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Anonymous wrote:OP your package is absoloutely fine and if you went to any other website many would agree. You wont get a decent response on DCUM nanny forums so just take my word for it - IT IS A GOOD PACKAGE.

Just give OP some way to contact you, so she can offer you the job. GL.

Anonymous wrote:OP your package is absoloutely fine and if you went to any other website many would agree. You wont get a decent response on DCUM nanny forums so just take my word for it - IT IS A GOOD PACKAGE.

Sorry, who are you that OP should "just take [your] word for it"?

OP your package is absoloutely fine and if you went to any other website many would agree. You wont get a decent response on DCUM nanny forums so just take my word for it - IT IS A GOOD PACKAGE.

I don't think that your PTO package is unreasonable, but there are a few things you should consider. When I look at offers, I look at the total package - PTO is just one element. I have accepted jobs with lower wages and lots of PTO, just as I have accepted jobs with little PTO and a higher pay rate. One thing that I would not accept (and thus negotiate for and discuss mutually-agreeable solutions, if necessary) is not to be paid when the family is away. Are you guaranteeing hours for your vacations beyond the four days you select? How does your pay rate compare to similar positions? Would your nanny be allowed to take additional leave, unpaid? Do you consider Columbus Day and Veterans' Day to be federal holidays? While they are, many employers do not offer them as such, so if you are offering them I would specify that to increase the attraction of your PTO package. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote: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.

Sorry, PP here that just saw this.

There is no way you can do what you have planned! Nanny needs to be able to have 2 x week long vacations throughout the year. One week her choice, one week yours. If you wanted to add extra time in for you to use as a day here, a day there, then that is fine. But you cannot take that out of what should be her 2 weeks of vacation. Then add on at least 3 days of PTO (sick days, doctor's appts etc), if you wanted to add in days for your PTO (long weekends) then do that. Or you could just plan on giving your nanny guaranteed hours (if it is a 40 hour week, always offering 40 hours a week or more). If you take a long weekend and don't need her that Friday, then give her the day off paid. It won't kill you if you randomly decide to do something last minute. If you were to decide to go out of town on the weekend before, that wouldn't give her enough time to really plan on using the day to her advantage (planning her own trip for that weekend, setting up doctor appt for that day etc) as all that stuff needs more advance notice. She would most likely use that day off to run errands or do nothing at home etc. It becomes more of a "wasted day" in terms of vacation for her and I wouldn't be a happy nanny if my family did that to me instead of giving me a full 2 weeks of vacation throughout the year.

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?

I think that is too little. If someone wants to go on a week's vacation then you are looking at 5 days. You cannot plan on when you are sick, sometimes it might happen that she can only give notice an hour before she were to start, when she might be getting up to get ready for work and realize there is no way she can actually manage to work that day.

I think the biggest thing is how many days a week does the nanny work? Is it just 4 days? Is that how you are coming up with 4 days for your vacation time? Generally the rule is 2 weeks vacation but this number of actual days might vary by how many days per week the position is for. A 3 days a week position, this could be 6 days of vacation time where as a 5 days a week position would have 10. I think you need to have at least 3 personal days (used as sick days or for doctor appointments - maybe those you could have her take half a day off, etc). So if 4 days, the 12 days you suggested could be doable. You will also want to make sure that if giving all federal holidays off paid, that you won't need to work any of them yourself and then have to ask her to work that day after all. It is quite common that some parents won't have all federal days off, so figure out which ones you can guarantee off paid, then any that you are unsure of, could be dealt with last minute, just giving her the day off paid but her expecting to work.