Anonymous wrote:OP here.

I see the consensus on this issue. I will say this, though, that I will never offer three weeks of discretionary vacation again, on top of generous sick-leave, federal holidays, etc. With employer vacation on top of that, that is a hefty sum. Absurd for a nanny to get over twice as much paid time off as her employer.

Glad the consensus is that I'm a horrible exploiter, though (even though I instantly caved).

Cheer up. With your attitude she will probably find another job.

OP - I'm an MB and I'm with you. We are going through the same issue and the entitlement that comes with this job is ridiculous sometimes. I am looking forward to my son starting full time pre-k in the fall

This might be different but I have a live in with those exact responsibilities. She has generous vacation that she gets to dictate. She never takes it when I am away, which is fine with me as it is part of our deal. But, when we go away, we expect her to work her normal duties. She does laundry, organizes, watches our dog and goes to the grocery store - all stuff that she does during the week when my kids are at school. In fact we expect her to do an even better job than normal since there are no kids around.

We do of course recognize this all takes way less time than normal - she probably works a couple hours a day when we are on vacation and I think she loves it when we are away, is much more relaxed and we still get done our normal duties. We made this clear at the start and I think it is completely reasonable for her to work when we are away for those reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on nannies, you can't have it both ways. Guaranteed hours means you get paid to reserve those hours for your employers and are AVAILABLE to work during that time. It doesn't mean that you get extra PTO every time your employer goes out of town.

If your employer wants you come in and sit around for 50 hours a week while they are gone, then they are within their right to ask you to do that.

That's perfectly fine, but should be made clear from the beginning, as that isn't the norm in my many years of nanny experience. My NF has never asked me to come in while they're traveling. They travel quite often, since their child is still in preschool.

The argument for guaranteed hours is that the nanny is ready and available to work, so she should be paid when employers go out of town. If the employer has work for the nanny to do that falls within their regular duties and work hours during this time, then why shouldn't the employer be able to ask the nanny to do this work while they are gone? If a nanny doesn't want to be available to their employers then honestly they shouldn't get paid during this time. That's how it usually works with hourly employees.

Not all employers just give their nannies extra PTO when they travel. I've had both kinds of employers. One family who gave me all of their travel time off so I got about 8 weeks of paid vacation of year. Then others who required me to be around and/or gave me a list of things to do while they were gone. While I loved the paid vacation, I was also fine with working while my employers were gone.

I would change your contract going forward to say 3 vacation weeks (2 of employer choosing, 1 of employee choosing).
Then give her the full week off as a paid vacation week of your choosing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nannies aren't housekeepers.

Then she can give up 40% of her paycheck since her job, explicitly, is 40% housekeeping.

Just get a real housekeeper. End of story.

You're saying she's getting 40% of her paycheck in pretend dollars?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be peeved if the work you asked me to do could just as easily be done the week before and the week after your trip. If there are things that need doing while you are gone, then it is a reasonable request. If it's just a way to get your "money's worth ..." well, you can tell her to do it, but it's not nice.

If you can make sure I walk into an orderly house with a stocked pantry and fridge, laundry done and kids' rooms organized, all without setting foot in the house the week before, go ahead and do it.

What a jerk you are.

Why?

Anonymous wrote:As a nanny/house manager, I wouldn't have an issue doing the required portion of non-child duties and taking on larger projects (child-related or not) to total roughly the number of hours for the week. However, if my employer said that the were going to be out of town, did NOT state that anything needed to be done on a timetable, I would probably do most of the work in one or two days, just for efficiency. I've stayed in the house while my employers went on a short trip (3 days), but as I wasn't being paid, I didn't do anything other than clean up after myself.

I think in this case OP wanted the nanny/house manager to work just one day out of the week. And she IS getting paid.

As a nanny/house manager, I wouldn't have an issue doing the required portion of non-child duties and taking on larger projects (child-related or not) to total roughly the number of hours for the week. However, if my employer said that the were going to be out of town, did NOT state that anything needed to be done on a timetable, I would probably do most of the work in one or two days, just for efficiency. I've stayed in the house while my employers went on a short trip (3 days), but as I wasn't being paid, I didn't do anything other than clean up after myself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nannies aren't housekeepers.

Then she can give up 40% of her paycheck since her job, explicitly, is 40% housekeeping.

Just get a real housekeeper. End of story.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be peeved if the work you asked me to do could just as easily be done the week before and the week after your trip. If there are things that need doing while you are gone, then it is a reasonable request. If it's just a way to get your "money's worth ..." well, you can tell her to do it, but it's not nice.

If you can make sure I walk into an orderly house with a stocked pantry and fridge, laundry done and kids' rooms organized, all without setting foot in the house the week before, go ahead and do it.

What a jerk you are.

Anonymous wrote:I would be peeved if the work you asked me to do could just as easily be done the week before and the week after your trip. If there are things that need doing while you are gone, then it is a reasonable request. If it's just a way to get your "money's worth ..." well, you can tell her to do it, but it's not nice.

If you can make sure I walk into an orderly house with a stocked pantry and fridge, laundry done and kids' rooms organized, all without setting foot in the house the week before, go ahead and do it.

Anonymous wrote:Nannies aren't housekeepers.

Then she can give up 40% of her paycheck since her job, explicitly, is 40% housekeeping.

I would be peeved if the work you asked me to do could just as easily be done the week before and the week after your trip. If there are things that need doing while you are gone, then it is a reasonable request. If it's just a way to get your "money's worth ..." well, you can tell her to do it, but it's not nice.

Nannies aren't housekeepers.