Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. I try to explain to families… if you hire me Monday- Friday, you’re paying me Monday- Friday. I’m not going to be available for you Monday- Friday, but only get paid Tuesday and Thursday. Would you take a job like that?
Imagine you work 160 hours/ month, your boss calls and says
Hey next month I only need you 135 hours, sorry. See ya later.
And it’s beyond our control that holidays fall on certain week days. Families need to understand, that we are exclusively available to you, so we would like to get paid for this availability. We can’t just call another family in the morning and ask if we can come work for them because our boss doesn’t need us.
You can’t compare these nanny jobs to most other professions, because again, if the CEO of America bank goes on vacation, the bank remains open for their employees and customers, I don’t think he will close the bank because he’s going on vacation. It happens a lot with the nanny jobs, grandparents come over, parents get off of work early…

So I suggest strongly that you consider paying her for EVERYDAY and every hour that she is scheduled to work, no matter if it’s a holiday or grandparents come over or what. Any additional hours I would pay extra. That’s the only way to keep a nanny happy. And hostels, I’ve been a nanny for almost 20 years. What I want? I want to get paid a living wage for me being exclusively available for you so you can have a CAREER and live a life style I might never have… think about it

Thanks , Nanny, but that isn’t the question. I’m not talking about paying less. I’m wondering about using unused hours at other times, on rare occasions. Or is it better to have Nannies work on all “holidays”? (Obviously I’m talking about mlk day and Veterans Day, not thanksgiving.)

Holidays are not unused hours.

+1.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. I try to explain to families… if you hire me Monday- Friday, you’re paying me Monday- Friday. I’m not going to be available for you Monday- Friday, but only get paid Tuesday and Thursday. Would you take a job like that?
Imagine you work 160 hours/ month, your boss calls and says
Hey next month I only need you 135 hours, sorry. See ya later.
And it’s beyond our control that holidays fall on certain week days. Families need to understand, that we are exclusively available to you, so we would like to get paid for this availability. We can’t just call another family in the morning and ask if we can come work for them because our boss doesn’t need us.
You can’t compare these nanny jobs to most other professions, because again, if the CEO of America bank goes on vacation, the bank remains open for their employees and customers, I don’t think he will close the bank because he’s going on vacation. It happens a lot with the nanny jobs, grandparents come over, parents get off of work early…

So I suggest strongly that you consider paying her for EVERYDAY and every hour that she is scheduled to work, no matter if it’s a holiday or grandparents come over or what. Any additional hours I would pay extra. That’s the only way to keep a nanny happy. And hostels, I’ve been a nanny for almost 20 years. What I want? I want to get paid a living wage for me being exclusively available for you so you can have a CAREER and live a life style I might never have… think about it

Thanks , Nanny, but that isn’t the question. I’m not talking about paying less. I’m wondering about using unused hours at other times, on rare occasions. Or is it better to have Nannies work on all “holidays”? (Obviously I’m talking about mlk day and Veterans Day, not thanksgiving.)

Holidays are not unused hours.

This is frowned upon. How would you feel if an employer did that to you? It is called banking hours of outside the 7 day week. No one wants to work for stingy or cheap employers. Think hard if it's worth just not paying the nanny and keeping regular hours.

To answer your question, I think you are being unfair to your nanny by attempting to manipulate her guaranteed hours (whether it’s intentional or not doesn’t matter)— especially for the nature of the job you need this person for, which already doesn’t sound ideal for most Nannies. Paid bank holidays off really should be offered without banking the hours unless you are a health care professional who has to work on those holidays to which case you pay your nanny time and half if you require her to work on you work— if you offer this, it should be all the bank holidays (OPM gives good guidance) and not cherry pick them because then where exactly is the benefit for your nanny.

Also, guaranteed hours are offered to cover any scheduled time nanny is available to work but doesn’t/cannot either per your request (family visits/vacations/doctors appt/family contagious illness eg Covid etc) or inclement weather/public emergency.

What you are attempting to do, regardless of how you word it, would be considered banking hours and that is not fair on your nanny especially if you require her reliability. If she was not to work those holidays, she would not be paid unless she agreed to make up/exchange/whatever you’d like to call it those hours for the following week. As someone said above, you can’t expect her call up a random family one week to work for them in order got her to maintain her salary weekly.

What I have noticed is that some parents know exactly what banking hours would mean for their nanny (financially & in terms of stability) but they attempt to call it different terms to lessen the punch in order to sneak their way out of paying guaranteed hours without banking the hours. If you really take time to think about what you are doing (honestly), you will realize that it’s actually insulting to your nanny (to attempt to cheat her out of guaranteed hours but word/package it differently). If you bank guaranteed hours (ask your nanny to provide the paid hours at a different time) they are no longer guaranteed hours— you are in fact manipulating the hours to fit your needs at the expense of your nanny’s personal work/life balance and livelihood.

No matter how you look at it, word it or try to repackage it, it is banking hours and not only is it illegal, it is inconsiderate to do to someone reliable who will be caring for your children.

Reliability is required from both parties in order to have s successful nanny/parent relationship snd arrangement that ultimately benefits you and your children in the long run in addition to your nanny.

If you want to secure someone naive, inexperienced, young and possibly unreliable, them go ahead with the arrangement you proposed. But be prepared that this person will likely eventually discover that they have been tricked and are getting the short end of the stick and they will leave —and this is how parents start complaining that within 1-3 years of having 2-3 children under 5 yrs, they have been through 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7, 8 bad nannies/bad experiences/people who don’t want to commit/unreliable etc no one wants to be short changed for their hard work including you.

My suggestion to parents who want s reliable and responsible nanny to care for your children and want a good relationship with her, is to think thoroughly about what you propose especially if it has to do with finances & her job. First place yourself in her shoes and ask yourself how that would sound like to you- if you do it honestly, you’ll get your answer.

Also, if you are offering a part time job that is already hard for most people to commit to, you want to add things that make it attractive and encouraging for your nanny to stay with you and not try to chip away & short change….unless again, you don’t mind going through multiple transitions every few months- a year (not the best for children). Ask around for ideas from Nannie’s in your area- specifically those who’ve worked similar part time job, maybe they can share benefits/incentives that helped them commit to the job.

We paid holidays for our full time nanny but since switching to a new part time nanny we don't. We guarantee 20 hours per week within certain parameters. If there's a holiday on a Monday, we usually make it up another day or night. We pay $30/hour for one kid and both sides are happy. I'll probably pay her the week we go on vacation, which is over six months after her start date, but that will be a surprise as we haven't discussed.

We pay our nanny for holidays off.

Guaranteed hours is standard (and was mentioned by every nanny we interviewed).

Anonymous wrote:Hey, MB, it's "nannies" not "Nannie's." A simple plural. Jeez.

DP but my iPhone autocorrects nannies to Nannie's. So weird! I'm betting MB is on an iPhone and typing fast.

If you are going to offer paid holidays off, then it is wrong to expect your Nanny to work extra hours w/out being paid for them.

That would undermine the “benefit” aspect of it.

If you want a loyal Nanny…..one who will stick around AND even be flexible at times, then you MUST instill goodwill toward her.

Think about it.
She is going to be caring for your most important + precious person in your life.
There is never too much to spend on someone for that.

Another nanny and the above poster is exactly right. You are essentially asking her to be available during her working hours AND flexible to stay later but only guaranteeing the base hours. So she can’t plan anything after work because at any time you could declare “actually we don’t need you on Tuesday but we need you twice as long on Thursday.”

I am sure from your perspective you are thinking “I wouldn’t do that! I am reasonable!” But nannies know there are lots of unreasonable bosses and we are not going to take the risk accepting a job with a contract that could so easily go south. ESPECIALLY for a part time job because a) those are in high demand so we have lots of offers and b) a part time nanny is looking for something with consistent hours so she can plan the rest of her life bc that won’t be her sole source of income.

In your situation, I would either just have her work on the minor holidays and use that time to get errands or chores or household projects done, or I would just give it as PTO and either way you have to pay any extra hours as extra hours.

Anonymous wrote:I’m hiring my first nanny in a number of years after having au pairs (had Nannies before). The best thing about au pairs is their flexibility.

I have found a nanny who seems great and is interested in working our schedule - 4 afternoons per week for 3-5 hours per day. Sometimes she will stay later if I need to be out.

With prior babysitters we’ve paid a set weekly amount - for the fixed number of hours - and then pay extra for any additional hours. If their working day is a holiday like Veterans Day or MLK day and I don’t ask them to work then they still get paid but if I need them say 2 extra hours on another night that week I don’t pay extra for those hours. The idea being we are still keeping within the set number of hours, not actually having her work extra.

I spoke with the new candidate about this and she seemed really confused and sort of put off by it, and said she had never encountered this and would expect to be paid for any additional hours she works. Since it isn’t a ton of time I guess I can just do this, but is this an unreasonable request on my part? Is it reasonable for me to ask her to work on those “holidays” (not major holidays or any holidays that are part of her religion, just the minor bank holiday type) since I’m paying her for the time anyway?

You are cheap, unreasonable, and insulting. I hope she runs away from you fast!

Hey, MB, it's "nannies" not "Nannie's." A simple plural. Jeez.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. I try to explain to families… if you hire me Monday- Friday, you’re paying me Monday- Friday. I’m not going to be available for you Monday- Friday, but only get paid Tuesday and Thursday. Would you take a job like that?
Imagine you work 160 hours/ month, your boss calls and says
Hey next month I only need you 135 hours, sorry. See ya later.
And it’s beyond our control that holidays fall on certain week days. Families need to understand, that we are exclusively available to you, so we would like to get paid for this availability. We can’t just call another family in the morning and ask if we can come work for them because our boss doesn’t need us.
You can’t compare these nanny jobs to most other professions, because again, if the CEO of America bank goes on vacation, the bank remains open for their employees and customers, I don’t think he will close the bank because he’s going on vacation. It happens a lot with the nanny jobs, grandparents come over, parents get off of work early…

So I suggest strongly that you consider paying her for EVERYDAY and every hour that she is scheduled to work, no matter if it’s a holiday or grandparents come over or what. Any additional hours I would pay extra. That’s the only way to keep a nanny happy. And hostels, I’ve been a nanny for almost 20 years. What I want? I want to get paid a living wage for me being exclusively available for you so you can have a CAREER and live a life style I might never have… think about it

Thanks , Nanny, but that isn’t the question. I’m not talking about paying less. I’m wondering about using unused hours at other times, on rare occasions. Or is it better to have Nannies work on all “holidays”? (Obviously I’m talking about mlk day and Veterans Day, not thanksgiving.)

This is “banking hours” and no, it’s not normal for a nanny. Try it and see how fast you lose your reliable unicorn part time after school sitter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. I try to explain to families… if you hire me Monday- Friday, you’re paying me Monday- Friday. I’m not going to be available for you Monday- Friday, but only get paid Tuesday and Thursday. Would you take a job like that?
Imagine you work 160 hours/ month, your boss calls and says
Hey next month I only need you 135 hours, sorry. See ya later.
And it’s beyond our control that holidays fall on certain week days. Families need to understand, that we are exclusively available to you, so we would like to get paid for this availability. We can’t just call another family in the morning and ask if we can come work for them because our boss doesn’t need us.
You can’t compare these nanny jobs to most other professions, because again, if the CEO of America bank goes on vacation, the bank remains open for their employees and customers, I don’t think he will close the bank because he’s going on vacation. It happens a lot with the nanny jobs, grandparents come over, parents get off of work early…

So I suggest strongly that you consider paying her for EVERYDAY and every hour that she is scheduled to work, no matter if it’s a holiday or grandparents come over or what. Any additional hours I would pay extra. That’s the only way to keep a nanny happy. And hostels, I’ve been a nanny for almost 20 years. What I want? I want to get paid a living wage for me being exclusively available for you so you can have a CAREER and live a life style I might never have… think about it

Thanks , Nanny, but that isn’t the question. I’m not talking about paying less. I’m wondering about using unused hours at other times, on rare occasions. Or is it better to have Nannies work on all “holidays”? (Obviously I’m talking about mlk day and Veterans Day, not thanksgiving.)

You cannot have her bank hours that are holidays that should be paid to work other times. Does your employer do that to you?

I work a job where I just need to get the work done by a certain date. If I don’t work on one day yes I need to do more another.