We guarantee hours per month rather than per week. So when we travel (if she's informed a week in advance at least), she agrees to add hours another week.

It worked out fine for us so far.

Instead of guaranteeing hours per week, we guarantee hours per month.

She also suggested to Come when we're away to tidy the kids room, do laundry etc...

I think what works is talking things through and talking about the eventual things that could happen in advance and finding something that works for both.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, OP here. I am aware you don't 'bank hours' it was asked because it was a day of decision and made so late.
My question is what is the appropriate time in advance the family can take off and let the nanny know. EX: If I have a vacation planned for August 20th. When do you alert.

Career nanny here. Alert as soon as possible. I always tried to time my leisure travel when my employers would be out of town. I worked a PT job in the last year, and had guaranteed hours. She shuffled the hours around, and I did not appreciate that. I think they weren’t very experienced at keeping nannies. There was professionalism lacking in other areas, and I decided to leave that position.

If you have a sitter, you don’t guarantee hours. If you have a nanny, you should guarantee hours if you want to keep the nanny. It’s quite common in our industry.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, OP here. I am aware you don't 'bank hours' it was asked because it was a day of decision and made so late.
My question is what is the appropriate time in advance the family can take off and let the nanny know. EX: If I have a vacation planned for August 20th. When do you alert.

I mean, obviously you’re not, since you tried to get your nanny to do it.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, OP here. I am aware you don't 'bank hours' it was asked because it was a day of decision and made so late.
My question is what is the appropriate time in advance the family can take off and let the nanny know. EX: If I have a vacation planned for August 20th. When do you alert.

I'm confused. You'll pay her either way. Are you intending to ask her to purge kids' clothes and clean toys while you're gone? Or are you expecting to ask her to use her PTO during that time?

Most families will try to get the nanny to use PTO during their summer vacation, but the nanny's vacation may or may not match up. Best practice if you want to match vacation weeks is that ask her when her vacation will be, then schedule your own for the same week. It's completely reasonable to require 2 months notice for vacation notice, but it needs to be written in your contract.

We are telling you that the industry standard is to pay for hours you don’t use. So if you tell her in December that you will be out of town the first week of August, you would still pay for the first week of August.

You are asking if there is a way to provide enough notice that you don’t need to pay. The answer is that it depends on whether your nanny feels it serves her. I would not be thrilled to have 4 weeks unpaid leave over the summer, no matter how early in the year I found out. I would quit my job and find a different one. But maybe someone with different life circumstances would think it was fun to have that time off. You’d have to talk to her.

So your options are:
1) Pay her for unused hours per the industry standard—pros you aren’t annoying the nanny, con you have to pay her.


2) try to negotiate an amount of notice that makes her not mind unpaid time off—Pro she might say yes, con she might say no.


3) Offer whatever notice you like but make it clear in advance that you aren’t paying for unused hours—pro you don’t have to pay, con she might quit with little notice if she finds a consistent job.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, OP here. I am aware you don't 'bank hours' it was asked because it was a day of decision and made so late.
My question is what is the appropriate time in advance the family can take off and let the nanny know. EX: If I have a vacation planned for August 20th. When do you alert.

What a stupid question. As the other PP said; what the timing has to do with this? It doesn't matter if you tell her You don't need her to come 1 day 3, 6 or 10 months in advance. There is not difference if you Tell her you don't need her to come 1 day next week.

You need her or NOT to work, You have to pay her ALWAYS. Her full guarantee hours, the 5 days at week. It's Your business if you want to Travel, be out of town. It's not her. She is right there available for you M-F from 8:00 to 1:00 pm. She is not the one who is asking you have the day off.

And don't expect anyone out there accept "banking hours". This is illegal.

right, we'ved moved on. She's asking a different question it seems

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, OP here. I am aware you don't 'bank hours' it was asked because it was a day of decision and made so late.
My question is what is the appropriate time in advance the family can take off and let the nanny know. EX: If I have a vacation planned for August 20th. When do you alert.

What does timing have to do with it? Whether you give her 6 months or 6 hours notice, you should provide guaranteed pay and not bank hours.

Thanks, OP here. I am aware you don't 'bank hours' it was asked because it was a day of decision and made so late.
My question is what is the appropriate time in advance the family can take off and let the nanny know. EX: If I have a vacation planned for August 20th. When do you alert.