Why not change the time to 6:15 once and for all, giving you flex time in case of traffic and time to get a report from the day? Serious question.

I often travel and don't need my nanny but pay anyway. I don't think this means I can come home late.

OP, this is a rare instance here - everyone responding is in agreement that you are wrong. Nannies and MBs all think you need to be adjusting your hours to be home before 6, or to formally extend your nanny's workday (and compensate her accordingly).

We all agree that you're in the wrong.

If your nanny has been with you for years then clearly the hourly rate and other circumstances of the job make it worth it for her to suffer the lack of regard for her time, but that doesn't right the wrong.

You are in the wrong and are not treating your nanny with respect, courtesy, or professionalism.

Anonymous wrote:

My nanny's hours are 7AM-6PM M-F. They are guaranteed hours, so whenever we are home early we let her leave without docking her pay. Admittedly, that is not often (maybe once every two or three months?). I usually get home between 6:05 and 6:15 each night and some nights my nanny seems annoyed. Yes, I know I'm late, but isn't it part of the nanny's duty to be flexible? She is not outright rude when I get home but is curt with her answers when I ask about their day and edges towards the door. Who (if anybody) is in the wrong here?

So what you're saying here is that you need a nanny until 6:15pm every night. So, alter her hours and pay her the extra fifteen minutes. Problem solved and she won't be annoyed with you anymore.

Exactly. Your nanny is scheduled to work until 6 pm, but you are almost always home after 6. I'd be irritated and annoyed, too. Are you okay with your nanny showing up 5-15 minutes late almost every morning? No? Then why is it okay for you to be consistently late? You don't want her to be "flexible," you want her to work 5-15 minutes extra every day.

If you want a conversation about the end of the day, get there before her end time or adjust her end time to actually suit your needs. You are not entitled to her time for which you are not paying her. She has every right to expect to be walking out the door at the time she is supposed to be off, and it sounds like this is routinely not happening. My MB is doing this right now (arriving on the dot at my end time and trying to engage me in an in depth play by play for 10-15 minutes.) and while I don't give her an attitude about it, it really pisses me off.

OP you are really missing the point here. You disregard for another persons time speaks volumes about you character. If the cost of letting her leave early a couple times a year is to be treated like a utility you can run at your disposal then the cost is too high. There is nothing graceful about what you are doing.

My nanny's hours are 7AM-6PM M-F. They are guaranteed hours, so whenever we are home early we let her leave without docking her pay. Admittedly, that is not often (maybe once every two or three months?). I usually get home between 6:05 and 6:15 each night and some nights my nanny seems annoyed. Yes, I know I'm late, but isn't it part of the nanny's duty to be flexible? She is not outright rude when I get home but is curt with her answers when I ask about their day and edges towards the door. Who (if anybody) is in the wrong here?

So what you're saying here is that you need a nanny until 6:15pm every night. So, alter her hours and pay her the extra fifteen minutes. Problem solved and she won't be annoyed with you anymore.

she gets paid time and a half, $23/hr for 2 children

Honestly she should be paid by the hour, time and a half after 8 hours. Add it up, your screwing her and if you think she is going to bend over, well your wrong.

OP, you're so clueless I can't believe you are for real about this. First of, if guaranteed pay is something you've agreed to give your nanny, stop mentioning it like you've done her some big favor by not docking her pay the few times she gets to leave early. It doesn't make up for the fact that you are routinely late. I commute an hour into my job as a nanny, and I know traffic can be a nightmare, but I'm always on time for work. If you can't guarantee you'll be home at 6, extend her day and offer to pay her more. She already works 11 hrs a day for you. Is nanny paid overtime? How would you feel if nanny started showing up (a little bit) late to work every single day?

Not a troll. Our nanny has been with us for over four years and aside from this it's a great relationship so obviously something is working. I did not say I'm 15 minutes late everyday nor did I say I never acknowledge it. I don't expect a long convo on the days I get back late nor any other day really, I just don't think it's fair that she's heaving a big sigh and handing me the baby the second I walk in the door at 6:03. My husband and I each commute an hour plus to work and we can't always control the traffic and we do our damnedest to get home by 6. If it's a total of twenty min extra per week should we be docking her pay when we let her leave early? I don't have a problem paying her extra but why should it work in her favor both ways? I was on maternity leave for three months earlier in the year and she was going home two to three hours early everyday but she still got paid for the hours not worked. Snow days don't count as vacation days. That doesn't make up for five or ten or even fifteen minutes (rarer occurrence) a few times a week? I'm not trying to be a troll or clueless. The whole reason we got a nanny was for the flexibility

I never call troll, but there's no way someone could be this clueless.

MB here, who knows how challenges it is to get home sometimes. I get it, believe me, but it doesn't excuse you from being late routinely. Firstly, your contract should spell out late policy. Ours, for example, provides that we pay the nanny double hourly rate in 30 min increments if we are > 15 min late. Secondly, if you can't arrive home on time the majority of time, you need to either adjust her hours, or adjust your work hours. Also, any time I'm late even by 1 minute, I always acknowledge this, and apologize. Last Friday, I was late for the first time since May -- boss kept me longer in the office. I was late by 14 minutes. Turned out that the nanny had a concert to go to, she was not late but I felt awful that I made her rush. It is not OK showing up 15 minutes late and providing no explanation. Your nanny has full right to be curt.

I really hope you hear what we are saying OP. No one here has been in you corner. I have also quit from a job where the family was routinely late. For me it wasn't even about the money, it was the fact that they had no respect for my time. Five minutes occasionally is ok, fifteen minutes late warrants an apology and should happen even less.

She has been with your kids ELEVEN hours. Of course, She want to leave. You also should be paying OT for 15 hours every week. You are in the wrong in every respect.