Three minutes?? If this really is an issue, just tell her to arrive five minutes prior. For instance, if you want her there at 6:30AM and she arrives at 6:33AM just tell her you want her there at 6:27AM.

Problem solved.

I am often 5-10 late. But she is always 15-20 late. It wasn't like I was always late so she started to be late, it was more of "She quite obviously doesn't respect my time, so I'm not gonna kill myself to get there on time." but nothing has ever been said by either.

I arrived 5-10 minutes early everyday. I was ready to take over completely on time.

I agree that it's probably a clock issue if she's exactly three minutes late.

But we have our au pair start a few minutes before I actually need to leave so that we can talk about the day and do the hand-off. If I ask someone to start at 8am, I'd expect them to be there and ready to go at 8am. I might actually be annoyed if they routinely came 15 minutes early because I might still be getting ready or whatever. And I would expect to pay for every minute I actually expected her to be there.

It would drive me crazy if someone was five minutes late every day. Five minutes late every once in a while? Don't care a bit - stuff happens. Consistently five minutes late? You need to adjust your personal schedule ahead a bit so that you're on time.

Something that needs to be discussed since everyone's going to be different.

I try to arrive 5 minutes before I am scheduled to start. I can take off my shoes, use bathroom, put my lunch away, and be ready to start on time. I would not be cool if parents started handing me babies right as I walked in the door.