and you will get laughed off the interview.

Daycares are a different situation. They have a business where they have an "opportunity cost." If you take up a child slot and only come and pay for 20% of the time, then they are losing money that they can get from another child who did not reserve. A nanny is a nanny for ONE family and their rates are already much higher than daycare. You do not have opportunity costs that you missed out on because if you move to another family, they will eventually have scheduling problems too.

"Employers will provide a written letter of recommendation every four months." Wishful thinking, again. How about every 4 months, I evaluate you and tell you that you need to be better about cleaning up and not leave crumbs around and nitpick. It's really the same thing because a letter of reference should really be honest and feedback should be a 2 way street. Sounds like you are afraid of getting a bad reference so you want to have a good letter of reference in your back pocket at all times. The world just does not work this way. That's why it's wishful thinking.

Don't you love how condescending some of these entitled
parents sound? Humm, my dream job.

You're really an idiot. No employer wants to hire a PITA nanny. You can like it not but employers seek out the nannies who they think will not leave them in a bind and have glowing current references.The minute you hand over your past contractually guaranteed letters, the first thing that the potential employer is going to ask is why don't you have a current reference. If I can't speak to the person who wrote those letters I wouldn't even necessarily believed that they were real. You would come off as very untrustworthy.

Our first nanny moved out of state when she got married and I provided her with reference to employers in her new state. It was a big deal to potential employers that she gave us ample notice and that we would hire her again if she was in our area. She was great all the way up to her last day and I was more than happy to help her find a new job.

Trust me, if she didn't deserve a reference from me and had produced past form letters and these potential employers hadn't been able to verify it they would not have offered her the job. If they had been able to contact me and I was not happy with her most recent performance or manner of leaving then saying a simple, she followed the terms of notification in the contract (or not) but I was relieved because her performance really slipped in the past few months and I would not hire again would do it. I could also say that the past evaluation were accurate from the standpoint that she her performance did not warrant termination but I would not hire again. I could also say since the recomendation letters were in the contract, I felt compelled to do them but in hindsight I would not agree to this in the future. In my opinion, she plays game and I didn't realize this when I was first hiring a nanny. T

My point is that this request is not protecting you as you seem to believe. You just are not accomplishing anything with this request other than turning off potential employers. You also are not a powerless victim. My other point was that if you are a smart and self aware employee you can manage your job history to produce good real current references.

NP here. I don't think anyone on this thread sounds condescending, 10:34. People are respectfully disagreeing and asking questions, that's all.

You're just trying to start trouble. Cut it out.

Oh yes, these are the same parents who never held a baby, until they had one. Amazing.

OP here -- I have been with the family for 7 months without a contract and they are the best employers I have ever had. They are always very respectful and I have never felt taken advantage of. They are very appreciative of what I do. I am wondering if all of these things are really necessary to include in the contract.... I feel like since we already have such a great relationship that if I want to include some things that it will seem like I don't trust them or like I think they are going to screw them over. I don't want to hurt the relationship that we have but I also don't want to be naive.

OP if both you and your employer are happy with the terms that you have verbally agreed to then you should just include those terms in the contract. The basics in a contract are schedule, base rate and OT rate (these are different from the average rate that you probably negotiated). spell out the paid holidays, notification periods for leave requests.

I would suggest including an annual review but not the contractual 4 letters of reference or the nanny cam clause. If they pay you regularly, are organized, and never haven forgetten to give you your check then I would forget the late penalty for late payment though this is reasonable clause for a new employee who doesn't know whether the family is good with accounting or not.

Don't you love how condescending some of these entitled
parents sound? Humm, my dream job.

You are missing the point of a reference or a recommendation. Its not a contractual guarantee and its intent is to be current not cumulative. Evaluations in the workplace are not letters of recommendation. In outside industries evaluations are not letters of reference or recommendation. I doubt employers would accept this weird requirement. If its contracualy required, it isn't sincere.

As someone hiring a nanny, I would see a nanny producing past contractually guaranteed letters of reference and no current reference as a big no. It will not convey to future to employers that you are a great nanny and your previous MB was just nuts. Its more likely to convey that you are used to being fired and you are manipulative or high maintenance. While this may not be true and you may have had a nutso MB, it just isn't going to read that way. The nanny with the great current sincere honest reference will get the job not the one with a falsely manufactured string of past letters.

The best way to protect yourself is to be a smart employee not a crazy one with weird demands. Self awareness as to whether you are actually providing value and maintaining a positive relationship with your employer is something smart employees do. MBs don't just turn nutso. If you find yourself working for someone who is nutso do not stick around for a long period of time. Smart employees save money and have a cushion so that when they are job seaching they have time to find the right fit. The right fit is as important as your salary. Its your responsibilty to negotiate for what you want before you take the job. Its also your responsibility to do the job once you accept it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fair point, 17:31, and your post highlights one of the many difficulties in crafting a truly fair contract. I could agree to your perspective, but it would leave me in the same precarious position as you believe it would leave my nanny.

There are no easy answers.

Are there any other jobs in which you would be denied a regular written evaluation, if requested? I just don't believe that. I guess I understand your hesitation (not really), but it isn't like you're going to have this wonderful nanny until the day you write your first letter, who then uses it as her opportunity to do something terrible. And EITHER WAY, even if you did fail to spot a bad apple when making your hire, etc. etc., a letter from a previous job is only going to go so far if she can't then use you as a verbal reference as well.

I wouldn't take any job with an MB who refused at least semi-annual written references.

I am not the MB that you are responding to, but I agree with her. To answer your question, annual written evaluations have been standard in every professional job that I have ever had - but it is pretty clear that they are a PITA for bosses, and I cannot even imagine asking for one every 3 months. And a written evaluation is much different than a recommendation/reference, which at least implies that it must be a positive evaluation. As a MB, I would have no problem with agreeing to a meeting to discuss things and a written evaluation at the end of the first 3 months and then every 6 months after that. But there is simply no way I would be comfortable committing to provide a recommendation to a nanny before she had even worked for me.

That timeline sounds perfectly reasonable. Would the contract sit better with you MBs if it were worded in such a way to indicate written references/recommendations would be provided every 6 months so long as the nanny were fulfilling her duties? All of my past employers have been happy to agree to this request, so it's quite surprising to see multiple people feeling outraged at the thought - or even believing that a previously wonderful nanny would suddenly turn bad upon receiving such a letter!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fair point, 17:31, and your post highlights one of the many difficulties in crafting a truly fair contract. I could agree to your perspective, but it would leave me in the same precarious position as you believe it would leave my nanny.

There are no easy answers.

Are there any other jobs in which you would be denied a regular written evaluation, if requested? I just don't believe that. I guess I understand your hesitation (not really), but it isn't like you're going to have this wonderful nanny until the day you write your first letter, who then uses it as her opportunity to do something terrible. And EITHER WAY, even if you did fail to spot a bad apple when making your hire, etc. etc., a letter from a previous job is only going to go so far if she can't then use you as a verbal reference as well.

I wouldn't take any job with an MB who refused at least semi-annual written references.

I am not the MB that you are responding to, but I agree with her. To answer your question, annual written evaluations have been standard in every professional job that I have ever had - but it is pretty clear that they are a PITA for bosses, and I cannot even imagine asking for one every 3 months. And a written evaluation is much different than a recommendation/reference, which at least implies that it must be a positive evaluation. As a MB, I would have no problem with agreeing to a meeting to discuss things and a written evaluation at the end of the first 3 months and then every 6 months after that. But there is simply no way I would be comfortable committing to provide a recommendation to a nanny before she had even worked for me.

PP here, forgot to add - in the UK it is quite common and expected for employers to provide regular letters of reference for their nannies. This isn't something crazy nannies in DC just dreamed up

Anonymous wrote:Fair point, 17:31, and your post highlights one of the many difficulties in crafting a truly fair contract. I could agree to your perspective, but it would leave me in the same precarious position as you believe it would leave my nanny.

There are no easy answers.

Are there any other jobs in which you would be denied a regular written evaluation, if requested? I just don't believe that. I guess I understand your hesitation (not really), but it isn't like you're going to have this wonderful nanny until the day you write your first letter, who then uses it as her opportunity to do something terrible. And EITHER WAY, even if you did fail to spot a bad apple when making your hire, etc. etc., a letter from a previous job is only going to go so far if she can't then use you as a verbal reference as well.

I wouldn't take any job with an MB who refused at least semi-annual written references.

Fair point, 17:31, and your post highlights one of the many difficulties in crafting a truly fair contract. I could agree to your perspective, but it would leave me in the same precarious position as you believe it would leave my nanny.

There are no easy answers.

You decent MB s can't possibly believe how so many people think they OWN the nanny. Even after a complete year of abuse, and you give notice, the MB gets outraged, because she thinks she can't so easily replace you. It's a major inconvenience, to say the least. How dare you!?

If a MB didn't want to contract herself to a quarterly reference letter, consider it a huge RED flag and RUN.

Slavery is outlawed... at least in the US.