Nanny asking for pay increase and paid sick time Post Reply

[momtomum]

Our contract says we can fire her at any time for gross misconduct. Do you all feel the safety issues around school drop off and the park plus calling a child a brat could be considered gross misconduct? I think I do, but I am not expert in employing a nanny! Otherwise the contract requires verbal and written warnings before we can terminate her contract.

[Mrs Contractor Mum]

Yes - its gross misconduct and a breach of trust.

[ckwmum]

Totally gross misconduct, get your kids far far far away from her!

Think about it, would you behave that way at work? Imagine instead of calling your boss a brat, you called her/him a tw** - I'm sure that would be seen as gross misconduct straightaway.

Aside from the name-calling (hello, she's meant to be the grown-up putting a stop to any name calling, not instigating it!) she is meant to be keeping your children safe, and it doesn't sound like they are safe. Perhaps the youngest ones are completely happy, but only because they don't have the same frame of reference.

She isn't going to sue you because she sounds like the world's laziest person. But please, please take your kids away from her and call Abbeville or another agency right away.

Makes me so angry that people can do this! How dare she?!

It's SO hard firing someone, especially someone who has access to your kids, but just think about how much they will benefit from not having her around.

Good luck, let us know how it all turns out.

[dansk1234dance]

Yup, gross misconduct. Get rid of her today and I wouldn't even pay her for the rest of the week. Tell work you are having nanny issues and working from home tomorrow and organise a temp for Friday.
Lots of schools are breaking up this week so im guessing there will be a healthy supply of (amazingly qualified) temp nannies until you find a new perm one.

You won't regret it

[Katskii1]

I have just re-read all these posts and it honestly makes me so angry, asking for sick pay when (unless she has a medical condition) she has had way above average anyway, leaving your child at the school gate, calling them brats, being on the phone in the park (what is one of them was in trouble on a climbing frame) - she should not be a nanny! I would get everything set up - temp nanny, line up a full time one and then get rid of her ASAP - I would also make a point of telling her why you are getting rid of her, do not pay her anymore (be strong with this) and do not give her a reference. Frankly, I know some will disagree with this - I would name and shame as you don't want another family going through this experience

It is such a shame when there are so many good nannies out there that nannies like this give the whole child-care sysytem a bad reputation

GOOD LUCK

[NYE31]

Please please get rid of her today & please please do share as I would never want to employ her or for any of my friends to employ her.

Good luck

[CitySlicker]

I'd get rid of her, personally. If you ran a company is that who'd you want to hire? Someone who was looking for a payrise 6 months after they started? The sick pay issue would signify that this person is clearly planning to take lots of time off sick and covering herself if she does. If you wanted to spend your holidays doing her job, you may as well not bother working, at least you'd save yourself some money. I hate employees like that, all they want to do is bleed you dry.

[BettyBoo]

I really feel for you but I can't agree more with other posts. The role of a nanny is the most important job - they look after your children.

You have every right to terminate her contract immediately. Write down all your concerns but keep them factual, only reference those that relate to misconduct don't even start a conversation about pay, holiday or sick.

Calling your older children brats, not paying due care and attention of your younger children, reports from other families and adults about her performance.

Put in writing as it will keep you calm and keep emotions in check. Say how both you an husband are unhappy with performance and wish to terminate employment with immediate effect.

In the meantime, today phone a few nannie services for temps and start interviewing for perm replacement. Please don't persist with this. This is your children.

There are so many fantastic nannies out there.

Good luck.

Betty

[nappyvalleynannies]

Hi,

I run Nappy Valley Nannies and this is not acceptable for a nanny as they know how much they are relied upon. Most nannies we have registered to go on our books in the 5 years we have been running the referees usually say they have had between 1 and 2 days off sick or none at all in around 3-4 years of being with the family.

We only register nannies whose references confirm they have had little or no sick leave history.

If we can be of any more help and you would like to have a chat please feel free to call us on 0208 9465320 and we would be happy to give you more advise.

I

[nanny1985]

As a nanny, I can tell you that the best thing you can do is to get rid of her. She sounds very lazy and irresponsible

[MGMidget]

For me, if I wanted to feel confident as to whether it is gross misconduct or not it would depend a bit more on the circumstances. How far is the nursery gate from the nursery door and are there opportunities between gate and door for the child to come to harm? Does anyone else also leave the child at the gate and does the nursery have a policy about this? Also with regards to the park and also the leaving at the nursery gate, do you think anyone who has seen this would, if push came to shove be willing to be a witness and how much have they really observed? Hopefully it wouldn't come to that but if it went to tribunal that's what you need to consider.

The other thing to consider is that as she has only worked for you for six months you don't normally need to follow a disciplinary procedure before sacking her with notice (or payment in lieu of notice if your contract allows this). You don't have to give a reason. The only thing you need to be wary of is discrimination claims, if that's a possibility.

[bumpontheway]

What happened in the end?

[momtomum]

In the end we decided to be upfront with her about our concerns. She was very responsive and we've seen a significant change in her attitude.

When I wrote my original posts, I was obviously upset. My husband who is around her and the kids was concerned, but not as emotional as me and he felt we should give her another chance because he sees her with the kids a lot. He had seen her handle some difficult situations very well.

We decided to give her an opportunity to improve. We knew that what we were hearing from our kids was one sided and that what the other mums had seen was from their perspective, so we wanted to deal with it directly with her. She was very responsive to our concerns about safety and we see a clear change. She has bonded closely with one of our children, and for this specific child that's a big deal, so we didn't want to rush into another change for this child.

We said no to additional paid sick time and no to a pay increase at this time, however we did offer her up to 4 additional days paid off (at times convenient for our family) depending on performance.

This whole working parents + nanny thing is no walk in the park...

[Halfawife]

She is ridiculous. Stop stalling and get rid of her.